while helmet to helmet contact has been a major subject in the football of all ages from pop warner all the way to the NFL. it seems like concusion #s are down. but the ACL and knee injuries are really really really pilling up this year. I lost 3 players just this last week on my fantasy teams for the year to ACL or PCL injuries. and over all it just seems like every week the #s of guys going down with these injuries is just rediculous! tim settle, shai are just a couple that come to mind. how long before the hire ups start penalizing players for hitting below the waist? do you think that the # of knee injuries is because players are going low to avoid targetting./ helmet to helmet penalities? just curious if anyone has noticed this or if im just making something out of nothing because my fantasy teams in the dumps right now.
helmet to helmet contact!!!
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Defensive players complain that they can't go high OR low. I say to them, a form tackle does not require a player to go high or low but rather wrap up. That's how tackling should be done.
That's easy to say, but when everything is moving full speed it's either hit him any way you can or let him run for a touchdown. A perfect form tackle is not always possible at full speed.
Exactly. Similarly I vividly remember being flagged for a few face mask penalties on high speed cross field tackles because you grab what you can grab when you are diving full speed. I never once intended to grab a face mask but it happens before you even realize.
Good point, however I still think defensive players sometimes make too many excuses.
You're thinking Sweat, not Settle. I haven't seen enough of the plays to really weigh in, but I am under the impression that today's football players are pushing their body's too far. You see plenty of soccer players making cuts at full speed and running into contact with much fewer acl injuries it seems. I think these guys are just getting too big and the human body isn't made to handle what they're doing.
I get the same impression. I have zero data to back this up, but it seems like more and more ACL injuries are non-contact. The Terps lost like 22 QBs one year during drills. I don't know if it's something that can really be conditioned; these guys are big and powerful and perhaps less agile than they need to be. \_()_/
Someone else posted this article about the strength and conditioning program at Stanford under VT alum Shannon Turley several months ago. It talks about how they focus more on developing function, balance, and flexibility instead of just having the players are put up the biggest numbers they can with poor technique, which he says results in fewer injuries on the field.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/31/sports/ncaafootball/stanfords-distinct...
A whole lot of ACL tears are non-contact injuries, so no, I don't think any increase in knee injuries (whether real or perceived) can be attributed to guys going low on tackles. Not to mention there are always freak occurrences of guys just getting rolled the wrong way, having a foot catch at the wrong angle, etc. I think a bigger issue is the way the NCAA has limited strength/conditioning and practice times in the past decade or so. It's definitely impacted the way Tech's staff can do things, and I'm willing to bet it's done the same at other schools too. Shocker that a well-intentioned NCAA regulation is completely backfiring.
There's also a debate going about whether certain types of turf make players more susceptible to non-contact injuries like ligament tears.
I believe that most ACL tears are non-contact. guys make the same cut they've made 1000 times and it just tears for whatever reason.
science: http://www.humankinetics.com/excerpts/excerpts/incidence-of-noncontact-a...
"While an ACL injury can be a result of direct contact with another player or an object to the lower extremity, it has been reported that approximately 70% of ACL injuries result from situations that do not involve direct contact"
granted thats just one study and i have no way of verifying anything...but yeah i don't think it has anything to do w/ hitting low or anything.