ACL injury prevention

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries do not disproportionately affect female athletes, occur more often from player-to-player contact, and far more frequently in competition than practice than previously believed, finds a surprising and important new study.

Female adolescent soccer players who followed a 15-minute neuromuscular warm-up program twice a week in training over the course of a season experienced a 64% reduction in the rate of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury compared to players who did not follow such a program, according to a 2012 Swedish study.

Neuromuscular and educational training programs designed to prevent injuries to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) among young athletes appear to cut the risk of ACL injuries in half, according to a new study, although researchers were unable from a review of 14 studies to determine which components of the training interventions were most or least effective.

The most important thing a young athlete can do to combat knee hypermobility is to follow an appropriate strength training program, especially one designed to protect the ACL.

Two ACL injury prevention programs significantly reduce injury rates among female athletes while improving athletic performance, says a 2011 study.  Experts hope the findings will lead to greater compliance with training and widespread adoption of intervention programs.

Implementing a coach-led neuro-muscular warm-up for female high school soccer and basketball players at predominantly low-income, inner city schools is an extremely cost-effective way to reduce the number of non-contact leg injuries, including ACL injuries, among an under-served, at-risk population, a new study finds.

Female athletes are at signficantly greater risk of ACL injuries than male athletes. Up to now, predicting whether a female athlete was at risk for an ACL injury required expensive and complex laboratory-based motion analysis systems, such as those used in creating video games. Now it will be possible  to predict whether an athlete is high risk for anterior cruciate ligament injuries using a simple, low-cost tool in a doctor's office, report the authors of a new study. 

Women and girls are more prone to ACL injuries than men and boys but the risk can be reduced if athletes perform warm-up, stretching, strengthening, plyometric, and sport-specific agility exercises before sports.