Women's Soccer & Knee Problems
Perhaps the greatest fear for any soccer player is sustaining a knee injury. For women, this fear is even greater. According to the Hughston Sports Medicine Foundation, women endure more than 30,000 severe knee injuries at the high school and college level each year. Frequently, these injuries are tears of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), which women are two to eight times more likely to suffer. Since women have an increased likelihood of suffering knee injuries, taking steps to prevent them is a wise course of action.
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Injury risk factors
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Soccer involves a great deal of cutting, twisting, sudden stops and starts and jumping. These types of movements are directly related to knee injuries. According to "Preventing Knee Injuries in Women's Soccer" by Wayne Nelson, DC, CCRS, most sporting ACL injuries happen in non-contact situations. Nelson states that women are four to 10 times more likely to suffer this type of injury than men. In addition, he says prior injuries make the chance of reinjury six times more likely, and there is actually an increased likelihood of injuring the other knee after injury.
Increase in injury for women
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There isn't a single definitive reason why women injure their knees more often than men. However, risk factors include everything from anatomical differences, knee alignment, and hormones to differences in muscles and conditioning. For example, the notch at the end of the femur is narrower for women, making it easier for the thigh bone to squeeze the ACL. Women's hamstrings and glutes also don't develop at the same pace as their quadriceps, creating a disparity that can stress the knee.
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Surgery and rehab
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After a major knee injury, the inevitable result is surgery to repair damage. Not only is surgery expensive, rehab is time-consuming, loss of mobility has a detrimental affect on scholarly and athletic pursuits, and the knee may never appropriately recover. Nelson says low estimates of surgery and rehab costs are as much as $25,000.
Knee control and stabilization
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Changes to technique in movement can stabilize and control the knee joint. This includes soft landings, multi-step stops when slowing down, and keeping the knee aligned correctly while cutting. Strengthening the hamstrings and glutes during conditioning exercises provides additional stability.
ACL Prevention Project
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The Santa Monica ACL Prevention Project created its PEP Program specifically to reduce ACL injuries by women in soccer. The PEP Program includes warming up, stretches, strength exercises, plyometrics and agility exercises to improve strength and coordination in muscles supporting the knee. Using a field space roughly one-third the size of a soccer field, warm-up, stretching, strength, plyometrics and agility areas are laid out before practice. The PEP Program website has a graphic illustration of how to set up the field, descriptions of the basic exercises and replacement exercises that can be used to vary the routine.
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References
- Photo Credit football girl image by Dumitrescu Ciprian from Fotolia.com
