Everyday while walking around school, I see at least five people either walking using crutches or without them yet limping with a knee brace. Almost every time, those injuries were caused by a sport These knee injuries, while they may be as severe as ligament tears or just minor sprains, can destroy a teams rosters and players’ careers.

This past spring, I tore a tendon in my knee which put me out from all sports since. Because of this, I’ve begin looking into reasons as to why and how this happened and what I could have done to prevent it.

By looking deeper into the topic, I found that the solution is simple to overcome the knee injury “epidemic”– leg workouts. There are strengthening exercises designed to build up the muscles to put less stress on knees. This is as easy as squats, leg lifts, lunges, or knee extensions.

After playing competitive sports, I’ve only had one coach who, during practice, set aside time to do preventative exercises. That year, not a single player was out due to ligament or tendon tears, an occurrence that isn’t very often in girls soccer.

Not to criticize coaches who don’t take these measures and don’t take the exercises very seriously, but I found it rather upsetting that if my team had simply set aside five minutes from each practice, it could have prevented me from being out these past five months.

Every coach I’ve ever had always conditioned at the end of practice and completed various core workouts, but rarely have I ever done lower body exercises during the practice time. We’re encouraged to stretch, eat healthy, and ice, but never exactly to build up our leg muscles.

Because of the extremely high rate of these specific injuries, teams’ rosters can be destroyed by a lack of healthy players. Instead of inevitably experiencing these problems, I think coaches should better prepare players for the possibility of being hurt, starting at the high school level.

Speaking from experience, high school sports typically result in more injuries. Some are less experienced and don’t know how to safely play.
Because of this, high school is seen as more “dangerous” than competitive play.

It’s really saddening that sports could be much safer, but we choose not to take simple precautions and instead watch as player after player are severely hurt.