Prevention strategies can limit soccer knee injuries

There should be a way of measuring youth soccer coaches by how much they care about their players, not just wins and losses.

Do they place a priority on skill development or scoring goals?

Do they make their players practice too much? Yes, there is such a thing as too much. That's been documented, though nobody has exactly figured out where to draw the line.

One more question: Do they take time out of practice to do injury-prevention work?

Ouch, that's a tough one. No coach wants to take precious time out of, say, a U-10 or U-17 girls practice to put the soccer ball aside.

Dr. Preston Wolin says girls coaches especially should spend 30 minutes three times a week doing exercises designed to prevent knee injuries in female athletes (see neuro-ortho.org for a Knee Injury Prevention Strategies for Female Athletes tip sheet).

"Set aside the time," Wolin said. "It's not a time for girls just to stand around and do nothing. Rotate them through these. Make sure that you've got not only their attention but you've got their actions. It's part of the practice, just like shooting and dribbling."

Wow. Thirty minutes, huh? That will make a coach wince.

"The younger that they are started on this training program, the more likely it is that those lessons are going to stay with them for the rest of their soccer careers and help prevent them having injuries," Wolin said.

Wolin, who last week conducted preseason physicals for the Chicago Red Stars of the new Women's Professional Soccer league and examined several players who had experienced severe knee injuries, knows all the numbers.

He knows girls and women are 4-8 times more likely to suffer a knee injury than boys and men, even girls as young as U-10s. Mostly, that means an ACL tear that can keep an athlete out of action six months to a year.

What will that do to your team? Wolin's exercises can increase the odds your girls stay on the field instead of on crutches.

"They can't eliminate the incidents of tearing of the ACL, but they can significantly lower it," he said. "It's a combination of strengthening and agility work.

"If you look at the way girls will land or the way girls will cut, it's different than boys. If you look at enough ACL injury tapes and compare them to what normal landing is, girls will tend to land more with knock knees. Boys will tend to land with their knees straighter. We also think it has to do with the relative strength of their hamstring to their quadriceps."

One more thing: Wolin says girls are more prone to concussions than boys and prone to more severe effects from a concussion than boys.

"There is no scientific evidence that correct heading is associated with concussions," Wolin said.

Concussions are caused by player-to-player, player-to-ground or player-to-goal post contact.

The solution is for coaches and referees to emphasize fair play. "Prevent needless contact, prevent reckless contact," Wolin said.

Keep the game fun. Keep the game safe.

U.S. tickets on sale: Tickets for the United States vs. Honduras World Cup qualifier in Chicago on June 6 will go on sale at 10 a.m. March 14, U.S. Soccer announced.

The game will be played at Soldier Field. Tickets range from $25-$150 each and are available through ussoccer.com, by calling (800) 745-3000 and at all Ticketmaster ticket centers.