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