Exercise Program Prevents ACL Injuries in Female Soccer Players

The female soccer player is 4 to 8 times more likely to tear her ACL on the field than her male counterpart.  Proposed causes include muscle strength, technique, knee anatomy, hormonal influences and leg alignment.  Exercise programs have become more popular and point to core strengthening and balance as paramount in injury prevention.

A Sports Injury Prevention Program that teaches coaches, players and parents exercises prior to playing has proven to decrease ACL injuries by 100% in a study involving NCAA Div I female soccer players at 61 universities.  The program also decreased ACL injuries in 14 year old female soccer players by 88% in the first implementation.  The program improves balance and core strength with six strengthening, plyometric and balance exercise and three running exercises.

“By simply training the gluteus, it makes a dramatic difference in how you land, jump and control your lower extremities during game participation.  We have looked at this in the laboratory, and we find that we can change a variety of kinematic and kinetic parameters that improve as you train with some of these programs,” reports Bert Mandelbaum, M.D. team physician for the US Soccer Federation, US Gymnastics Federation and the FIFA World Cup USA.

For more information on this Sports Injury Prevention Program, visit the program’s Facebook page at:

www.facebook.com/SportsInjuryPreventionProgram