ACL Injuries

You can go to any one NCAA game and see at least 3 or 4 girls in knee braces...

I have another question - how many girls that tear their ACL redo it or tear the other one within the next 2 or 3 years?

Something needs to be done about this, too many girls are getting hurt

 

You need to be sure your daughter is treated by a knee specialist orthopedic surgeon who has a lot of experience repairing athletes' ACL tears and a very high success rate. There are new techniques that are very successful. Getting the right MD is critical. Don't settle for less than the best.

 

There is a "warrior girls thread in this (college soccer) and an ACL injury thread (in the WNT section) that may offer answers to your question. I know there are also Links to studies on both threads.

A more recent one is at

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93309486

 

sadly, rachel rapinoe just re-torn her ACL. this is the second time she has torn hers, word is it might be a career ender. terrible news for the pilots, she will be missed. both the rapinoe sisters have now torn their ACL's twice, both just 1-2 years after the first tear. pretty tragic for both of them, they are amazing players.

ACL injuries are pretty common, its a pretty devistating injury as your likelyhood of re-injuring the same leg go up substantially after tearing an ACL.

 

I think the likelihood is less for some of the new surgery techniques that the very best knee docs are doing. I'll check and see if I can provide more detailed information.

 

Unfortunately there are few high schools and even fewer colleges that have injury prevention programs. I work for Sportsmetrics which is the first scientifically proven ACL prevention program. We have been researching this epidemic for more than 30 years. Within our clinical site network, which is almost 600 in the U.S. There are PT's. ATC', Physicians, etc that are able to get Sportsmetrics integrated into schools and work with several teams. I definitely agree with the other poster in that you need to make sure your daughter is seen by a Orthopaedic Surgeon that is a knee specialists. People come from all over the world to see Dr. Frank Noyes, so make sure you research carefully. Several issues can come from a "quick" procedure. If we can be of any assistance or offer any suggestions please feel free to contact me. There is probably a Sportsmetrics certified individual in your area that can assist in rehab and get your daughter ready to return to sport and be ready to reduce the risk in the future. You can get our information at www.sportsmetrics.net. We are 100% non profit so this is not a pitch.

 

That sucks!

 

This is very good stuff. Congrats to your program and to Dr. Noyes personally for offering the training for free. These programs work. Parents should insist that their club and high school coaches incorporate them into training.

 

I played soccer throughout college and ended up having 3 knee surgeries basically in 3 years. I injured my knee the first time at the end of my HS season, had surgery, rehabbed, came back, and 3 weeks later injured my other knee. I rehabbed back from that one and made it a year and a half before I injured my first knee again. I was never able to fully recover from that one. Now I am 23 years old and it kills me to run on hard ground.....I stick to the elliptical or swimming typically, and in general my knees just hurt or get sore for no reason. I have joined some adult soccer leagues and I can play but I definitely have lost quite a few steps and after the games I swell and hurt. Ice is my best friend. I wish there had been some prevention programs offered to me or my teammates.

 

According to my very good friend who is a recently retired orthopaedic surgeon who specialized in knees and has done many ACL repairs for serious athletes, the "gold standard" for torn ACL repairs is miniarthrotomy and a contralateral bone-petellar tendon-bone autograft. This also can be used for reinjured ACLs that have had previous surgery. He gave me a couple of articles, one from the American Journal of Sports Medicine and the other from Instructional Materials of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, explaining the surgery and discussing its use for athletes.

I'm not sure about copyright laws, so I'm not attaching the articles to this thread. However, I have them in a pdf format and I'll be happy to email them on request.

 

I agree that Injury pervention should be part of the college training program at all levels. I have a daughter who has had multiple surgeries and thousands of hours of rehab x 3years at a D1 high level program. This has been a difficult journey and one I do think the NCAA ignores. It is tough for a coach who is concentrating on developing his team to put any focus on the injured players and I understand and agree that his focus during the season should be on the girls that can play for sure. However, the girls that are injured work sometimes twice as hard with early morning rehab daily, watching 2 practices a day, and then more rehab at night. They are not eligable for any academic accolades (Academic All American, Division Awards etc) because they do not play (regardless if they are a top academic performed on the team) , They are not asked to head up any committee;s (community service or college athletic boards) because they do not play, they are not able to sit with their team during Division play offs or the Final Four ..because they are not one of the 22 dressed players and do not play, they cannot meet with the team psycologist due to NCAA conflict of interest rules, if they need some counseling to get thru the misfortune of their injury and the many ramifications it has had on them they are not offered it but have to request it thru the coach (who wants to admit to their coach they are having a rough time?) They are not chosen for any significant team role (captain, liason, etc) because they are not playing and the girls really cannot relate to someone who is not on the field ...again understandable, they do not make the travel rosters due to the limited finances, they often do not reap any rewards (trophies won or championship clothing given at tournaments ) because they do not play. etc etc etc...it just seems to me that (living thru this process) the injured player is often kicked when she is down. The idea of some prevention programs, couseling help, academic rewards etc would be appreciated by the injured player. Afterall, they have devoted themselves to this game they love (usually many years ) to get to that school to play only to have the misfortune of a surgical injury. The coaching staff has handled our situation well but can only go under the guidelines of the NCAA...I think it all needs to be reviewed.

 

Wow, that sounds awful for your daughter and players in similar situations.

Here is some interesting information about the Portland Pilots/Rachael Rapinoe situation, however, that perhaps in part is a reflection of the Pilots' program. Rachael just suffered her second ACL tear and it likely has ended here soccer career. The team has only 21 players on its roster, including Rachael, and she is sure to be sitting on the bench in all games. She and sister Megan are team co-captains and it already has been made clear that she will continue to be captain of the team. She travels with the team, as she did this last weekend on the trip to UW, and presumably will do so throughout the year except to the extent that any in-season surgery makes it not possible for her to travel. When the Pilots play their first home game following the announcement of her season-ending injury, this coming Friday night, she is sure at some point to have several thousand fans chanting her name to show their support for her.

This is a reflection of the values that Clive Charles built into the Pilots' program and that the coaching staff continues. Clive said: "Where I coach ... we’ve managed to build something bigger than a [soccer] programme. [T]here’s a family atmosphere and people feel a loyalty to the place and each other. That goes beyond [soccer] really. In the end that is the biggest thing any sport can do – become a source of something that endures throughout your life."

 

Soccer05 I am so glad you made that point. I played division 3 and for a fairly small team so I was able to travel and all that with my team, but at most games I was nicely asked to tape the games, which was frustrating because I was up in the press box or on a stand taping the games, rather than on the bench with my teammates being able to support them. That was probably the worst thing I think my coach could have ever done to me. Also I played for a coach that was prone to play favorites to begin with, and once it was clear I was out for my senior season I can guarentee that there was not a word exchanged between my coach and I for a month straight. From my standpoint I was struggling physically obviously and emotionally it was so hard to know my soccer career was over, and to not get any acknowledgement or a how are you doing from my coach was awful. I know I was working just as hard as anyone on the team. I did rehab before practice, I used the arm ergometer during practice for some cardio, and everynight after practice I was in the pool swimming laps. I was putting in the work just in case I would get a chance to play. I actually did play on my senior day for a few brief minutes, and the recognition I received from my coach simply said I was a real team player, and helped the success of the team because I taped the games, and they were able to fix their mistakes. On top of that my team had a team GPA during the fall semester of a 2.7 I believe it was. Only 6 people had over a 3.0. I was one of those 6 people, and I consistently made over a 3.5 every semester I was in college. I was not able to receive any academic awards as you stated, and I clearly had grades that would have made me eligible. While the girls on the field were focusing on only soccer, I was working my butt off academically, doing everything I could to support them on and off the field, and physically doing everything within my power. Thankfully my first 2 years I was able to get involved with a student athlete mentoring program, and student athlete advisory committee, and held leadership positions in both of those. I feel like that was a way for me to contribute to my athletic program and be a leader regardless of how my coach felt.

I definitely think that the NCAA and even schools do not understand the impact of an injury to an athlete. I just feel fortunate that the traits of being a student-athlete were instilled properly within me and I understood that student comes before athlete. While I don't look back on the way I was treated very fondly, I do take pride in the successes I did have, and know that I gave my everything regardless of it is was noticed or not.

 

Very Well Said...Reading what you went through and how you were able to end it with Pride knowing you gave it all you had says alot about you!! Good job!

 

Since there's been discussion on the North Carolina thread about ACL injuries and causes, to avoid a hijack there and to provide a space for discussion about the current state of knowledge, I'm bumping this thread up the chain.

 

Thanks CP. I, for one, would like to see a cogent review by some knowledgeable person about the current state of the art on three questions as able. If this indeed has been a specific recognized problem for 30 years, surely there should be some published data??

1.
What is the current thinking about an ACL avoidance training program approach for female athletes? (How to take off on a jump, how to land, how to cut etc.) Pie in the sky anecdotal stories or proven real-world results?

2.
What it the current thinking about weight and strength training for female ACL protection? Again, any proven (statistically significant) results?

3.
What it the current thinking about conditioning training with respect to female ACL protection with regard to intensity, duration, specific exercises? Any proven results?

 

TO FURTHER the discussion while we may wait for someone to knowledgeable person to weigh in on my three questions above, here is some material moved over from he UNC thread on the topic... some excellent opinions by Enzo the Prince (an edited/combined version of two posts.)

"....ACL injuries have been studied in depth for years at places like Stanford and UMass, and there is still little consensus about cause. All we know is that females are more vulnerable than males, and soccer involves all of the movements considered most dangerous. So what happened at UNC last season is not that rare. It happens all over the country to lower-profile teams you never hear about.

If being under-trained were a major cause, then we should be seeing ACLs snapping right and left with weekend warriors playing pickup or intramural soccer. I think they happen more at higher levels of play.

...suggesting that 'extra hard training' is why UNC won their last title... ...that premise is too simplistic and anecdotal. Correlation is not causation. I'm also saying that if avoiding ACL injuries was as simple as 'extra hard training, then that's what everyone would do, and ACL tears would be greatly reduced.

The The Raymond Verheijen stuff is the way of the future, and UNC are hardly the only converts. Current college players are always going to be resistant to change. It'll seem normal for younger kids coming up."

 

I would be curious to know if there is any correlation to more susceptibility to the ACL injury, when a player is playing with some minor injury to one of their legs that can be restricting some movement or causing pain in some way. Does a player tend to consciously or unconsciously compensate in some way by favoring the healthier leg, and if so, which leg might be most effected, the injured leg or to the healthy leg.

 

Women's soccer has one of the highest injury rates of any sport at the NCAA level. First of all, the players are playing too many games at the youth level. Playing 3 to 4 games in as many days at college showcase events is absurd for a teenager. The college season is too short and teams are forced to play games with only 48 hours rest between matches.
Lack of proper rest leads to an increased injury rate. Prevention is one thing, but the soccer schedule at the NCAA level down right ridiculous. The NCAA did do a soccer summit in this regards last year, if interested it can be found at:
http://content.ncaa.org/ncaa-sports-science-institute/NCAA_Soccer_Summit-Report_FINAL.pdf