A Designers Perspective on Decreasing Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries through the Informed Design of an Interactive Training Device

Abstract

Young adults frequently engage in various physically demanding sports without the training or supervision of a trained professional. This lack of training or supervision frequently leads athletes to practice and play with unconditioned bodies and incorrect form. Such acts typically lead to injury. The purpose of this thesis is to create principles that will identify physical attributes that increase an athlete’s rate of injury and create a training device that emphasizes form and lowers the chance of injury. The creation of this device will be directed towards sports that require agility, pivoting, cutting, and quick acceleration and deceleration. Participating in these sports increases one’s susceptibility to leg injuries. One of the most frequent and misunderstood injuries for this age group is the non-contact ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) tear; it will be the focus of the thesis. The following information will provide young adult athletes and athletic instructors with the knowledge of how to lessen the frequency of ligament and tendon injuries and provide designers with the knowledge to create devices that assist in the training and protection of the athlete.