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MEDICAID NOTICE: Lurie Children’s continues to serve all patients enrolled in Medicaid. As a safety-net hospital, we will continue providing high-quality care to every child who needs us.

AVISO SOBRE MEDICAID: Lurie Children’s continúa atendiendo a todos los pacientes inscritos en Medicaid. Como hospital perteneciente a la red de protección social, continuaremos brindando atención de alta calidad a cada niño que nos necesite.

Lurie Children’s Home Specialties & ConditionsKnee Injury Prevention Program (KIPP®) KIPP for Coaches

KIPP for Coaches

Our Institute for Sports Medicine offers a free online training for coaches interested in KIPP training.

The training session teaches coaches how to:

  • Recognize the risk factors associated with serious knee injuries
  • Incorporate KIPP exercises into their team’s warm-up routines
  • Instruct adolescent athletes how to recognize unsafe knee positions and improve muscle control of their knee motions, thereby reducing risk for knee injury

The sports medicine experts at Lurie Children’s Institute for Sports Medicine have developed two evidenced-based, knee injury prevention programs:

KIPP for Coaches is a free, online training program to help coaches reduce the risk of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears and other lower extremity injuries in their athletes from ages 10 to 21. In KIPP training, coaches learn how to lead their athletes through a 10-minute warm-up routine that includes strengthening exercises, plyometrics (jumping exercises), balance training, agility drills and active stretching.

After completion of the online training course coaches will receive access to our new mobile friendly website! It can be pinned to the home page of your phone for quick and easy use of the warm-up with moving GIFs and quick links to full video tutorials of each exercise as well as it has a complete list of all the exercises with descriptions.

Register at kipp.instituteforsportsmedicine.org.

While research shows that female athletes are four to six times more likely to injure the ACL than boys in similar sports, our program has expanded to promote the health of all adolescent athletes.

Studies show the primary reason for this gender difference in ACL injury rates is neuromuscular. In other words, girls use their muscles differently than boys while performing athletic maneuvers, such as landing from a jump or quick change of direction (pivoting). Girls tend to do these maneuvers with less hamstring activation, less core stability, less knee and hip flexion and greater inward collapse of their knees than boys, which are patterns that are associated with a greater risk of ACL injury.

Preventing ACL injuries is important because they often require surgery and/or months of rehabilitation for a safe return to physical activity. Regardless of treatment, young people with ACL injuries are 10 times more likely to develop early degenerative arthritis in the knee, a condition that causes chronic pain and can limit daily functioning. 

High school sports, especially girls' sports with the highest rates of ACL injury are as follows:

  • Soccer
  • Basketball
  • Gymnastics
  • Lacrosse
  • Field hockey
  • Softball
  • Volleyball
  • Track and field
  • Cheerleading

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of four ligaments that holds the bones of the knee joint together. Teenage girl athletes are especially vulnerable to ACL tears due to their neuromuscular activation patterns when landing from jumps, pivoting and decelerating.

Potential health outcomes for girls participating in KIPP include the following:

  • Improved strength, flexibility and coordination in the hip and leg muscles
  • Improved core strength and stability
  • Awareness of unsafe knee positions and movements during athletic maneuvers
  • Improved body mechanics for jumping, landing, pivoting and decelerating
  • Reduced risk of knee and ankle injury
  • Reduced risk of tearing the ACL
  • Reduced risk for activity-related knee pain

The Lurie Children's Difference

We are committed to community education and outreach in sports injury prevention, and we stay active in our city with our KIPP for Coaches program. Coaches in more than 100 Chicago-area schools have implemented KIPP with their athletes. Results from our award-winning research show that the KIPP exercises reduce ACL tears by 80%, knee sprains by 70% and ankle sprains by 62%. Over 8,000 individuals have taken part in KIPP and KIPP for Coaches.

What to Expect

Our Institute for Sports M​edicine offers a free online training for coaches interested in KIPP training.

The training session teaches c​oaches how to:

  • Recognize the risk factors associated with serious knee injuries
  • Incorporate KIPP exercises into their team’s warm-up routines
  • Instruct female athletes how to recognize unsafe knee positions and improve muscle control of their knee motions, thereby reducing risk for knee injury

All participating coaches receive educational materials, training tools and instructional videos of the KIPP exercises. Many schools also provide continuing education credits or continuing professional development credits to coaches and teachers who participate in KIPP training. Coaches are encouraged to check with their school for eligibility.

Learn more about online training

Resources & Support

For more information about knee injuries and sports injury prevention, please visit these help​ful sites: