Sports Injuries In Female Athletes

With the start of my basketball season arriving this week (YEAH !!!!) I thought I would write something about sports related injuries in female athletes. I have been lucky over the years (or my kids have I should say) of not having any players suffer severe injuries. Female athletes are much more prone to severe injuries than male athletes based, mostly, on their inherent biomechanical differences. one difference that is most apparent is that of a wider pelvis in women than in men. The "Q" angle or the quadriceps angle is much wider in females than in males. Many sports medicine professionals feel this puts more strain on the knee joint as well as causing the quadricep to pull on the patella (knee cap) causing discomfort and injury.

So, what does this mean? It means do everything you can to make sure you (if you are a player) or your athletes (if you are a coach) are adequately stretched and warmed up before going through rigourous practice drills or a game. Now, obviously, stretching does not guarantee there won't be an injury be it sure prepares the body for what is to come.

There are some links on my blog that talk about various injuries and how to treat them. make sure to check them out and really pay attention. Injuries are not fun...but knee injuries can be the most crucial and the most severe.