Preventive exercise in sports.

Sports injuries are common and can result in significant problems, such as pain, social isolation, depression, disability (temporary or permanent), loss of income, or loss of scholarship. Further, sports injuries can predispose the athlete to future injury or degenerative disorders, for example, osteoarthritis. Therefore, a preventive approach is paramount, and exercise can be used as an effective tool to prevent sports-related injuries. This article describes the process by which successful injury prevention programs can be developed and implemented by using noncontact anterior cruciate ligament injury programs as an example. The knowledge gained from this information can be used in the future to assist in the creation of new injury prevention programs for other common sports injuries.