First off what is this "ACL" that you speak of?
How does such a strong Ligament just tear?ACL tears occur when there is deceleration of the lower limb, forced hyperextension of the knee or forced Tibial rotation. These actions occur most with jumping and cutting sports like basketball, soccer and volleyball. So tripping over someone's foot, cutting in either direction and jumping and landing are just some of the ways that the ACL can be injured. |
So, why have ACL tears flourished in the female athlete society in the last half decade?
There have been multiple experiments and tests to find the reasoning behind why females are four to ten times more likely to acquire ACL injuries than men. In one experiment the body structure of a women is said to be one reason why we tend to be more at risk. When the at risk female athlete lands, her knee buckles inward, the injured knee is relatively straight, most if not all of her weight is on a single lower extremity and finally, her trunk tends to be tilted laterally. In summary, her center of mass is outside of her base of foot support. These same mechanisms also occur in men but the exaggeration of the positioning of the lower extremities and trunk is much greater in women. In other experiments, not the body of the women is suspected to be the cause of injury, but the level of aggression of play. Female athletes who tend to be quicker and more aggressive during play, have a higher chance of obtaining injury. |
http://o http://www.jospt.org/doi/abs/10.2519/jospt.1996.24.2.91#.U2kPz15bTwI
http://o http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3096145/
Prevention of ACL Injury: Do you even Lift?
http://contemporarypediatrics.modernmedicine.com/contemporary-pediatrics/news/prevention-acl-injuries-adolescent-female-athletes