Crossroads Redux

Almost one million square feet of space, 984 teams, 9,954 athletes (not including the USA Women's Sitting team, Johnson & Wales or Peru State men's teams), over 30,000 spectators, the equivalent of 143 courts. Over 14,000 gallons of water (just in the barrels, not the athletes), 364,416 tiles of SportCourt and eight fifty-three foot tractor trailers to bring it all to Denver. The equipment came from as far away as Arkansas and the players from as far away as Florida. Approximately 5,000 matches were played over six days. We set it all up, we checked them all in, we scanned tickets, we stamped all the hands, we mopped it all clean, we cheered on our teams, and then we tore it all down. For some crazy reason, we look forward to doing it all over again, but not until next year!

Thanks again for all of your work. Crossroads 2007 was incredible.

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April Calendar Now Online!

Parking Advisory

Please do not park in the driveway on the North side of the SILO. It is a Fire Lane. Parking there is against the law; we have been advised that cars parked there may be ticketed and towed. Parking there is also a violation of our lease terms, and our landlord is unhappy about this. We ask your cooperation in this matter.

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ACL Injury Prevention Program

Female Athletes and ACL Injuries:
Injuries to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in female athletes are very prevalent in youth sports today. Front Range Volleyball Club (FRVBC) aggressively addresses injury risk among many common volleyball-related musculoskeletal injuries (i.e., ankles, lower-back, shoulder etc…). Furthermore, ACL injury risk is top on the list from an injury prevention and conditioning perspective in programs facilitated on-site by XL ‘N SPORTS (XL).

ACL Function:
The ACL is one of four ligaments surrounding the knee joint that work to dynamically hold the thigh and shin bones together as a volleyball player moves and as the knees bend and straighten. While there numerous proposed factors that increase injury risk for female athletes, for all practical purposes there are really only a couple of controllable factors under the athlete’s control and somewhat under the control of the coach.

Controllable Risk Factors
Body Position:
The first controllable factor is body position. In non-contact volleyball ACL injuries, the closer the knee is to being straight the greater the risk for injury. The risk for ACL injury increases when an athlete is jumping, changing direction (cutting) or landing on one leg, with the knee straight or only slightly bent.

In volleyball, especially when front row players move laterally to block, or when a hitter moves towards the net to spike, often times an athlete maneuvers the body in the air to play the ball.  Many times you will see an athlete jumping and then returning to the ground and landing on one leg, sometimes in an awkward and off-balance position. Landing on one leg places the body weight on one leg and one knee (which tends to focus load of the body on one knee, versus two legs and knees), thereby increasing ACL injury risk on the knee of the landing leg.

Bend the Knees:
Ideally, training athletes to bend their ankles, knees and hips helps protect the knee(s) and also improves movement performance. Unfortunately, as creatures of habit, humans try to constantly conserve energy by playing in more upright body positions. In other words, we tend not to bend our knees, or drop or butts which would help protect the knees from ACL injuries.

At FRVBC the athletes are routinely instructed to bend their knees and drop their butts to protect the knees and to improve performance. Specifically, at the start of the year, at the start of and throughout each practice, coaches cue the athletes to correctly bend and their position their body’s and their knee’s as they move, jump, accelerate, decelerate and land.

Exercise Conditioning:
The second controllable factor to reduce ACL injury risk is through exercise conditioning. XL designs the FRVBC programs to effectively address non-contact injury risk and to increase performance simultaneously.

Young athletes tend to squat, jump, land and move in sports competition by disproportionately using their quadriceps muscles (the muscles on the front of the thigh) to a greater degree than using many other large hip and leg muscles (i.e., glutes, hamstrings, calves etc…) to assist in squatting, jumping, and landing etc...

Role of Hamstrings:
The hamstring muscles (on the back on the thigh) can really help reduce ACL injury risk when the hamstrings are trained to help dynamically support the knee joint and body as the athlete moves. Particular attention is employed in conditioning exercises and in volleyball skill practice to ensure proper technique is utilized when performing certain exercises which can use the hamstrings to a greater degree to support the knee.

Starting the first day of practice each year, FRVBC athletes are taught to move into athletic position by moving their butt back first when squatting. This specific movement loads the glute muscles on the backside of the hips and tends to activate the hamstrings. This is a much better option to protecting the knees than allowing the athletes to do what comes natural to many young athletes which is to allow their knees to move forward to perform a squat and to jump.

Also starting in November and continuing throughout the year, FRVBC athletes participate in a multitude of double-leg and single-leg balance activities and exercises. These exercises train many muscles of the legs and body to prepare for a variety of expected and unexpected volleyball game-specific positions and stresses. Specifically, we train the hamstrings, calves and glutes to work together when cutting, jumping, blocking, hitting and landing to protect the knees.

Odd Exercises:
The next time you watch practice and observe the athletes performing many exercises that don’t appear to look like volleyball, you’ll now have a better feel for the general purpose of many of these exercises. Specifically, when 1) the athletes are squatting on balance disks, 2) jumping off and landing on the Bosu Balls (the half-mooned shaped blue balls) forwards, diagonally or laterally on two legs or one, 3) standing on one leg while a player pushes and pulls on the athlete who is trying to maintain their balance, or 4) see them doing other exercises where they have to rapidly move and then stop and then control their body movement, these are injury prevention exercises many of which address ACL injury risk (as well as others) through exercise conditioning.

Summary:
There are numerous uncontrollable and controllable risk factors for non-contact ACL injuries in female athletes. FRVBC and XL take a proactive approach in the prevention of ACL injury risk by improving body position and through specialized exercise conditioning activities. The net result from teaching body positioning and select conditioning exercises is dramatically less injury risk for an ACL injury and from an improved volleyball movement performance perspective as well.

More Detailed Medical Information on ACL Injuries:
If you want more detailed medical knowledge about injury causative factors or recommendations re exercise conditioning, I have attached an article for your review. If you have further questions regarding how XL or FRVBC addresses injury risk or performance objectives, please do not hesitate to contact me via email at billy@xlnsports.com.

Billy Glisan, MS, CSCS