Damage to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is becoming one of the most dominant sports-related injuries in young athletes today. The all too common ACL tear is most prevalent for athletes playing impact sports or sports that require the feet to be planted with quick changes of direction. Such sports include soccer, football, skiing, and basketball. A sharp change in direction such as cutting, twisting of the knee, or poor landing technique are all familiar pre-ACL tear incidences. The most common non-contact maneuver to cause an ACL tear is a deceleration movement with internal torque of the knee and an external rotation of the body (3).
The likelihood of an ACL tear in female athletes is even greater than for males. Approximately 38,000 female athletes tear their ACL annually, giving women a 4-6 fold increased risk in tearing their ACL over males (1). Three factors that predispose females to ACL tears are ligament dominance, quadriceps dominance, and leg dominance. These imbalances tend to put more stress on joints in females, especially an increase in lower extremity joint load. If left unattended, these imbalances greatly affect dynamic knee stability, which is key to the prevention of an ACL tear.
