Running contrary to popular wisdom that female student athletes are more privy to injuries to their Anterior Cruciate Ligaments than their male counterparts, a new study has come out that shows the risk is about the same for both sexes. The research shows that preventing these types of injuries should play a critical role in coaching and practice in regard to both males and females.
The research hails from the Colorado School of Public Health and is featured in the new issue of the Journal of Athletic Training. In order to derive their findings, those behind the study analyzed ACL injury rates in nine different sports typically played by high school athletes.
What they found was that, when the various sports and risk factors were compared, male student athletes were just as susceptible to ACL injuries than females, although the sports where those injuries were more likely did tend to differ. One of the study’s authors noted that the likelihood of an ACL injury in a male student who played football increased fourfold compared to males playing any other sports. For females, an identical increase in susceptibility occurred in those athletes who took part in basketball and soccer rather than softball and volleyball.
ACL injuries are a very real danger to student athletes across the country. Between the time the school year began in 2007 and the time the school year ended in 2012, the National Athletic Trainers’ Association notes that just over 91,000 female student athletes and nearly 125,000 male student athletes suffered an ACL injury. This is enough to account for more than half of all student knee injuries.
What this means is that schools and coaches in all sports need to start developing and implementing programs that can reduce the risk of an ACL tear. A lot of times, this will require instruction on the proper techniques that need to be in place when running and landing.
For running, athletes ought to be instructed to run all the way through a given motion, letting their momentum carry them to a stop rather than attempting to suddenly hit the brakes. Planting after high speeds puts a large amount of pressure on the ACL.
Coaches also need to pay attention to how student athletes tend to come down after leaping. Athletes must be taught to let their knees have some give, as keeping them completely rigid undermines safety by putting a lot of strain on the ACL. Twisting motions need to be similarly reduced, as such a movement upon landing can be hazardous.
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