Interesting Information Regarding Knee Injury Prevention

Heard a story regarding a friend's daughter that recently went to the Orthopedic Doctor for knee pain and luckily for her no structural issues, but the point of the story is what they learned from the Doctor and trainer for prevention.

The first thing they discussed was that overuse issues/injuries are not necessarily caused by playing to many sports or practicing too much, the bigger issue in their opinion was the care of the knees in this case immediately following and between workouts. He went on to explain that kids jump directly into a car after practice and sit with bent knees or crisscrossed knees and ride for 20+ minutes home. He said straighten the knees so that all the tension is relieved and the knee can relax and the child avoids additional unnecessary overuse while at rest!

All that to say, I found that little tip pretty simple, now getting this friends daughter to actually sit in the car with legs straight will be a challenge but one worth giving a whirl to reduce the wear and tear on the knees.

As a side note, they gave this parent a bunch of stretches and exercises to use to help strengthen the knee area, but I stopped listening to the story at this point as I figured I could try the above tip 1st!

I'm sure others have tips and ideas they have heard as well, so feel free to add anything you might have that is helpful.

The stretches are critical. Also, soccer players tend to over-develop the quads in relation to the hammies, so strengthening ALL the surrounding muscles is important. We always incorporated running backwards into drills to help accomplish this, particularly at the younger ages before they are doing any resistance training.

Gunner9 wrote:The stretches are critical. Also, soccer players tend to over-develop the quads in relation to the hammies, so strengthening ALL the surrounding muscles is important. We always incorporated running backwards into drills to help accomplish this, particularly at the younger ages before they are doing any resistance training.

Yes G9 good stuff. We had our team cross-train all summer long and they did the same, we now do it every practice. Also, the coach is adamant about stretching after the game as well....