I guess the Gray Lady really has decided that women's sports matter: this Sunday's New York Times magazine cover story is all about girls, women, and ACL tears.

Michael Sokolove (and his editors) boiled the NYT mag article down from a new book about girls' and women's sports injuries, addressed primarily to young athletes' parents.

Why are there so many ACL tears? Will there be more? (Yes, there will.) Is it related to physiological differences between teen boys and teen girls? (In part.) Can coaches and parents do anything about it, especially at the high school level? (Yes, within limits: read the article.)

If you get most of the way through, you'll see blame laid: not on sex differences between meniscuses (though those play a role) but on overspecialization, too-frequent play, and year-round play in a single sport, in the teen years. Sounds familiar.

Sokolove: "The club structure is the driving force behind the trend toward early specialization in one sport — and, by extension, a primary cause of injuries."

If you've come here looking for more on ACL tears and women's hoops, the Times' own Jere Longman, who followed women's sports when the rest of that paper nearly ignored them, looked at the matter when Shea Ralph ended her career, back in 2001.

Brian McCormick, who thinks about such things all day, has his own practical advice for coaches, parents and players. (We'd love to know what he thought of the Times piece.)

Clay ruminated on ACL injuries in January, after UConn lost its second starter.

The WBCA has its own coverage of ACL-tear prevention programs; we hope to provide links to more such programs soon. (I'm pretty sure Helen has written about them somewhere, but I can't find the link yet!)

As for Sokolove's book, we'll be reviewing it (along with a few other women's hoops books) in this space sooner or later-- more likely later-- when we find the time.