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Sure, some injuries will always, inevitably occur. But the number of non-contact, soft-tissue injuries could easily be cut in half, or even further reduced. "You can reduce risk [of non-contact ACL injuries in the NFL] somewhere between 50 and 70 percent," according to Dr. Timothy Hewett, director of biomechanics and sports medicine research at the Mayo Clinic, who has researched knee injuries for over 20 years. This drastic reduction does not involve abolishing preseason games, eliminating joint practices or boxing players in packing peanuts until the opening-day kickoff. All it takes is an open-minded approach to proven medical research, a minor shakeup of the traditional NFL practice routine and maybe a few plastic milk crates. The Milk Carton Test Hewett developed a way to screen athletes who were at high risk for knee injuries while conducting research at Ohio State University. The test was based on years of longitudinal studies of incoming Ohio State athletes and local high school football players. The test starts with a one-foot-high box. "The reason we use a foot-high box is that I would go out to schools and find a plastic milk carton," Hewett said. "I'd put them out there and have a player drop off the box—not jump forward, just drop as if they're landing." Players were instructed to leap after landing, and Hewett's researchers carefully studied the movement of the legs, thighs and hips. The modern screening test uses high-speed cameras, motion capture and 3-D imaging, but a low-tech approach can be almost as effective if you know what you are looking for. "Even if you have a simple cellphone, just take a video of it," Hewett said. "You can see, right before landing, the position of how far apart the knees are. If those knees collapse into half or more of that distance, that player is showing what we call 'ligament dominance.'" |
This is confirmation of a lot of the points we discussed on that other thread (or likely across several). They said biometric asymmetry, our examples were flat foot / patella / form issues, but also mentioned the need for reps, going to full speed on Day 1 without proper lead in / warm up / stretching day-to-day, in addition to nutrition. NYG is one of 15 team working with Catapult so thats good. Yet it's not just being up to speed on the tech, but also being able to implement them (assuming most teams truly are outdated)
The box test is interesting given it's really a simple review of form. Obv they've always checked out prior injuries (Xray MRI etc), but if this article is true those aren't necessarily complete. Also if the 14-15x increased chance of reinjury is true, we almost have to cut bait with prior ACLs. Tho you'd hope these strategies reduce the number and likelihood even with guys with priors injuries
Last bit, it BAFFLES me how turf exists. Millions a year in salary with the expectation of high performance. Yet more than a few heads - from owner to GM to trainers to coaches all of them highly paid 'experts' - do this in pro sports. We've known for decades turf is bad, WTF is so hard? It's par for the course corporate practice to waste money / not give a shit about EEs. Still doesn't it cost way more to your bottom line to deal with all those injuries (ignoring the effect on Ws)? For the life of me I can't imagine anything but short term savings, that too only if you ignore the importance of your EEs health / performance. Maybe I missing something but...
This is a league reverting to ideal gas laws to prosecute a QB through a third party stooge who hasn't got a shred of credibility or technical expertise in the area.
That said, again not surprising. Orthopedists can predict a wide range of things from different ratios (Q ratio for instance can predict lower back issues and hip problems) so I'm not surprised some doctor figured this out. The fact that the NFL can't make $ off of this is why it's not brought to light. Concussions were a non issue until faced with a huge lawsuit then all of the sudden the NFL started caring about helmet design and air regulation in helmets. It's a big crooked enterprise owned by filthy rich disconnected boobs who only chase the $. Ligaments will tear until someone sues the NFL for not being able to walk because they failed to provide proper work place safety guidelines (I'd LOVE to see OSHA get involved and shut the NFL down until they do something significant to change the culture of injuries in the work place).
That is such a weak position for your knees. It could be a number of things, weak hips, flat footedness, etc. But the issue is if you don't retrain to put yourself in a stronger knee position (knee out), you are more susceptible to an ACL injury.
That is such a weak position for your knees. It could be a number of things, weak hips, flat footedness, etc. But the issue is if you don't retrain to put yourself in a stronger knee position (knee out), you are more susceptible to an ACL injury.
Those are pretty disturbing pictures in so many ways. And you kept them for years why?
;)
Still you'd think there's a few coaches trainers execs who aspire to be on the cutting edge if only to succeed at their own job and improve team performance. It's often tough to make changes to process but like the turf example it's almost impossible it's NOT worth the cost (assuming that's the big advantage, not sure what else it could be) over long term injury cost & influence on performance as well as players' general well being. They're obv not out to fail but as a collective certain decisions seem contrary to common sense for almost everyone and for $
If, upon landing, he looks knock-kneed (as RG3's do in the video capture above your post), then you conclude that the athlete is at high risk for ACL problems. If the knees naturally stay apart (same spacing as the feet, or wider), then the athlete probably has strong ligaments and good alignment.
I would add that many specialists theorize that the rash of ACL injuries among women basketball players is caused by the knock-kneed inclination due to their relatively wide hips/pelvis. The V-shape of their legs from hip to knee puts excessive pressure on their ligaments and increases their risk of ACL tears, especially when planting to turn or landing after they jump.
Seems to make sense about WNBA / knock knees. I assume bow legs would be an issue as well, tho I think that condition is less common. That aside from any general posture issues given it's unnatural stress on the spine / core
Presumably an athlete might "stick" the landing with knees apart, even if it isn't his natural or instinctive position. Having him bounce up diminishes the chance that he would make an unnatural move.
No club in Europe has extended as many careers as Milan with guys like Maldini, Costacurta, Inzaghi and Seedorf playing at a high level well into their late 30s and even 40s. Clarence Seedorf retired just last year and he was on the cover of my world cup guide - in 1998!
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