Importance of Injury Prevention Programs

Injury prevention programs have been proven to be effective at reducing the risk of injuries involving the hip, knee, and ankle in athletes across a wide range of sports. Athletes that take part in injury prevention warm up at least 1-2X/week are 50% less likely to sustain injury and the severity of the injury suffered can also be reduced. The goal of our injury prevention program is to assess each athlete and determine areas of weakness, inflexibility poor control that may lead to increased risk of injury. The Wake Orthopaedics Injury Prevention Screen is based on evidence-supported research and assesses athletes for known risk factors related to ACL injury and other common orthopedic conditions. Youthfemale soccer players are the most at risk population to suffer an ACL tear across any sport and account for >50% of all ACL injuries in female athletes. A large percentage of these injuries are non-contact and can most likely be avoided with a focused injury prevention program.

Wake Orthopaedics Injury Prevention Programs: The WakeOrthopaedics Injury Prevention Screen assesses known risk factors for ACL injury and consist of the following elements:

• Strength and Flexibility Assessment
• Running/Jump landing using video analysis
• Agility Testing
• Functional balance testing

What the athletes will receive:

-Each athlete will go home with a personalized program that is tailored towards correcting any deficits that present during their screening
-Athletes should perform their exercises 2-3X/week to gain strength and flexibility and reduced risk of lower extremity injury