 Hi, my name is Sam Boyd and I'm the lead athletic trainer here at Mid-Michigan Health in Midland, Michigan, and this is my fellow athletic trainer, Heidi Smith and Gull. Today we are going to demonstrate and critique the form of four specific ACL dynamic warm-up exercises. We're going to go through these four that have been diagnosed as evidence-based practice for preventing ACL injuries in the future. So while ACL prevention is important for all athletes, it's especially important for female athletes. So today we have a female to demonstrate the form of these ACL-specific exercises. The first one we're going to show is a squat jump. So with the squat jump it's very important for her to be in the correct position to begin with. The correct position for this exercise is going to be toes pointed forward, feet shoulder with the part, and then before entering the squat position, hinging the hips backwards with the knees going no further than directly over the toes. From here she's going to take off and land in this correct squat position with soft knees which means she's going to try to land softly with knees not fully bent and not fully extended. Good. So as she lands she's trying to land softly with the feet and she landed in a good position with her knees no further than over her toes. Her chest should also be up the entire time when she takes off and when she lands. Let's look at this from a side view. So the important things to watch here are the position of the knee not going more forward than the toe and the hips setting backwards as she takes off and lands. So that would be proper position for a squat jump. The next exercise we'll be demonstrating is a walking forward lunge. So the athlete will start in a position of toes forward and she's going to start in that split stance with her knee no farther over than her toe, her hips back and her weight centered and she's just going to drop her center of mass down into the lunge. Excellent. And what we're looking for from the side here is that her knee doesn't pass her toe and that she keeps her center of weight centered. Next we will be demonstrating the lateral hop. So you want to have your athlete in a athletic stance with their knees slightly bent, their weight centered and what she's going to do is she's going to come up onto one foot as she's balancing. She's going to hop to the other side landing with soft knees and coming back. Now if the athlete needs to touch down that is perfectly fine as they advance they will no longer need to do the slight touch down. This is the final and most advanced exercise that we're going to demonstrate for this ACL preventative dynamic warm up. This exercise is a squat jump so it's going to encompass the mechanics of a jump squat and a forward lunge. So to begin this exercise your athlete is going to stay in a position similar to a squat where the hips are dropped down, the knee is directly over the toe with the hip square and pointing forward. Center of gravity here drops straight down not forward or back because the chest and torso are up. From here she's going to jump and land with the same soft landing of a squat mechanic. The feet switch here but she still lands on the opposite foot with the knee directly over the toe and the center of gravity going straight up and down. When we look at this from the side we're going to be looking specifically at knee and toe position as well as the hips because there will direct the center of gravity up and down. So again she'll line up with the hip square toes pointing forward and then dropping down so that the knee is directly over the toe. She'll jump and land with soft mechanics. Okay come on back up. That exercise should not be performed until the mechanics of a squat jump and a walking forward lunge have been mastered. There are plenty of other exercises that you can choose to do to encompass a full muscular warm up for your athletes. These exercises you may be more familiar with such as butt kicks, karaoke, high knees or skipping for height. If you'd like more information on these exercises or any others please visit our website at www.midmichigan.org backslashwellsport.