Preventing Soccer Injuries in Youth (FIFA 11+ Program) If you have children who play soccer or know families that have kids who play soccer, you will find this newsletter very informative. Soccer has been identified as one of the top tree sports contributing to injury rates in Canadian youth (ages 11-18). Ankle injuries are the most common type of injury in youth soccer, followed closely by knee and groin/thigh injuries. What is even more concerning is that studies are showing that knee and ankle injuries can result in an increased risk of early post-traumatic osteoarthritis later in life. Long term follow-up studies show that 12-20 years post knee injury (ex. meniscus and/or ACL injury), greater than 50 % will have knee osteoarthritis in comparison with 5% in the uninjured population. Osteoarthritis leads to disability and inactivity which is why preventing injuries in youth is so critical.
Recently FIFA developed an injury prevention program for soccer called the FIFA 11+. It consists of a 20 minute warm-up that consists of 15 exercises. Included in these exercises is running, strength training, plyometric exercises, and balance exercises. The exercises are designed with three levels of increasing difficulty and the program should be completed before each training and each game.