Plyometric is a term used to describe lengthening or pre-stretching of skeletal muscles under loading such as depth jumping and other variations (Ratamess, 2012).

​Plyometric exercises are explosive jumping and bounding movements designed to help build power, strength and speed and to also improve a performers landing technique from a jump (Hewett et al., 2006).  Plyometric training can be used in most training programmes but very beneficial to be used in sports which involves the players to change direction quickly, jump and hop because it can strengthen the muscles involved in the landing phase of a jump to reduce injuries occurring (Ratamess, 2012).

Plyometric Boxes

Plyometric Training & ACL Injury Prevention

​Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) research has resulted in more than 2000 scientific articles published outlining injury incidence, mechanism, surgical repair techniques and rehabilitation of this important stabilising knee ligament (Hewett et al., 2006). Epidemiological research has demonstrated that female athletes that perform in sports such as football, basketball and volleyball have an increased risk of an ACL injury compared with their male counterparts playing at the similar levels in the same sports (Vescovi et al., 2008).  In a study by Vescovi et al., (2008) it was reported that females were up to six times more likely to suffer a non-contact ACL injury compared to the males, the reason behind this statistics was that females display biomechanical and neuromuscular characteristics that differ compared to the males when performing sports that involve jumping, landing and changing direction.

Many studies have focused on the factors that make women more susceptible to ACL injuries such as their knee joint laxity, lower leg alignment and landing techniques, the studies resulted in the use of plyometric training to reduce this injury rate (Boden et al., 2000). The plyometric component trains the female’s muscles, connective tissue and nervous system to effectively carry-out the stretch-shortening cycle and this appears to reduce serious ligamentous injuries (Donnell-Finnk et al., 2015). Plyometric training has also been found to improve a performers landing technique because the movements strengthen the lower limb muscles and train the performer to land softly accepting the weight over the balls of their feet, reducing the impact (Hewett et al., 2006). This adaptation better prepares an athlete for more multidirectional sport movements and reduces the positioning that puts high loads on the ACL, reducing the injury risk to football, basketball and volleyball players (Hewett et al., 2006).

The below video describes a progression of a plyometric exercise to help multidirectional sport performers strengthen their lower limb muscles and to reduce the risk of an ACL injury occurring. It shows a good progression of an exercise that can be incorporated into a training session for the performers and it develops a good landing technique, maximises lower limb strength and increases muscle hypertrophy (Donnell-Finnk et al., 2015).