sprained ACL, my 2 cents to uninjured riders

bills442

Member
May 4, 2001
42
0
Hi everyone,

I just got done reading all of the informative posts on knee problems so I thought I would put in my 2 cents for the next soul who turns to this archive for encouragement or advice.

I've been riding dirt bikes on and off since I was about 14 ( I'm 32 now ). I had arthro surgery for a torn meniscus in 97. No trauma led to the tear, just kept hurting more and more as time went on. The beginning of hare scrambles season this year here in Ohio I did a 2 hour race and had that same "bad" feeling in my knee after sitting in an odd position in the truck on the way home. After and MRI it was confirmed that I indeed had a tear in the left knee again. So I am scheduled to get this done July 10th. Well just this last week I went and did my second motocross race ever. I landed hard on one of the jumps and am pretty certain I've sprained my ACL ( textbook way to injure it - great force applied while the knee is flexed ). Now, I WAS wearing BOTH of my EVS-R6 knee braces at the time; there is however, no way the brace can prevent this kind of injuring since it occurs while the knee is moving through a normal range of motion, just with excess force. But what I really want to tell everyone is TRAIN TRAIN TRAIN and PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE. Why? because ...

This injuring could have been prevented so easily. I basically had some kind of brain fart when I landed on this jump, although the bike attitude was fine, and I didn't bottom my suspension, for some strange reason I just did't grip the bike properly with my legs and my body put all the landing weight on my right leg, and further I didn't move like I should to absorb the jump landing. Now, what do I attribute this to? Poor "proprioception" I believe is the word. It is the unconscious placement of your body, joint and muscles during athletic activity to always "be in the right positions". Mind you I've done a few successful sessions at my practice MX track and been just fine over many more technical or larger jumps, thus leading me to believe I was ready to race. So what was different? It was a race and I was nervous. When I am at the pratice track I probably have lots of time to concentrate on doing things "right". So my point is do not underestimate practice. I didn't belong at the race that night because although I was doing the "type"of obstacles successfully in practice, they wern't "habit" yet to my body. You never know when you will need that practice, that subconscious ability of your "muscle memory" to just do the right things at the right time. So don't rush into things when riding, be sure to get plenty of practice, truly be ready. A race can totally change your mind set and you won't be focused in the same way you might be during practice.

Cheers to everyone, and I'll be posting after ( both ) of my upcoming knee surgeries.
 
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