Preventing ACL Injuries

Dear Parents,

Did you know that there is an athletic injury that your daughters are 8 times more likely to experience than your sons?  Regardless of who experiences this injury, it can be devastating.  The injury I’m talking about is a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament.  It’s also known as an ACL tear.

My interest in this topic was peaked when articles about ACL injuries in girls appeared in the NY Times and Washington Post the last week of January 2010.  These articles hit close to home for me for two reasons.  The first is because I have blown out both of my ACL ligaments.  My right ACL went in the first round of the Big Ten Wrestling tournament in 1984 and the second blew while skiing a nasty little bump run at Copper Mountain Colorado 5 years later.  The biggest reason these articles hit home for me is I’m the father of a 12 year old, athletic daughter.

While the mechanism for the injury is being debated, the research is clear in its recommendation that proper conditioning programs lower the risk of injury.  We can condition athletes to lower the risk of the injury and we can test to see we’re making progress.  During the past 25 years I’ve been able to work with many athletes from grade school up to and including the NCAA Player of the Year, multiple All-Americans, Olympians and players from all the major professional leagues.  A great deal of my NCAA work was done with the Women’s Volleyball Team at Ohio State.  So working with the special needs of female athletes is nothing new.

I’ve had a lot of parent as questions about “when is it appropriate for their child to start lifting weights?”  These are the kinds of questions that I'd be happy to  answer if you give me a call.

Click on the link below to see more resources related to ACL Injuries and how to prevent them or click on the "contact info" button at the top of the page to call or email.

Thanks
Don