Important news for female soccer players
Important news for female soccer players
Soccer is becoming an attractive sport for American female teenagers. This popularity is mostly due to a fast pace exhilarating sport, which is finding its way to high schools as well as Universities across America. Recent study done on female soccer players from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill suggests that these athletes flex and recruit the muscles around their knees differently from males. This study is first of its kind. In this study 18 female soccer players and 17 male soccer players performed two side-step cutting maneuvers; their trunk and hip kinematics and muscle activation patterns were measured during the tasks.
Discussion: Based on this study the female soccer players have a significantly more erect posture, rotated their hips more, and had more quadriceps flexion than the males when performing the maneuvers. They also bent their knees less. Another study was done on a German professional soccer team. In this study 24 female soccer players from FC Bayern Munich and initiated, the study compared the rates of injury before and after training.The number of injuries that required medical attention and resulted in the player sitting out at least one practice or game was measured. There was no reduction in the number of injuries caused by contact. There were 25 injuries caused by contact during the first half of the 2003~2004 season, before the training program began; 26 injuries in the second half of the 2004 season; and 31 contact injuries during the first half of the 2004~2005 season. The study done in Germany showed that there were anterior cruciate ligament ruptures before the training and none afterward, pointing that training can help to reduce the possibility of Sports injuries.
Case Study Date: 6/16/2010
