[hlnx1]

In sports with jumping and cutting, female athletes suffer ACL injuries several times more often than male athletes.

There isn’t one single cause:

• Anatomical and hormonal differences
• Movement patterns such as the knee collapsing inwards on landing and cutting
• Relatively lower hip and hamstring strength

The good news: neuromuscular warm-up programmes covering landing technique, strength and balance reduce this risk substantially. More: ACL injury biomechanics.

Does your team use an injury-prevention warm-up?

[hlnx1]

A simple way to check landing technique: film a player jumping off a box from the front. If the knees cave inwards, that’s a pattern to work on. “Knee over toes” and “soft landing” are useful cues.

[Author]

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