The first few weeks of fall sports bring a predictable spike in injuries. Here’s what we see most often — and how to catch problems before they cost an athlete a season.
Fall sports season in Spartanburg means football under Friday night lights, soccer and volleyball practices stacking up after school, and cross country runners logging miles in the August heat. It also means our clinic gets busier in a very predictable way.
The first 4 to 6 weeks of a season bring a spike in injuries we see year after year. As a physical therapy Spartanburg SC families trust for sports care, we want to walk you through the 3 injuries that show up most often, and more importantly, how to catch them before they cost your athlete a season.
The 3 Injuries We See Most This Time of Year
Hamstring Strains in Sprinting Sports
Why it happens: The hamstring muscles on the back of your thigh work hardest during high-speed sprinting, especially the moment your foot is about to strike the ground. After a summer of lower activity, most athletes haven’t sprinted at full speed in weeks. Asking those muscles to suddenly fire at max effort during a scrimmage or sprint drill is where strains happen.
Early warning signs: A tight, achy feeling in the back of the thigh after practice that wasn’t there before. Tightness that doesn’t loosen up with the usual warm-up. A subtle drop in top speed or stride length that a coach or parent might notice before the athlete says anything.
What we do about it: We look at hamstring strength relative to the quadriceps on the front of the thigh, check for side-to-side differences, and build a short sprint-specific loading progression so the muscle is prepared for max-speed work before it’s asked to perform it in a game.
Knee Overload: ACL and Patellar Tendon Issues
Why it happens: Cutting, jumping, and landing sports like soccer, volleyball, and football put repeated load through the knee. The ACL (a ligament that stabilizes the knee) and the patellar tendon (which connects the kneecap to the shin) can both become overloaded when an athlete’s landing mechanics are off, or when jumping and cutting volume increases faster than the tissue can adapt.
Early warning signs: Knee soreness that shows up specifically after jumping or cutting drills. A knee that feels “loose” or gives a sense of instability when changing direction. Pain right at the bottom of the kneecap that’s worse going down stairs.
What we do about it: We assess how an athlete lands from a jump, look for asymmetries between the left and right leg, and build strength and landing mechanics work into their training so the joint can tolerate the demands of the sport.
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Overuse Injuries in Youth Athletes Playing One Sport Year-Round
Why it happens: A lot of Upstate SC youth athletes play a single sport 10, 11, even 12 months a year with no real offseason. The same muscles, joints, and growth plates get the same repetitive stress with no recovery window. Add a fall season on top of a summer of travel ball or club season, and something eventually gives.
Early warning signs: Pain that shows up at the same point in every practice and gradually gets worse over weeks instead of resolving. Pain localized to a growth plate area in younger athletes (common spots: the front of the shin, the heel, or the front of the knee). An athlete who starts avoiding certain movements without necessarily complaining out loud.
What we do about it: We look at the athlete’s full training picture, not just the painful area, and build in the strength work and structured recovery that a single-sport schedule usually skips.
Most Fall Injuries Aren’t Bad Luck. They’re a Dosing Problem.
Here’s the piece that gets missed the most: the majority of fall sports injuries aren’t random. They’re a dosing problem, meaning too much training load gets added too fast after a lower-volume summer.
Think of it like acute vs. chronic workload. Your acute load is what your body did this past week. Your chronic load is the average of what it’s done over the past several weeks. When the acute load spikes way above the chronic load, injury risk goes up. When the two stay close together, the body has had time to adapt.
Load added too fast is often the problem.
Build capacity before asking the body to perform at full speed.
A useful rule of thumb: increase weekly training volume by roughly 10% at a time, not 30-40% in one week because two-a-days just started. Recovery counts as part of the dose too. Sleep and rest days aren’t the absence of training, they’re the part of the plan where the body actually adapts to the work you just did.
This is also why “push through it” backfires so often. A minor niggle that gets ignored for two more weeks of full-intensity training doesn’t stay minor. It turns into the injury that sidelines an athlete for 6 weeks instead of the tweak that would have resolved in a few days with a light adjustment.
A Bad Week vs. a Smart Week for the Same Athlete
| Day | Poorly Dosed Week | Well Dosed Week |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Full-speed conditioning after 2 weeks off | Moderate-intensity practice, shorter sprint volume |
| Tuesday | Two-a-day practice, no rest day this week | Regular practice + 20 min mobility/strength work |
| Wednesday | Scrimmage at full intensity | Regular practice |
| Thursday | Full practice despite reported soreness | Modified intensity, sore area addressed early |
| Friday | Game day, tired legs from the week’s volume | Game day, legs relatively fresh |
| Weekend | Extra travel tournament added on top | Full rest or light active recovery |
| Result | Acute load far exceeds chronic load, injury risk climbs | Acute load stays close to chronic load, body adapts |
How VALD Testing Takes the Guesswork Out
Most of what we just described has traditionally been managed by feel: how sore does the athlete say they are, how does the coach think they’re moving. We use objective testing instead, through VALD ForceDecks (dual force plates the athlete jumps on) and the VALD DynaMo (a handheld device that measures muscle strength).
Here’s what that actually gives us:
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- Countermovement jump testing: The athlete performs a jump on the force plates, and we get objective data on power output and signs of fatigue, not just “how high did they jump.”
- Left-vs-right asymmetry: The force plates show us if one leg is producing meaningfully less force than the other. An asymmetry above roughly 10-15% is a flag worth addressing with targeted strength work, since it’s a modifiable risk factor.
- Hamstring and quad strength ratios: The DynaMo gives us objective strength numbers instead of a subjective manual test, so we know exactly where an athlete stands.
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