17/11/2025
๐ New Research Spotlight: The โCUTtheACLโ Study
A fascinating recent study by Di Paolo, Buckthorpe and colleagues (2025) in Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy that could have big implications for how we assess ACL injury risk in athletes โ especially during cutting tasks.
What they didโ:
Tested over 1,000 youth soccer players performing maximum-effort 90ยฐ change-of-direction cuts.
Collected ground reaction force (GRF) data using a force plate to quantify metrics like impact/propulsion peaks, rate of force acceptance (RFA), impulse, and contact time.
๐กWhat they found:
Average vertical impact force was ~2.48 ร body weight, peaking just ~32 ms after foot contact.
Males had higher forces and RFA than females.
Elite players (vs subelite) displayed more efficient force dynamics (lower impact:propulsion ratio), hinting at better deceleration and re-acceleration strategies.
There was meaningful lateral (medial-lateral) force, which could relate to knee loading patterns relevant for ACL risk.
Why this mattersโ:
This provides normative GRF benchmarks for cutting mechanics that clinicians & performance teams can use in real-world athlete screening.
It suggests that GRF analysis could help in injury risk profiling, return-to-play decision-making, and tracking neuromuscular recovery.
Take-home๐ฉ:
Integrating force-platform assessments into clinical screening might offer a more data-driven and nuanced way to evaluate movement quality, especially in high-risk tasks like directional cuts.
