I thought I would share with you several pictures of my athletes doing what I consider essential exercises the female athlete must do for lower extremity injury prevention. This is in not intended as a comprehensive list, that is for another time and place. Consider it a snapshot of some of the movements that must be done. All of these movements are never presented to the athletes as “injury prevention”, they are woven into the workout and the warm-up. In my experience this insures better intensity, concentration, effort and as well as compliance. I also believe some of these basic movements are daily diagnostics, tests if you must, to provide feedback as to adaptive response as well red flags indicating excessive soreness or fatigue. I look for amplitude of movement, rhythm and constantly assess overall quality. I believe testing = training and training = testing.
I have one other observation regarding ACL injuries in the female athlete. In my experience (I have seen this five different times now first hand) the athletes at greatest risk are those that “play out of control.” They are reckless and take unnecessary risks. I don’t have a solution for this, just an observation.
Enjoy the pictures; I hope they trigger some ideas for you.
Keith Herston
How about athletes that have had an ACL tear, have rehabed and came back. Would these still be a good idea to incorporate and how soon?
Kevin Collins
No frontal plane work for the glutes?
BruceRawson
Excellent post and great exercise direction with emphasis on hip and knee control. I do like the utilization of skipping for early stage “dynamic landing control” which encourages athletes to land with knee flexion (rather than extended knee which increases risk of injury). Would be interested in your thoughts on progression to more dynamic landing exercises to ensure practice/learning of knee and hip control in more dynamic landing/cutting situations.
Swimming Injury Compensation Claim
Accidents do happen around water – some tragically – and when you or a loved one have sustained an injury due to somebody else´s negligence, you are entitled to make a swimming injury compensation claim.
Karl
Great post! Thank you for your insights. The girl in the middle of the picture of the girls jumping rope with her femurs adducted and valgus knees makes me cringe. Keep your eyes on her.
logo design
You misinterpreted what I said yesterday. I want to why they decided he needed gym based strength training. Also American football has different demands than soccer AKA Real Football.
Twitter
Twitter
Functional Path Training: Some More on ACL Injury Prevention
C2E
Are there times during vball play when the player has a single-leg squat movement with the opposite leg forward (as pictured in #5)? I think having the opposite leg toward the rear reflects more of the type of athletic movement encountered in the sport.
Personal Trainer Huntington Beach CA
Good work. carry on.