(C-111) Effect of Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury Prevention Program on Kinematic Performance in Youth Soccer Players

Introduction:: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear is a common injury in soccer players, especially females. A type of
preventive training called an ACL Injury Prevention Program (ACL-IPP) may reduce risk of such
injuries. The goal of this project was to examine the effectiveness of an ACL-IPP on movement
performance of amateur female youth soccer players.

Materials and Methods:: This project was approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Michigan
(HUM00212750). Eight healthy, adolescent, female amateur soccer players underwent an ACL-IPP
before practice at least once a week and performed movement testing at two separate sessions prior to and
halfway through their soccer season. Each subject’s motion data was collected via a 12-camera motion
system and 43 retro-reflective markers on anatomical landmarks specified by a Rizzoli lower body
protocol. Subjects performed six movements three times: step-down, drop jump, lateral shuffle,
deceleration, triple jump, and cutting. Five metrics - knee stability, knee strategy, shock absorption, trunk
stability, and pelvic stability - were calculated using Visual3D software. The skeleton was built according
to a 3 degrees of freedom model for the knee. For each subject, the average metric angle was computed
across all actions. Changes in the metrics before and during the season were analyzed using a paired t-test
(p < 0.05).

Results, Conclusions, and Discussions:: Results: There was no significant difference in any of the 5 metrics (all p < 0.05 for n=8). However, 2 subjects
exhibited improved shock absorption of at least 5 degrees for both legs. Adversely, 3 subjects exhibited
worse knee strategy of at least 5 degrees for both legs. This study did not show any improvement in the subjects’ movement performance due to an ACL-IPP.
Discussion: The low sample size and short amount of time between pre- and mid-season tests made it difficult to
gauge the effectiveness of the program. It is also possible that other metrics should have been evaluated
such as kinematics of the countermovement jump. 
Conclusion: Because little evidence showed that an ACL-IPP improved kinematics in this small cohort, more research
should be done on this topic using a larger sample size and testing before and after the sports season to
determine whether this type of IPP can improve kinematics.

Acknowledgements (Optional): :

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