ACL injuries are common in sports such as football, soccer, and basketball and they occur 3-5x more in woman than men.
Movement patterns are considered to play a role in ACL injury given the mechanism of tear.
Specifically frontal knee control appears to be a critical factor and training programs focusing on lower limb alignment during dynamic task may reduce the risk of injury.
Thus, screening lower limb control and alignment has become common practice by sports medicine and sports performance practitioners.
Can the Vertical Drop Jump Effectively Screen for ACL Injury?
What did the researchers do?
- 710 elite female soccer and handball athletes were tested in the VDJ landing between 2007-2014
- 3D marker-based motion capture was used to capture kinetic and kinematic data - this is gold standard biomechanics
- 42 new non-contact ACL injuries were registered over the trial period; 12 of which were in previously ACL-injured athlete
What Was Measured?
5 variables were examined to determine their association with future ACL injury; these 5 are considered most likely to play a role in ACL injury:
- Valgus at initial contact
- Peak knee abduction moment
- Peak knee flexion
- Peak vGRF
- Medial knee displacement
What happened?
- 42 non-contact injuries were included in the analysis; 24 from soccer and 18 from handball.
- The non-dominant leg was injured in 62% of cases (26 of the 42).
- Of the 710 players, 67 had an ACL injury history and of these 67 participants, 24 had an injury during the testing period.
- Relative risk of new ACL injury among previously injured was 3.8 compared to those with no ACL injury history; relative risk of ACL injury in soccer players was 1.5 compared to handball players.
- In players with no previous injury, none of the 5 variables examined were associated with new injury occurrence leading the researchers to conclude "the VDJ cannot be used as a screening test to predict ACL injuries in female elite soccer and handball players."
Coach's Takeaway
Is screening pointless? It depends.
- Injuries are complex and assuming how an athlete moves during a screening test is indicative of their injury risk has limitations.
- Previous ACL injury makes an athlete susceptible to future ACL injury so your programming should address this elevated risk.
- While drop jump alone is not a quality injury risk predictor, screening movement quality may indeed have value otherwise.
- We have a far way to go before we really understand how to reduce the risk of these injuries but I am confident that a comprehensive S&C program and consistent training program are best options.
