| Soccer is a growing sport among the youth in our | | | | power.5. Incorporate dynamic balance training to |
| country today. Notably, more female athletes are | | | | teach body control and reduce ankle sprains and |
| choosing to play soccer. With this added participation, | | | | knee injuries.6. Take planned periodic rests from |
| it is inevitable that more injuries will occur. Many of | | | | practice and play to avoid overtraining.7. Perform |
| these injuries are linked to physical training and | | | | routine agility and quickness drills to improve |
| conditioning.The most common injuries in soccer | | | | footwork and cutting ability. Many ACL injuries occur |
| typically involve the ankle, knee and hip region. Such | | | | with non-contact cutting movements and it is critical |
| injuries include ankle sprains, knee ligament sprains, | | | | for athletes to cut on a bent knee and be able to |
| meniscus tears, and muscular strains (hip and groin). | | | | control their momentum during change of direction.8. |
| ACL injuries are now reaching epidemic proportions, | | | | Perform a dynamic warm-up prior to practice and |
| especially in the female soccer athlete.Research has | | | | games that effectively simulates sport specific |
| indicated that proper training programs can and do | | | | movement. These activities will better prepare the |
| reduce ACL injuries and will help prevent other sports | | | | body for the demands placed upon it during |
| related injuries. Much of the research has indicated | | | | competition. This can be further broken down into |
| that strengthening, jump landing technique and agility | | | | general and specific functional warm-ups.9. Perform |
| training affect the risk for this type of injury. The | | | | yearly pre-season physical screening evaluations with |
| following list will outline how to effectively reduce | | | | an athletic trainer or physical therapist to assess any |
| common soccer injuries.1. Perform a periodized year | | | | musculoskeletal areas of weakness.10. Perform |
| round strength training program with special emphasis | | | | pre-season, in-season and post-season fitness testing |
| on balancing the muscles of the leg and targeting the | | | | to assess training methods, performance and |
| core muscles (low back, abdominals and hip).2. | | | | conditioning. This protocol will allow the coaches to |
| Understand the energy systems utilized in soccer and | | | | adjust training volume, intensity and modalities to |
| train them according to performance demands. This | | | | ensure that their athletes are peaking at the right |
| involves the proper blend of training aerobic | | | | time and not training improperly.All of these |
| endurance and anaerobic power to ensure explosive | | | | suggestions are important in developing complete |
| performance over the entire | | | | athletes and preventing common injuries. They will |
| course of a match. Fatigue late in the match can | | | | not prevent all soccer injuries, however, they will |
| lead to injury.3. Perform routine stretching to prevent | | | | greatly reduce the risk potential and enhance athletic |
| muscular imbalance and tightness. This refers to static | | | | performance. The ultimate key to injury prevention is |
| stretching that should be done after a suitable | | | | understanding the sport of soccer and developing a |
| warm-up or at the end of practice.4. Perform | | | | program designed to address its demands on the |
| supervised, carefully planned plyometric (jump) | | | | body. |
| training to teach proper landing form and develop | | | | |