Some bad ACL news for other teams

[Plebe]

Temple senior guard Alliya Butts tore her ACL in practice on Wednesday and is out for the season:
Alliya Butts Out for 2017-18 Season

A similar fate has befallen Jessica Washington, a senior guard for Kansas who transferred from North Carolina after her sophomore year:
Washington to miss season with ACL tear

These are major blows to the respective teams. Butts was one of only two returning starters from last year's NCAA tournament team, where she was the second-leading scorer. Tonya's rebuilding year at Temple just got that much harder.

Jessica Washington was by far Kansas' best player, averaging 17 ppg last year. Coach Schneider has some good recruits in the 2018 class, but Kansas might have to spend another year in the Big 12 cellar.

I suppose the only silver lining about tearing an ACL in the preseason is that it gives the player a full year to recover and rehab for next year.

 

[bags27]

terrible news, and then there is what is apparently well-established, that females--especially women basketball players--are more prone to ACL tears than are men:
Recent studies reveal that young female athletes are four to six times more likely than boys to suffer a serious non-contact ACL injury. For example:

• According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention more than 46,000 female athletes age 19 and younger experienced a sprain or strain of the ACL in 2006.
• Nearly 30,000 of the injuries required reconstructive surgery.
• Overall, girls are 8 times more likely to suffer an ACL injury than boys.[8]
• As many as 70% of ACL injuries involve little or no contact with the other player.[8]
• At the age of 14 years, girls have 5 times higher rates of ACL tears than boys.[10]

Straight-ahead sports like jogging, swimming, and biking place little stress on the ACL. Sports such as soccer, basketball and volleyball that involve cutting, planting and changing direction, in which the ACL plays a vital role, put athletes, particularly females, at greatest risk of ACL injury.
ACL Injuries: Female Athletes At Increased Risk | MomsTeam

 

[oldude]

Another silver lining. 20 years ago a torn ACL was a career ending injury. But with advanced surgical techniques and aggressive rehabilitation, most ACL patients can completely recover and continue to compete. Hopefully these young ladies will be back on the court, as good as new, next season.

 

[mbr33ct]

terrible news, and then there is what is apparently well-established, that females--especially women basketball players--are more prone to ACL tears than are men:
Recent studies reveal that young female athletes are four to six times more likely than boys to suffer a serious non-contact ACL injury. For example:

• According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention more than 46,000 female athletes age 19 and younger experienced a sprain or strain of the ACL in 2006.
• Nearly 30,000 of the injuries required reconstructive surgery.
• Overall, girls are 8 times more likely to suffer an ACL injury than boys.[8]
• As many as 70% of ACL injuries involve little or no contact with the other player.[8]
• At the age of 14 years, girls have 5 times higher rates of ACL tears than boys.[10]

Straight-ahead sports like jogging, swimming, and biking place little stress on the ACL. Sports such as soccer, basketball and volleyball that involve cutting, planting and changing direction, in which the ACL plays a vital role, put athletes, particularly females, at greatest risk of ACL injury.
ACL Injuries: Female Athletes At Increased Risk | MomsTeam

In the same article, two prevention's are mentioned (see below). Don't know if schools have some type of ACL prevention in place to their programs but I would suggest the NCAA implement some form of these two programs, perhaps even making the programs mandatory to their "student athletes". Maybe the NCAA, "focusing on growing WBB popularity" (from another thread) should be focusing their attention to these ACL's.

Two prevention programs reduce risk, increase performance
A 2011 study in the journal Sports Health: A Multidisciplinary Approach,5 found that two prevention programs, Sportsmetrics and PEP not only significantly reduced ACL injury rates but improved athletic performance.

In general, experts say there are four ways to reduce the risk of ACL injury:

• Proper leg muscle strength training and core training;
• Proper neuromuscular (balance and speed) training;
• Proper coaching on jumping and landing and avoiding any straight knee landing;
• Proper footwear and orthotics if necessary (the amount of traction or "grippiness" of athletic shoes needs to fall within an optimal range that minimizes rotational friction to avoid injury yet optimizes transitional friction to allow peak performance in activities such as cutting and stopping).

A recent meta-analysis of published ACL injury prevention programs determined that plyometric and strengthening components were more important than balance training and that the favorable effects of training were most pronounced in female soccer players younger than 18 years.6

 

[JordyG]

The problem today with ACL injuries is no longer the injury itself. It's that the athlete is not really 100% the next year. It's really the following year where the athlete is truly back to form. For someone like Jessica Washington it means she really won't show what she can do before the draft. A shame for someone who from all appearances is a special young lady. First the broken nose a while ago now this.

 

[bags27]

The problem today with ACL injuries is no longer the injury itself. It's that the athlete is not really 100% the next year. It's really the following year where the athlete is truly back to form. For someone like Jessica Washington it means she really won't show what she can do before the draft. A shame for someone who from all appearances is a special young lady. First the broken nose a while ago now this.

My like is not a "like", but to agree: it's closer to a 2 year rehab....

 

[JordyG]

My like is not a "like", but to agree: it's closer to a 2 year rehab....

Yeah, agreed. I didn't even like saying it.

 

[Charliebball]

The problem today with ACL injuries is no longer the injury itself. It's that the athlete is not really 100% the next year. It's really the following year where the athlete is truly back to form. For someone like Jessica Washington it means she really won't show what she can do before the draft. A shame for someone who from all appearances is a special young lady. First the broken nose a while ago now this.

really depends on the extent of the injury, the surgical technique used, the quality of the rehab program and of course the attitude of the injured player......... my daughter's team has had four players with ACL tears and their recovery times have varied widely..............they also maybe recovered physically but mentally often don't trust the repaired leg for awhile..............

 

[Bayareahusky]

God Bless all these players who are afflicted.... I just hate hate hate hearing of these sorts of injuries..... particularly in the women's game where injuries of this nature seem to be more prevalent....

Thoughts are with you all for good recoveries

 

[Charliebball]

i guess this is the new home of injury reports:

 

[Charliebball]

 

[Bigboote]

In the same article, two prevention's are mentioned (see below). Don't know if schools have some type of ACL prevention in place to their programs but I would suggest the NCAA implement some form of these two programs, perhaps even making the programs mandatory to their "student athletes". Maybe the NCAA, "focusing on growing WBB popularity" (from another thread) should be focusing their attention to these ACL's.

Two prevention programs reduce risk, increase performance
A 2011 study in the journal Sports Health: A Multidisciplinary Approach,5 found that two prevention programs, Sportsmetrics and PEP not only significantly reduced ACL injury rates but improved athletic performance.

In general, experts say there are four ways to reduce the risk of ACL injury:

• Proper leg muscle strength training and core training;
• Proper neuromuscular (balance and speed) training;
• Proper coaching on jumping and landing and avoiding any straight knee landing;
• Proper footwear and orthotics if necessary (the amount of traction or "grippiness" of athletic shoes needs to fall within an optimal range that minimizes rotational friction to avoid injury yet optimizes transitional friction to allow peak performance in activities such as cutting and stopping).

A recent meta-analysis of published ACL injury prevention programs determined that plyometric and strengthening components were more important than balance training and that the favorable effects of training were most pronounced in female soccer players younger than 18 years.6

A corollary to this is the pressure for younger kids to do more. The proper conditioning programs take time (both daily and long-term). The younger you are, the more time you need to put in because your body is changing. But these kids are being pressured to play more games, more seasons (summer soccer, AAU ball). This takes a toll, both in terms of little injuries not fully healing/taking time away from recovery, and taking time away from the broad conditioning that's necessary to build the proper muscle GROUPS. Doing lots of leg extensions and curls isn't enough, you need to build up the adductors and abductors. This is all more difficult if you're sore from the last game or you have a nagging hamstring.

PS, I love watching Jessica Washington. Really talented, if a bit out of control.

 

[bags27]

really bad, but funny how this works out sometimes. I know of a young woman who was being heavily recruited by the very top college soccer teams in the country. After her second (different) ACL tear, there was no money at all on the table. So, she decided she'd go into sports management (I understand that South Carolina and UMass-Amherst are tops, but I'm sure that's fighting words to some folks, and for family reasons she finally decided on UMass), and I'm sure she'll be a great success. Lemonade from lemons....

 

[stamfordhusky]

really depends on the extent of the injury, the surgical technique used, the quality of the rehab program and of course the attitude of the injured player.... my daughter's team has had four players with ACL tears and their recovery times have varied widely....they also maybe recovered physically but mentally often don't trust the repaired leg for awhile....

Yes, it definitely depends on the athlete and the extent of the injuries other than the ACL. I know plenty of athletes, including my daughter, who were at 100% within 9 month post-surgery. But at the other extreme, some take 18+months.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Plebe--thanks for including the word "other" in your subject line. You prevented cardiac issues among several of us.

 

[Plebe]

Plebe--thanks for including the word "other" in your subject line. You prevented cardiac issues among several of us.

Ha I was indeed mindful of the need to avoid unwanted cardiac events in trying to word the title.