As you may already be aware of, females have a 4-6 times greater incidence of ACL injury than males. 70% of these injuries occur during an incident that involves no direct contact with another player or object, and often take place when the athlete is decelerating and/or changing direction.
Female soccer athletes face an exceptionally high risk: An analysis of collegiate soccer players in the 1990s found that 31 percent of females had an ACL injury, compared to only 13 percent of males.
University of Southern California’s Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy and the Competitive Athlete Training Zone have teamed up to help athlete’s reduce their risk for ACL injury. They have spent over 10 years researching movement patterns related to lower extremity injury and the factors that contribute to their development. Specifically, in 2007 USC, CATZ and the Santa Monica Orthopedic Group (SMOG) conducted a three year study funded by the National Institutes of Health to identify gender specific movement patterns that may predispose female soccer players to anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries. As a part of this study they evaluated the effects of the PEP program developed by SMOG in the late 1990’s.
Through their research and years of experience training athletes we now have a great deal of insight into the problem of ACL injury. They have committed time and resources to developing ACL Project Prevent programing directed at coaches and athletes of local soccer teams and clubs. While there are no simple answer to the problem of ACL injury, proper training, evaluation and awareness will go a long way toward the management of ACL injury risk.
The program includes:
- Education for players and coaches about injury prevention
- Individual movement assessment
- On-field training of exercises and drills aimed at improving skills and decreasing risk for injury
- Structured injury prevention warm-up program
- Written exercise descriptions
Download this pdf outline from The Santa Monica Sports Medicine Research Foundation. The PEP Program: Prevent
injury and Enhance Performance.