Just posted an interview with Greg Bach from The National Alliance for Youth Sports on preventing injury in young soccer players.  It was a great interview. Below is a clip. To read the full story, you can read it at the link below:

DANGEROUS DAYS: Preventing ACL injuries in young soccer players

By Greg Bach

As a youth soccer coach of course you’re committed to helping players learn and develop skills.

But one of the keys is making it happen without one of those dreaded ACL injuries wrecking a child’s season.

“In the past 20 years, research has shown that youth sports injuries only continue to get worse despite the fact that we have all this great research and despite all these injury prevention programs,” says Dr. Steve Grosserode, who teamed with Dr. Jared Vagy to author Prevent Soccer Injuries. “So we have to ask ourselves why are these injuries more prevalent? Why do they continue to occur?”

CORRECTING MISALIGNED MOVEMENTS

Soccer poses injury risk to the knee due in large part to the varied movements players must perform all game long: the constant accelerating and decelerating; the stops and starts; the hard cuts, often at awkward angles; all which place strain on muscles, joints and tendons.

And can lead to devastating consequences.

Couple that with players moving incorrectly and knees take on more stress – and greater risk of injury.

“What we like to compare it to is our bodies are like machines that are very similar to a car’s alignment,” said Grosserode, a Doctor of Physical Therapy from the University of Southern California and co-founder of Movement Solutions with Vagy, a clinical faculty member at the University of Southern California. “So if the alignment is off your car what happens? You’re going to have wear and tear, it’s not going to perform as well, and eventually it’s going to break down. And our bodies are no different – if we continue to move that way it’s going to lead to ACL-type injuries and breakdown.”

Grosserode and Vagy sifted through mountains of existing research concerning soccer injuries; they gathered feedback and advice from the nation’s top collegiate soccer coaches; and they utilized their own knowledge and expertise through years of working with world champion, Olympic and professional athletes, to create what they call a “three step movement solution” that is the basis of their book.