Reducing ACL injury risk

Last week I posted a summary of an ACL injury mechanism review study. I think this is an important first step; to understand the scenarios specific within the sport you're working with and the technical/biomechanical factors within those scenarios that help to create risk. But what's the next step?

There are a few to take, but an important one is to investigate which athletes might be most at risk. Screening athletes in deceleration and cutting tasks is a good starting point to help identify those with technique that you might want to change, but also to measure the impact of your interventions. In the example below measured using Quantum Movement , I'm getting into a position with a forward trunk lean and deeper areas of knee and hip flexion. This is an athlete you might not need to spend lots of time developing their deceleration technique.

In this second example, we can see a different strategy. A more extended knee position at initial contact and an upright trunk. This is an athlete who demonstrates a riskier strategy that we might want to spend more time with to develop their understanding of, and ultimately change, their deceleration technique to reduce risk of injury.

This approach allows us to be more targeted with our interventions and create a degree of accountability for us as practitioners and our support teams in determining whether our interventions are, or are not working. We can refine our practices then in order to optimise their effectiveness.