- Jul 17, 2009
- 32
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Obviously squatting movements are necessary to build the required strength for catchers but how you teach the squat is critical. We know that girls are more likely to sustain acl injuries and reasons hypothesized are numerous (quad dominance, q angle, hip mobility, ankle mobility, menstruation, etc.). When teaching the squat emphasize the hip hinge and not the knee bend. Wall sits would encourage quad dominance. Instead have your girl squat facing the wall with her toes touching the wall. Hip and ankle mobility will probably need to be addressed on a regular basis in order to have the required flexibility to do this movement. Box squats would also be an appropriate exercise if you emphasize sitting back and not down. Split squats are good to encourage single leg strength and stability in the frontal plane (sometimes ankles can be immobile in the sagittal and transverse planes but unstable in the frontal). With split squats emphasize the knee on the back leg going down. One leg romanian deadlifts are good for hip hinge, hamstring strength, balance, and ankle stability. Emphasize maintaining a straight line from the heel on the swing leg to the head. Glute bridges are great to get the glutes firing and get away from quad dominance. Emphasize maintaining a straight line from the knees to the shoulders. With catchers the hip flexors need to be stretched. The best way to do this is on one knee. The leg with the knee on the ground is the hip flexor that is stretched. Rock forward the stretch the down hip. If you lift the foot on the down leg up to the butt while rocking you'll also stretch the rectus femoris ( the only quadricep muscle that passes over the knee and hip). The reason to have the opposite knee up is this locks the pelvis in place preventing lumbar extension substituting for hip extensiion. Good luck.
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