We all share a common desire to keep our young soccer players healthy as they grow up with the game they love. It is public knowledge that injuries are part of sports, but our aim is to train our athletes in such a way as to try and build their bodies to prevent some of these injuries.
South West Health Spine & Sport is teaming up with Strikers FC Orange County to take injury prevention in female youth soccer to the next level. We are going to be rolling out the FIFA 11+ injury prevention program to the first club in Southern California and are very excited about helping mitigate injuries to the lower extremities in youth soccer. Check out the article on football.com here Prevent youth soccer injuries
The key component to avoid injuries to the lower extremities is to eliminate something called valgus collapse. Valgus collapse occurs when the knee joint gets inside the hip and ankle line when viewing an athlete from the front view. Valgus collapse is one of the key causes of devastating knee injuries like ACL tears and MCL injuries. Traditionally, core strength has been the mantra of strength and conditioning specialists while the muscles of the pelvis and hips were neglected in past programs. The FIFA 11+ program is the first program to incorporate the entire core into athletes warm up and training programs.
The FIFA 11+ program is geared towards strengthening the hips in multiple planes of motion and preparing the athletes bodies for the rigors of playing soccer.
Studies have demonstrated that these types of exercises performed with precise execution have substantially reduced the incidence of lower extremity injuries in female soccer players. Teams that performed this program at least twice a week had 30-50% fewer injuries. This program will also help coaches identify at risk athletes early to allow them to provide the athlete extra training to correct their imbalances.
If any other clubs are interested in incorporating the FIFA 11+ program, please contact Dr. Zappala at South West Health Spine & Sport.