Effect of the FIFA 11+ on Landing Patterns and Baseline Movement Errors in Elite Male Youth Soccer Players

Abstract

Context: There is no evidence regarding the effect of the FIFA 11+ on landing kinematics in male soccer players, and few studies exist regarding the evaluating progress of interventions based on the initial biomechanical profile. Objective: To investigate the effect of the FIFA 11+ program on landing patterns in soccer players classified as at low or high risk for noncontact anterior cruciate ligament injuries. Design: Randomized controlled trial. Setting: Field-based functional movement screening performed at the soccer field. Participants: A total of 24 elite male youth soccer players participated in this study. Intervention: The intervention group performed the FIFA 11+ program 3 times per week for 8 weeks, whereas the control group performed their regular warm-up program. Main Outcome Measures: Before and after the intervention, all participants were assessed for landing mechanics using the Landing Error Scoring System. Pretraining Landing Error Scoring System scores were used to determine risk groups. Results: The FIFA 11+ group had greater improvement than the control group in terms of improving the landing pattern; there was a significant intergroup difference (F1,20 = 28.86, P < .001, ). Soccer players categorized as being at high risk displayed greater improvement from the FIFA 11+ program than those at low risk (P = .03). However, there was no significant difference in the proportion of risk category following the routine warm-up program (P = 1.000). Conclusions: The present study provides evidence of the usefulness of the FIFA 11+ program for reducing risk factors associated with noncontact anterior cruciate ligament injuries. The authors’ results also suggest that soccer players with the higher risk profile would benefit more than those with lower risk profiles and that targeting them may improve the efficacy of the FIFA 11+ program.

Short-Term FIFA 11+ Improves Agility and Jump Performance in Young Soccer Players

“…The reasons could be found in the fact that the FIFA 11+ program includes sprinting, agility, and plyometric exercises beside neuromuscular exercises [7]. Moreover, the focus in the FIFA 11+ program is on correct techniques throughout jumping, landing, and cutting movements by giving feedback about improper movement patterns [25]. The improvement may be partially due to the rise in muscle temperature [26].…”

Effect of Strength Training on Jump-Landing Biomechanics in Adolescent Females

“…15,35 Furthermore, the LESS has been found to be sensitive to changes in biomechanics from training interventions and have predictive capacity for ACL injuries in adolescent athletes. 1,31,32,38 The LESS raters for this study completed an internal training protocol and achieved inter-and intrarater correlation coefficient values of at least 0.80, which demonstrates good reliability.…”

Don’t Peak Too Early: Evidence for an ACL Injury Prevention Mechanism of the 11+ Program

“…It is likely that athletes with higher pre-season frequencies of Early Peaks would display greater decreases due to the intervention compared to athletes with baseline lower frequencies since a similar pattern has been observed with the landing error scoring system. 36 This interaction effect between the pre-season knee valgus moment Early Peak frequency during athletic tasks and the intervention was not included in the analysis as the statistical models failed to converge on a solution due to the small sample size.…”