Last week I wrote about why the most dreaded knee injury that local athletes face, an ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) rupture, typically results in 12 months out of their favourite sport.
It certainly is a devastating diagnosis. Unfortunately, these injuries are common in all our favourite winter sports (football, netball, soccer) and for a few reasons happen more frequently to women. As such, preventing these injuries from occurring in the first place has received lots of attention, especially over recent years.
To best explain how we might prevent these injuries, we first must look closely at how exactly they occur.
There are two typical 'mechanisms' we see that result in an ACL rupture. One is when the player changes direction or pivots on their knee (often with poor technique), the second is when they land on one leg from a height (often after making contact with another player in the air).
If the player feels their knee buckle and hears a pop in one of these situations, there is a fair chance they are in big trouble.
It has long been suspected by physios that if we can prepare and condition our athletes well, then we should be able to reduce the risk of serious knee injuries.
If we train them to land and pivot with good technique, if we strengthen their leg muscles, if we regularly expose them to these provocative movements in a controlled training environment, then surely they are better placed to handle the loads come game day!
Well, researchers at universities all over the world have put our theory to the test, and in good news for my profession, they have found we were smack-bang on the money.
Sports-specific 'knee prevention' exercise programs that teams perform as part of their warm-ups at training sessions over the course of the season can significantly reduce knee injuries.
Teams that complete the programs have been consistently found to have up to 50 per cent less serious knee injuries than those teams that complete a more traditional warm-up.
The programs typically take 15-20 minutes to complete, and contain a series of running, pivoting, hopping, landing and strength exercises, and try to replicate the typical drills that a coach might use as part of a warm-up for the given sport so they feel relevant to everyone involved.
So if you are fed up with your club continuing to lose key players to serious knee injuries like ACL ruptures, look into whether your sport has its own injury prevention program. I have listed some of the common programs below. They all do not need much training, require minimal equipment and are very effective!
Netball; The KNEE program. AFL; Prep to Play. Soccer; Fifa11+
Pat is a director at Echuca Moama Physiotherapy and Kyabram Physiotherapy and Pilates. For an appointment with Pat call 5480 0860.
