ACL Injuries

My kid just finished her HS season and toward the end, after writing was on the wall, I was actually happy and relieved to see her safe on the bench.
HS play is tough. 14 year old freshmen vs. 18 year old seniors....

When my kid goes down with repeated ankle dings, I cringe every time and can hardly imagine the gut wrenching nurturing-parent pain that comes with serious injury to loved ones.

man o man I can only wish the best for your loved ones.
Why do some of these players in HS kill the ankles? I've never seen so many ding marks on my dd ankles. She walks around after a game like one of those old NFL players.
 
Why do some of these players in HS kill the ankles? I've never seen so many ding marks on my dd ankles. She walks around after a game like one of those old NFL players.
My buddy and I went to Laguna Beach in early 80s. His dd is on our team and is 14 too and starts on defense. She holds her own but its super rough going up against 18 year old Seniors. Every game she either gets hurt or is really super duper sore. Gr8t forum legends like @MakeAPlay and others all swear that HS Soccer is gr8t way to prepare for college ball. I watched some college games this year and the girls play really rough and tough soccer so I'm in agreement with them. We do our best to play possession. However, when you play a team like Marina or Newport Harbor that has girls so tall you would think they were basketball or volleyball players, you sometimes have to go into survival moad and pray your keeper keeps making one gr8t save after another and your one or two counters each half finds the net or you tie. No more ties. I hate ties but I understand why in regular season. I do believe this experience for our kids will be good in the long run :)
 
I went back and watched the game my daughter just tore her ACL in. at the start of the game she made a run and took a pretty good shot and noticed she was limping after that. she would make runs and seemed fine but every time she stopped she had a limp. I didnt notice it watching live and she said she doesnt remember anything hurting but you can see her limping in the video. makes me wonder if she was changing the way she plants or moves her body and she didnt even realize it.
Wow, I watch my DD like a hawk and hope I could catch any changes in her gait after hard contact or a physical event. I noticed one stumble during a practice and asked her if she had a twitch in her knee. She said "Dad, I caught my cleat in the shoelace, I'm good!" We try and watch for the enjoyment of her playing the game she loves, but that fear is always on our minds.
 
Wow, I watch my DD like a hawk and hope I could catch any changes in her gait after hard contact or a physical event. I noticed one stumble during a practice and asked her if she had a twitch in her knee. She said "Dad, I caught my cleat in the shoelace, I'm good!" We try and watch for the enjoyment of her playing the game she loves, but that fear is always on our minds.
Im the same way and was surprised i didnt catch it. the last part of club season before high school i finally started enjoying watching her play and not just excited at the end when she walked off the field and that took me a year in half.
 
My kid just finished her HS season and toward the end, after writing was on the wall, I was actually happy and relieved to see her safe on the bench.
HS play is tough. 14 year old freshmen vs. 18 year old seniors....

When my kid goes down with repeated ankle dings, I cringe every time and can hardly imagine the gut wrenching nurturing-parent pain that comes with serious injury to loved ones.

man o man I can only wish the best for your loved ones.

14 years old against 18 year old is great experience for college where it is 18 year old against 22 year old.
 
14 years old against 18 year old is great experience for college where it is 18 year old against 22 year old.
Good catch. After I wrote that I'm not sure it's such a gr8t idea unless you physically can handle it :) Kareem had to play Freshman hoops only at UCLA so maybe the Freshman in HS should play Fr only. His team of Fr did beat the older team :)
 

This may have already been touched upon in prior posts, but this is an interesting article addressing neuromuscular imbalances specifically in female athletes which appear to be an underlying mechanism for ACL injuries.

Ideas of quad dominance and underuse of hamstrings and glutes leading to imbalance, "ligament dominance" due to said weakness/imbalance putting too much stress on ligaments ie ACL, limb dominance where non kicking vs kicking leg develop differently since non kicking leg bears more load (which may go both ways as kicking leg isn't as developed), and core/trunk weakness leading to more force/stress being transmitted to joints.

These are the targets of neuromuscular training / prevention programs which, at least based on two recent papers cited, has been shown to rates of ACL injuries.



I'm especially intrigued by the 1st paper, which tested a program for elite female field hockey players over 2 years with ZERO ACL injuries after implementation. According to the 1st author in her twitter feed, the exercises are simple, and the program was designed for coach autonomy and feasibility to be placed in any sport setting.

To me this is an epidemic. And I don't think this should be left to individuals to figure this out and do on their own time.

I feel a dedicated prevention program should be MANDATORY in all clubs, and even HS programs. Our DDs DA program already has one day set aside for fitness/strength training, but nothing that looks like an ACL prevention program. Great, kids gets faster and stronger, but what good is that if they end up blowing out an ACL and missing up to a year recovering?
 

This may have already been touched upon in prior posts, but this is an interesting article addressing neuromuscular imbalances specifically in female athletes which appear to be an underlying mechanism for ACL injuries.

Ideas of quad dominance and underuse of hamstrings and glutes leading to imbalance, "ligament dominance" due to said weakness/imbalance putting too much stress on ligaments ie ACL, limb dominance where non kicking vs kicking leg develop differently since non kicking leg bears more load (which may go both ways as kicking leg isn't as developed), and core/trunk weakness leading to more force/stress being transmitted to joints.

These are the targets of neuromuscular training / prevention programs which, at least based on two recent papers cited, has been shown to rates of ACL injuries.



I'm especially intrigued by the 1st paper, which tested a program for elite female field hockey players over 2 years with ZERO ACL injuries after implementation. According to the 1st author in her twitter feed, the exercises are simple, and the program was designed for coach autonomy and feasibility to be placed in any sport setting.

To me this is an epidemic. And I don't think this should be left to individuals to figure this out and do on their own time.

I feel a dedicated prevention program should be MANDATORY in all clubs, and even HS programs. Our DDs DA program already has one day set aside for fitness/strength training, but nothing that looks like an ACL prevention program. Great, kids gets faster and stronger, but what good is that if they end up blowing out an ACL and missing up to a year recovering?
I could not agree with you more about making this a mandatory program in all clubs. Just fold it into what they do for training and games... Takes 15 minutes. It's negligance that they don't.
 

This may have already been touched upon in prior posts, but this is an interesting article addressing neuromuscular imbalances specifically in female athletes which appear to be an underlying mechanism for ACL injuries.

Ideas of quad dominance and underuse of hamstrings and glutes leading to imbalance, "ligament dominance" due to said weakness/imbalance putting too much stress on ligaments ie ACL, limb dominance where non kicking vs kicking leg develop differently since non kicking leg bears more load (which may go both ways as kicking leg isn't as developed), and core/trunk weakness leading to more force/stress being transmitted to joints.

These are the targets of neuromuscular training / prevention programs which, at least based on two recent papers cited, has been shown to rates of ACL injuries.



I'm especially intrigued by the 1st paper, which tested a program for elite female field hockey players over 2 years with ZERO ACL injuries after implementation. According to the 1st author in her twitter feed, the exercises are simple, and the program was designed for coach autonomy and feasibility to be placed in any sport setting.

To me this is an epidemic. And I don't think this should be left to individuals to figure this out and do on their own time.

I feel a dedicated prevention program should be MANDATORY in all clubs, and even HS programs. Our DDs DA program already has one day set aside for fitness/strength training, but nothing that looks like an ACL prevention program. Great, kids gets faster and stronger, but what good is that if they end up blowing out an ACL and missing up to a year recovering?
Thank You for sharing... if it has been shared before thats okay if someone is seeing it for the first time. More information is never a bad thing
 
I could not agree with you more about making this a mandatory program in all clubs. Just fold it into what they do for training and games... Takes 15 minutes. It's negligance that they don't.

I agree- it borders on negligence. Club soccer is now nonstop year round, tournaments, showcases ad nauseam. The least they could do.
 
Today is the one year anniversary of my dd's acl/meniscus surgery! This past year has been tremendously challenging but in the end I believe she has become a stronger player and person for having gone through this process. The easy thing would have been to quite. Instead she learned not to take anything for granted and that she needs to work hard every single day to fight for what she wants. I text her this morning and told her she is my hero.
 
Today is the one year anniversary of my dd's acl/meniscus surgery! This past year has been tremendously challenging but in the end I believe she has become a stronger player and person for having gone through this process. The easy thing would have been to quite. Instead she learned not to take anything for granted and that she needs to work hard every single day to fight for what she wants. I text her this morning and told her she is my hero.

Congratulations!!! I know too many who have gone/are going through this. Your dd and other ACL "survivors" truly are heroes and an inspiration. Wishing her continued progress and success on, and off the field.
 
Today is the one year anniversary of my dd's acl/meniscus surgery! This past year has been tremendously challenging but in the end I believe she has become a stronger player and person for having gone through this process. The easy thing would have been to quite. Instead she learned not to take anything for granted and that she needs to work hard every single day to fight for what she wants. I text her this morning and told her she is my hero.
Congrats man! Don't even know your kid and I'm really proud of her. I want my DD to have the same results as yours. One step at a time... She's back on the training ground and looks good. We'll see how things progress over the next couple months.
 
Congrats man! Don't even know your kid and I'm really proud of her. I want my DD to have the same results as yours. One step at a time... She's back on the training ground and looks good. We'll see how things progress over the next couple months.

Keep the faith! It will all work out.
 
Today is the one year anniversary of my dd's acl/meniscus surgery! This past year has been tremendously challenging but in the end I believe she has become a stronger player and person for having gone through this process. The easy thing would have been to quite. Instead she learned not to take anything for granted and that she needs to work hard every single day to fight for what she wants. I text her this morning and told her she is my hero.
I am so happy for your dd. To be at the year mark and back out on the pitch feeling stronger is amazing.
Such uplifting news for everyone going thru this. Thanks for sharing her journey with us.
 
Two days ago DDs teammate tore her ACL for a second time. She recovered from her first and came back to play injury free for 18 months. Now at the very end of HS season, she tore her non-injured one. So crushed. Only positive thing is that she's already committed, but now another year out. My heart aches for her.
 
How's everyone's DDs doing through all this? Hope they are all well and recovering nicely. My DD had just returned to full contact before everything was shut down. I suppose it might be a blessing in disguise in terms of giving her extra time to be completely healed and ready to roll once this madness lifts. Stay safe everyone. Looking forward to watching DD play again soon.
 
How's everyone's DDs doing through all this? Hope they are all well and recovering nicely. My DD had just returned to full contact before everything was shut down. I suppose it might be a blessing in disguise in terms of giving her extra time to be completely healed and ready to roll once this madness lifts. Stay safe everyone. Looking forward to watching DD play again soon.
Yep, more time to heal. My dd was cleared 4 days before everything was cancelled. Crazy bad timing.
All the hard work she put into recovery. She is trying to stay focused on the future, but it’s tough.
 
It will be very interesting to see what happens with new ACL injuries once we get back to playing again.
Where there be more injuries because players had such a long break? and they go out too hard their 1st few games?
Will there be less injuries because bodies have had time to heal?
Do neither of these things matter?
 
It will be very interesting to see what happens with new ACL injuries once we get back to playing again.
Where there be more injuries because players had such a long break? and they go out too hard their 1st few games?
Will there be less injuries because bodies have had time to heal?
Do neither of these things matter?
I think both things matter. However, I would error on the side that having more time to fully heal will only reduce risk.... significantly in fact.
 
Back
Top