ed ACL injury prevention programs…

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On April 20th and 21st, the Sportsmetrics team packed their bags and headed south to Charlotte, NC where we certified 29 health care professionals from Carolinas Rehabilitation under Carolina HealthCare System.  Carolinas Rehab is one of the nations largest and most comprehensive rehab facilities.  Michael Agnone, Physical Therapist and Center Manager for Carolinas Rehab came to our course in Hilton Head in 2012.  He soon decided to get his entire staff certified and to implement Sportsmetrics in his clinics and community.

The course began on Saturday morning with Dr. Noyes giving his research and program background presentation via webcast.  This gave the course attendees opportunities to interact and ask him questions.  As we worked through the day with great conversation on injury prevention topics, we ended up outside for the hands-on jump training portion, giving the Cincinnati crew some much needed sun exposure.  The Carolinas staff made for one of our largest and most enthusiastic courses to date.

We want to thank Mike and his dedicated staff for spending their entire weekend with us and committing to injury prevention and education of athletes in their communities.

Our 1999 Sportsmetrics study published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine was sited as the first prospective, non-randomized clinical study showing the protective effects of a neuromuscular training program. The JBJS publication pointed out that the untrained female athletes in our study had a significantly increased incidence of injury when compared to the Sportsmetrics-trained female group and untrained males.

The article concludes that a good ACL injury prevention program should incorporate feedback on technique, be performed throughout the year, and focus on flexibility, strengthening, and plyometrics.

Throughout your training, it’s important to make sure you are eating a balanced diet. This is not the time to try out that fad diet you’ve been hearing so much about. Low-Carb isn’t going to get it done when you’re pounding the pavement. Carbohydrate is your primary source of energy; too little carb will cause muscles to fatigue quicker. Protein and fat also play major roles in your training regimen. Protein helps build and maintain muscle and is needed for muscle recover.

Fat is another big source of energy especially in low intensity, long duration activities such as marathons. It’s best to balance your training diet with 50-60% of calories coming from carbohydrates, 10-20% from protein and no more than 30% from fat with most of your fat sources coming from unsaturated fats (think nuts, olive oil, avocados.)

The first step to an optimal training diet is limiting or eliminating the high-fat, processed and high sugar foods that we all love. Try eliminating trips to the drive-thru, fried food, processed foods (frozen, canned and processed meats) and low quality carbs (desserts, candies and bakery goods). These are going to make you feel sluggish and will not provide you with the greatest amount of energy for your workout. Second, you want to replace those foods with fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fresh lean meats and low fat dairy products. See list of healthy food sources.

Before a big workout or the race, you want to choose a meal low in fat and fiber for easy digestion about 3-4 hours before the event. It should consist of mainly carbohydrates with a small amount of protein to aid in recovery. The most important part about a pre-exercise meal is to go with what is familiar, something you have tried before that you know will not upset your stomach. Never try something new before the big race or even a long run. If it agrees with you, go with it. Click here for pre-exercise meal ideas from eatright.org.

Immediately following your workout or race, your body is depleted of glycogen and needs to be replenished. As hard as it may be, try to get some carbs and a small amount of protein into your body within 30 minutes of completing a workout. Many athletes find it easier to get a smoothie down rather than solids. Some athletes even swear by chocolate milk. Click here for post-exercise meal ideas from eatright.org.

And of course, do not forget to stay hydrated before, during and after a run or race. Hydration is just as important as eating the key nutrients and is the single largest contributor to fatigue. Click here for proper hydration guidelines from eatrigh.org .

Just think of nutrition as one of your essential workouts each week. If you want to ensure that you make it across that finish line, eat well, hydrate often, train hard, and of course… have fun!

A training program to improve neuromuscular and performance indices in female high school soccer players. J Strength Cond Res 27(2): 340–351, 2013

Sportsmetrics Soccer Paper, JSCR 2013

The purpose of this study was to determine if a sports-specific anterior cruciate ligament injury prevention training program could improve neuromuscular and performance indices in female high school soccer players. We combined components from a published knee ligament intervention program for jump and strength training with other exercises and drills to improve speed, agility, overall strength, and aerobic fitness. We hypothesized that this program would significantly improve neuromuscular and athletic performance indices in high school female soccer players. The supervised 6-week program was done 3 d·wk for 90–120 minutes per session on the soccer fields and weight room facilities in area high schools.

In phase 1, 62 athletes underwent a video drop jump test, t-test, 2 vertical jump tests, and a 37-m sprint test before and upon completion of the training program. In phase 2, 62 other athletes underwent a multistage fitness test before and after training. There were significant improvements in the mean absolute knee separation distance (p , 0.0001), mean absolute ankle separation distance (p , 0.0001), and mean normalized knee separation distance (p , 0.0001) on the drop-jump, indicating a more neutral lower limb alignment on landing. Significant improvements were found in the t-test (p , 0.0001), estimated maximal aerobic power (p , 0.0001), 37-m sprint test (p = 0.02), and in the 2-step approach vertical jump test (p = 0.04). This is the first study we are aware of that demonstrated the effectiveness of a knee ligament injuryprevention training program in improving athletic performance indices in high school female soccer players. Future studies will determine if these findings improve athlete compliance and team participation in knee ligament injury intervention training.

female athletes during an injury prevention program.