Screening young athletes for knee control problems

The literature is very clear about how many knees and how much money can be saved through screening young athletes.

Around 3 in 100 young players sustain knee injuries every year. Many players lose interest in sports and stop being active altogether. Some need knee surgery and may never really have full confidence in their knee for the rest of their lives - at work and during play.

Girls are affected more than boys.
Watch the FREE webinar about how Moovment software helped prevent injury at Älsjö Elite Womens Football team here (in Swedish).

Knee injury prevention programs that have children practicing knee control drills (often poorly) are in place at many clubs, but the number of knee injuries keeps growing. This may be because very few prevention programs actually record performance or measure it objectively.

On the other side of an injury, even children and adults undergoing surgery at great expense and hardship, have not had their knee performance measured objectively during rehab or prior to return to sport. They may have tested range of motion, and ligament stability, but not function - at least not objectively. The incidence of repeat injury is high, and the consequences of a recurrent injury tend to lead to retiring from the sport. This may seem like a great shame for talented players, but looking at the incidence of osteoarthritis and total knee replacements later in life in normal populations, it is clear that knee injury sustained in young athletes has long-term consequences.

The small amount of investment of time and money needed to screen for knee control problems and to restore optimal function seems trivial compared to the long-term costs of further knee problems and the negative long-term effects of inactivity.

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