Knees Are Casualties of Women's Sports  Knees Are Casualties of
Women's Sports    The chief movements that cause knee problems
in women are pivoting and landing from a jump, the AAOS says.
Anatomy of the problem   Since a woman has a wider pelvis, her
femur (thigh bone) descends into the knee at an inward angle.
A band of fibrous connective tissue called the anterior cruciate
ligament (ACL) passes through a "notch" in the lower end of the
thighbone that forms part of the knee. The ligament, one of
several that attach the upper and lower leg bones, is about the
same size for a woman as a man — but the notch is up to 20%
narrower in women. That makes the woman's ligament more
susceptible to tearing.  A woman's hamstring muscles, at the
back of the thigh, are often weak compared with her quadriceps,
the muscles at the front of the thigh. The quadriceps pull the
bones of the lower leg forward, and the hamstrings pull them
back. Hamstring muscles help protect the ACL from injury. When
the pulling power is out