Quad flexors

It is a cause of doing power liffts without focussing on training the flexor with lunges and what not.

Quads- flex the hip and extend the lower leg
Hamstrings- extend the hip and flex the lower leg

Generally, if a kid has pulled his quads, it's because he hasn't trained them very well throughout the offseason. The quads are massively powerful muscles; it takes quite a bit to pull them.

We are seeing the same thing; kids coming in to camp in very poor shape. They've got weak hip and thigh muscles that get torn up with football related movements. Even simple dynamic stretches (after a warm-up) are leaving these kids beat up and sore..

exactly.

Do you mean hip flexor? What kind of trainer do you have?

Everyone should have strained something or another the first week of practice...but it won't preclude them from full participation.

You are dealing with kids that are out for football for various reasons. The mere presence of an ATC will create 'injuries' among the kids that may be looking for an out. I have some pretty funny stories of times when I fed kids with bogus symptoms....which amazingly showed up in an eval.

High school ATC's are a bit hamstringed because the kids are minors and have parents that usually get all worked up over the smallest ache. By the nature of that level, you have to be conservative. And heaven forbid the kid goes to a GP with 2 weeks of orthopedic training that is ultra conservative....in that case what the physician says goes. I'm way too aggressive with evals and rehab to work at that level.

As coaches, one tip that I have seen to be pretty effective is to make sure everyone on the field has the same demeanor. Keep the same approach with the kids....don't have the ATC be the friendly buddie to everyone that kids want to be with and all the coaches act like unapproachable hard asses. Also, any ATC worth a damn will give the injured kids a tough, undesirable workout which should quickly weed out the fakers/{censored} or kids that want a label for their normal aches and pains of football.