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Sunday, December 09, 2007

Injuries and the female athlete

The female athlete, and her propensity to have lower extremity injuries has been studied and length, and these injuries have been connected to the angles of the hips, elasticity of tendons during menstrual cycles, and any number of other causes. 

The fact remains that most female athletes train in one sport, and in that sport they move and train in a linear (straight forward) movement pattern.  This type of training and play leads to muscle/tendon strength and flexibility imbalances.

In order to stave off lower extremity injury, the athlete must be asked to train and play in multiple directions.  These different directions must be attacked at game like speed and power, in order to simulate situation that the athlete may see in  game play.

Encouraging the athlete to run and jump in all four directions will help decrease the possibility of major injury.

An interesting piece of research on predicting injury in athletes using a right/left leg balance test can be found here:

balance and the female athlete

In the SEBT (Star Excursion Balance Test) test, athletes stand on each foot and reach as far as they can with the other foot in three directions: 12, 4, and 8 o’clock on a clock face. “The test requires flexibility, strength, balance, and coordination,”

In the study, two variables proved the best indicators of injury risk: the difference between reaches with the left and right legs, and total-reach distance, which is the sum of reaches in all three directions. The researchers found that players with a more than four-centimeter (1.5 inch) difference between right and left reaches were more than twice as likely to suffer an injury than those with a smaller difference. And girls whose total-reach distance was less than 94 percent of their leg length were 6.5 times more likely to suffer a lower-body injury than girls with scores a

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bove 94 percent

Calling All Preparing Football Athletes

This is the warning call for all football players who are preparing for next season, be it at the high school collegiate or professional levels. 

Power enterprises presently trains all state and collegiate players, and we will custom design a program that constant adapts to the needs of the individual athlete.

The program can be complete conditioning, which includes all weight lifting, flexibility,speed, power and agility training for those who are going to play in college.  This program will mirror the type of conditioning the athletes will see when they get to their college teams.

The other type of program is for those players that are required to lift at their high schools.  This program includes all flexibility, speed, power and agility training to supplement the program at school.

The high school option allows the athletes to get individual attention in aspects like sprint technique, and use specialized equipment in very small groups, in order to improve their power and speed.

Below is a very basic sample of one of my high school players, who is now considering positions on various collegiate teams.

Please see my earlier post for more background information.

http://powerathlete.blogspot.com/2007/09/for-speed-training-get-bigger-engine.html#links

"Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it." Bruce Lee