What do you think the biggest mistakes athletes are making in their ACL rehab?

And how do they stay away from them?

Okay.

I would say,

We may laugh, we may learn, we might be.

What's up, guys, and welcome back to the Soccer Girl Pod.

Today we're joined by Kate Sneddon, a physical therapist who specialized in ACL recovery. This is a conversation that especially hits close to home for me. I tore my ACL and I know firsthand how overwhelming and isolating that journey can be, especially at a young age. So we talked to Kate about how young players can navigate such a tough injury,

the mental and physical obstacles that come with ACL recovery, and the best ways to approach her comeback with confidence, with patience that can be very challenging, and the right support

system. So if you're dealing with an ACL injury yourself or you're supporting a teammate, a friend,

or family member that is, this episode is for you.

So can you just give our listeners just a brief career background?

Yeah. So my name is Kate. I'm the founder and head coach of the Helios ACL project.

I've been a sports physical therapist for six years. I've been an ACL coach specifically for two of the last year.

So now I only work with people who have had ACL injuries regardless of the sport.

And it's really been an awesome ride.

So started out in like a traditional sports clinic, seeing like a bunch of athletes an hour.

And it was great experience. Got to work with some pros. And, you know, I, I loved the in-person work. Then I kind of switched my role to like a more classic outpatient setting where you kind of see moms, pops, grandma's athletes all alike, which was awesome. But I was like, I love working with

athletes. And, you know, people that have suffered an ACL injury are just like wildly

underserved. So that's kind of how the Helios ACL project was born with a hopes to help

athletes actually have an opportunity and the resources

to come back better, which is kind of my little tagline.

What do you think is the hardest part of your job? And what's the best part?

...