Female athletes and ACL injuries: preventable?
November 14, 2008 by mhueter
Filed under College, NCAA, Sports Programs, injuries
If you are a female and you played sports through puberty and beyond, changes are pretty good that you either suffered an ACL injury or some of your teammates did.
A recent NCAA report says that females are two and a half to four times more likely to tear their ACLs then men. And new research says it’s preventable.
Luckily, I never suffered one of these awful injuries. But many of my old teammates did – all the way through both high school and college. Many of them found themselves sitting on the sidelines watching for at least six months, along with weeks of excruciating therapy and a huge knee brace slapped on their legs.
But how (exactly) is it fair that the ACL injury (for the most part) seems to target women? Turns out, when women hit puberty, we have a different way of landing on our knees than our male counterparts. (Has to do with hormones and the way our bodies change).
But here’s the exciting part: Researchers recently have figured out a training regimen to prevent this from happening. That’s right – prevention, and it all comes down to neuromuscular training that our bodies need to learn at an early age.
From NCAA,
“Boys are running around and athletic and are being trained from a neuromuscular perspective early on and women are later to get into that, and they never develop the same neuromuscular training as boys do even if they’re incredible athletes,” says Dr. Craig Levitz, chairman of the Department of Orthopedics, Orthopedic Surgery and director of sports medicine at South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside, New York.
While Levitz says neuromuscular training programs that teach the muscles how to protect the knee are critical for girls, they don’t seem to be necessary for boys.
“For some reason, that’s something that seems ingrained in the male genetics and has to be learned in the female genetics,” Levitz says.
Apparently, implementing programs that target young female athletes is key.
The NCAA Web site, the ACL Feature – where I got all of this information – is an incredible step in the right direciton. They’re utilizing social media to tell us exactly how the injury happens and how we can prevent it. It utilizes flash media, audio and video – I highly encourage you to check it out and pass it along.
It’s very promising to see the NCAA not only taking an interest in female sports injuries, but also utilizing new social media platforms (and even message boards!) to encourage discussion and the expansion of knowledge about injury prevention.
Great job NCAA!
I knew women were more likely to suffer the ACL injury than men because of hormones, but at least there seems to be something in the works to train women to use their muscle groups differently. Now, to implement it as soon as possible and with girls as young as possible…..
You would think that girls who’ve played sports all their lives (me for example) wouldn’t have this issue. I’d say that although that may be the problem for some girls I’m going to have to go with the idea that the way our legs are shaped is the problem (ie tapering in to the knee which puts the acl at risk because of the support vs force angles). But that still leaves me with the problem of a torn acl and having to go back and play rugby without a brace (no hard edges in rugby and all acl braces have hard edges).
This is a timely post about an important topic, Megan. I, too, wrote recently about ACL and other injuries experienced by female athletes, pointing out that strength training is an essential component of any worthwhile prevention program (i.e., sufficient muscle must be present to keep joints stable).
I have had 3 ACL reconstructions since I was 18, I am currently 24. I tore my left ACL by hyperextending it while landing after trying to block a shot during a basketball game the summer going into my senior year (of HS). I tore my right ACL the following Feb. of my freshman year in college – went in for a layup, faded away, and when I landed my knee went out to the side. I then re-tore my left ACL while going the “grapevine,” (crossovers) during a speed camp. I didn’t know anything about special training for girls until after tearing my first ACL and then after that things just happened so fast, I gave up playing basketball.
I’m glad I found this. Unfortunately, I found out after I tore my ACL that it was more probed to girls. I had surgery only 6 months ago and I just got back into sports now. The only difference is that I’m not in high school or college I’m in middle school. I got hurt last June only about a month after turning 13 while playing soccer for my traveling team. But its been hard because sports have been something I’ve done since i was four or five. So far I missed my 8th grade soccer season and half my basketball season. I was wondering if anyone knows where I can maybe find and article to help me with my sliding for softball since I where this hard brace and it doesn’t allow me to bend my knee very far. I appreciate any help and this article was very informative
Juli,
I am sorry for your injury. My daughter age 16 had surgery last month and hopes to be back playing competitive softball in July. I too question wearing a brace while sliding. I am going to do more research to find a brace which is best suited for softball.
Good luck with your rehab.