The Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton is performing an important service as its physical therapists train athletes and coaches at two local high schools about how to prevent knee injuries.
A torn anterior cruciate ligament is among the most devastating injuries suffered by high school athletes, frequently requiring expensive surgery and lengthy rehabilitation. Usually caused by a sudden twisting of the knee, ACL injuries most frequently occur when an athlete suddenly decelerates or lands awkwardly with a leg in a vulnerable position, and many happen when there is little or no contact with another player, according to the National Institutes of Health.
While Cooley Dickinson Rehabilitation Services has previously offered injury screenings for high school athletes, physical therapists Erin Menard and Jonathan Banz have taken that a step further by using the Sportsmetrics program developed by the Cincinnati SportsMedicine Research & Education Foundation featuring 20 exercises in 20 minutes.
Menard and Banz, who work at the Rehabilitation Services clinic in the Big Y Plaza in Southampton, are doing their training with athletes at Easthampton and Hampshire Regional high schools, where they also offer sessions for parents and coaches. The service is free for the schools.
They started the program after three Easthampton High School girls soccer players tore knee ligaments during the fall 2015 season. They started in Easthampton last spring, and added Hampshire Regional athletes in the fall.
“Those injuries are pretty catastrophic and oftentimes athletes can’t get back onto the field at the same playing level they used to,” Menard said.
To help prevent those injuries, Menard and Banz last Thursday had about 100 athletes who will play winter sports hopping and jumping for 90 minutes at Hampshire Regional in Westhampton. The exercises are divided into five components addressing plyometrics, strength, flexibility and agility. For example, the four exercises increasing flexibility each stress a particular portion of the leg — hamstrings, hips, quadriceps and calves.
As the athletes performed jumping maneuvers, Banz corrected poor positioning that he said could lead to injuries. He emphasized landing techniques to one group of girls leaping from a squatting position. “We need to land soft,” Banz said “That’s where our control comes from — use your muscles to protect yourself.”
The trainers reminded athletes that their knees should not move past their toes when they lunge or squat. And proper positioning of the feet also is important. “See that foot? It wobbles in — that’s what you’ve got to watch out for,” Menard reminded one athlete.
According to one doctor in Maryland who has researched ACL injuries using funding from the National Institutes of Health, landing on the balls of the feet, rather than flat-footed, may help prevent the tears. “If the calf muscles are not absorbing the force, and if the knee is not in the proper position, the knee buckles and tears the ACL,” Dr. Barry Boden, of the Orthopedic Center in Rockville, Maryland, told NIH.
The Journal of Athletic Training is a National Athletic Trainers’ Association publication describing research. One study it reported shows that football and girls soccer players are the high school athletes most susceptible to ACL injuries.
Those injuries “represent an important burden to high school athletes as they often require surgical repair followed by extensive long-term rehabilitation; they can mean the end of an athlete’s competitive career; and they have been linked with negative long-term outcomes including chronic pain and osteoarthritis,” according to that study. “Thus, reducing the incidence and severity of ACL injuries continues to be an important goal.”
That’s why the training offered by the Cooley Dickinson physical therapists is important. Hampshire Regional Athletic Director John Plourd watched the routine Thursday and said it makes sense because, “You’re strengthening all the muscles that tend to get injured.”
And Dan Labrie, the Hampshire Regional junior varsity girls basketball coach, said the training is valuable because it combines so many exercises that can be done in a short period of time. “It’s a great concept,” Labrie said. “I wish I were doing this for the past 40 years.”
While it will take several years to determine the effectiveness of such training in reducing the number of ACL injuries suffered by athletes at the two high schools, it’s a good starting point to encourage awareness about preventive techniques. It is commendable that Cooley Dickinson promotes this kind of community partnership.