Quote:
Originally posted by coachgbert
As a girls youth coach I encourage my younger players to wear knee pads. Knee injuries are 50% more common in girl athletes then in boys. There is 50% more twisting motion of the knee in untrained athletes on impact with the floor, resulting in greater injuries to young knees. How often do you see girls on the floor? Lots in my games, therefore there is no harm and maybe some good in having the knee protected from impact with the floor.
There is a considerable physical difference in some girls at the same age and grade. I can have 5'10" 170 pound girls in 7th grade playing against 4'11" girls that weigh 80 pounds soaking wet. I've seen my small, light weight point guards fly from contact. I also know how painful a knee cap bruise can be and how it can prohibit full range of motion. Knee pads can prevent those injuries. They aren't just to prevent a cut that looks bad at the beach.
I am a stong advocate of knee pads and strength training, including learning to jump and land properly, foot work and running by young girls. Girl athletes have a higher incidence of torn ACL's then boys because of the way the muscles are arranged, the fact that they get a later start in sports then boys and the anatomical differences of pelvic width, muscle strength differences between quads and ham strings, and other differences.
I don't require that knee pads be worn on my teams, but many, many girls in Ohio wear them in youth leagues, so it's not a big deal. The older the girls get and the more skilled they get, the less they seem to end up on the floor. By middle school the knee pads have almost disappered from the game.
Coach Gbert
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I doubt knee pads will prevent any major injury such as an ACL tear. The ACL is almost always torn before the knee ever hits the floor. (I know, I tore mine). Same thing with meniscus and other injurys. It's infrequently the contact with the floor.
The biggest difference between boys and girls is anatomy. In fact, it's not really a strict gender differnce that makes the injury more prevalent in girls. Boys and girls with the same knee geometry have the same rate of ACL tears. One of the biggest factors is a narrow intracondylar notch...the space between the two rounded areas on the end of the femur. It just happens that more girls have a narrow intra-condylar notch.
[Edited by Camron Rust on Apr 4th, 2005 at 04:44 PM]