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FEMALE SOCCER INJURIES AND PREVENTION The purpose of this short article is to challenge each of us as coaches and/or trainers to take a much closer look at the dramatic increase of knee, groin and hamstring injuries in female soccer players over the last few months. I have been bombarded with questions and concerns from parents and coaches asking if anything could be done to prevent this type of thing from devastating the season or in some cases the career of female soccer players. THE PROBLEM: LOWER EXTREMITY, SEASON ENDING INJURIES I have been looking at recent research, reading text, and talking to coaches on this subject for the last few months. A recent article in the Kansas City Star (4/11/04) discussed several factors including “Q-angle”, hamstring to quad ratio strength deficits in females, different training protocols when training females, etc. I think it goes much deeper than that. I think that although these factors definitely apply, we need to look more closely into the training and conditioning factors. BACKGROUND: TRAINING STRATIGIES I am fortunate to have the facility where we research the training programs of both males and females, and I have noticed some trends. An excerpt from Women’s Soccer by Dr. Michael Yessis states, “Females generate muscular force slower than males in running and jumping. In other words, the reactivity of the muscles is slower in women than it is in men. But…this may be due to the minimal amounts and limited types of training that most women athletes have undertaken.” I train my female athletes as hard as and some times harder than our male athletes; and the results are staggering! I have several club soccer teams that I work with and push hard through the winter. The fastest female we have ran a 1.72 in an electronically timed 10 yard sprint, our fastest male (who is a KS 6A 3 sport letterman in Football, Basketball and Track and a very explosive kid) ran a 1.68. A difference of only .04 seconds! Here is where it gets interesting. The same two athletes ran the 20 yd shuttle. The female ran a 4.54 sec shuttle and the male ran a 4.11 second shuttle. This is a huge difference (.43 seconds)! My initial observation would be that both females and males possess the qualities to react and move explosively. Where they differ may be in the planting, cutting and changing direction movements. We now have females playing at a very high, extremely explosive level. They accelerate quickly (almost as quick as their male counterparts) and then are asked to plant, stop and change direction, when they don’t have the breaking (eccentric) strength to stabilize the movements. The other belief may be that they are designed biomechanically different, and that the breaking forces are distributed differently, forcing parts of the body to accept the load differently than males. This is something that is currently being researched at our CAP facility in Overland Park. In saying this I think that females can be trained to move explosively, react quicker, and through proper mechanics and training, position themselves to be as quick as the demands of their sport requires. THE PROBLEM: FATIGUE, LACK OF CONDITIONING, POOR UNDERSTANDING OF MOVEMENT Now here is the problem. FATIGUE! If you take a girl capable of producing the explosive forces discussed earlier and add fatigue, you have created a very dangerous situation. As the athlete fatigues, she starts to play taller, meaning that there is not as much bend in the knee and hip. She starts to loose the coordination and fine motor ability that she is used to. The proprioception drills she went through all preseason were done when she is fresh, alert and mentally stimulated. Now she still possesses the explosive ability she had in the preseason, but her legs are not quite as wired as they were before the neuromuscular system became fatigued. Here is where the injury occurs. Our girl explosively accelerates chasing the player with the ball; the player suddenly stops to change direction. Our girl tries to plant quickly and decelerate, but the leg buckles, unable to handle the massive forces acting upon it due to poor positioning, fatigue, and a loss of neuromuscular coordination. As fatigue sets in, the body does not function at its optimal level. This fatigue is not just game time fatigue or the fatigue of a long practice. This is also the fatigue brought on by a continuous soccer season; one that starts in March, runs through May, continues in Summer, gets tougher in the Fall, switches to indoor in the Winter, and doesn’t stop until tryouts for school season again in March. We, as coaches, need to realize that their bodies need some sort of recovery. This doesn’t have to mean time off. We could just work sub maximal periods in throughout each season. This would allow for intra-season recovery and peaking for post season. In other words a progressive, systematic curriculum set up to help the competitive club player be playing their best soccer (fatigue and injury free) in late May. This could be set up as off days (or walk through practices) after 3 straight high intensity days. This could also be set up through incorporation of proprioceptive drills and demanding proper position in post-practice conditioning, (getting them to think and react when they are tired without sacrificing form). In-season strength sessions for those that trained hard in the off-season would work wonders, even if only used once a week. This would allow the players to maintain the strength that they developed in the off season and possibly avoid weakening the only savior that they have left – strong neuromuscular coordination and strength. The incorporation of in-season rest periods, strength training, awareness training, and monitoring fatigue levels day to day may not prevent an injury, but it would definitely reduce the risk. In our programs that is the number one goal. No matter how strong, fast, and skillful you are…if you are injured you cannot help the team. Scott Moody, Founder and CEO |
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