Protect your ACL

Only secondary to the ankle, the knee is commonly the joint injured in ball sports (Silvers-Granelli et al., 2015; Mashimo et al., 2021). In particular, the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) accounts for a large percentage of these knee injuries (Majewski et al., 2006). Interestingly, 70% of injuries occur without sustaining a direct blow to the knee (Bowden et al., 2000). Sharp decelerations in landing and cutting are often the motions attributed to ACL injuries. 

External forces impacting the knee include: translational and rotational gravity, free moment and ground reaction forces. Recent study investigated the role of foot strike pattern and ground reaction forces (GRF) to gain insight on a mechanical cause of non-contact injury at the ACL (Ogasawara et al., 2021). Researchers reported rearfoot strike during cutting increased injury risk and adopting a forefoot strike had a protective effect on the ACL. Prevention of these injuries should be of paramount importance in sports that commonly include these motions. Not only strengthening muscles in the entire kinetic chain involved, but so too is technical instruction on loading patterns needed to minimize excessive forces to begin with.