The Secret to Beating ACL Injury
ACL injuries should be on the decline since we know that ACL injury prevention programs like the FIFA 11+ significantly reduce the risk of this injury. But instead, they’re on the rise — especially among high school athletes and particularly among high school female athletes in running, jumping and cutting sports like soccer, basketball, field […]
Add Injury Prevention to Your Dynamic Warm-Up in 2 Minutes
Are you doing all you can to protect your players from tearing their ACLs? Instituting a regular dynamic warm-up is an important first step toward keeping our athletes healthy. In my last post, The Dynamic Warm up, Why Do it?, we looked at the three primary reasons players need to warm up. If you don’t have a fixed warm-up, […]
Why Fit2Finish? Because it Starts and Ends with Healthy Kids
I often get asked, “How did you get started with Fit2Finish?” It’s a pretty good story… It was a sunny Sunday afternoon and I was watching my oldest daughter play a mid-season soccer game. The two teams were evenly matched and battled valiantly, contending for every ball – as only ten year old girls with […]
What Does an ACL Really Cost?
What does an Anterior Cruciate ligament (ACL) tear really cost? Young athletes don’t have a clue. I’ll never forget sitting with Katherine and her dad as we looked at the video of her performance in the screening exercises. I cautioned Katherine about the ACL injury risk in athletic girls whose knees tended to fold inwards […]
What does an ACL really cost? The financial and intangible costs to players and families
Author note: Part I of 2 part article. Next Up — Balancing the Books: Effective ACL Prevention Is the Job of Every Coach I cautioned Katherine about the incidence of ACL injuries in athletic girls whose knees tended to fold inwards when they jumped and landed as hers did. The 8th grade basketball and lacrosse phenom […]
The Key to Successful ACL Injury Prevention
Looking at the numbers of ACL tears and “revisions” – that’s a nice way to say re-tears – it is very clear this an injury we want to prevent. At all costs. The question is, can we? Sportsmetrics (Hewett in Ohio) and the PEP program (Santa Monica, CA) say YES. These groups have done solid […]
ACL Recovery and Return to Sport
If you are 4-6 months post ACL surgery and your doctor tells you it’s okay to return to play ask him/her this: “how do you know I am ready?” According to Dr. Tim Hewett, 85% of the doctors making this call are using no clinical data to make the decision. That is, they are looking […]
Breaking News from the Science of Sports
I just got back from the 60th annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine. It’s a HUGE meeting. The conference program had nearly 300 pages worth of scientific sessions, presentations, posters, and workshops to choose from. Everything for every body involved in sport and physical activity. By the end of the week I […]
Washington Spirit’s Ali Krieger Inspires After ACL Repair
“Soccer or Basketball?” That’s all I need to ask the girl at the gym. She looks about 16 and she’s got a 4 inch vertical scar down the middle of her left knee. She’s newly post ACL surgery. That goes without saying. “Soccer,” she says. She tore it on Halloween but “just had surgery in […]
Just Don’t Get Hurt – How do you play that game?
When our daughter took the field with the high school soccer team, these words of advice were our best attempt at injury prevention. “Just don’t get hurt.” What a game plan, eh? How do you play the “just don’t get hurt” game? Here are some options: Take the field but don’t engage. Get out of their way […]
