VALD Technology
Objective Measurement in Rehabilitation: Using VALD Technology to Help with ACL and Achilles Recovery
The change from subjective guesswork to objective measurement in sports medicine and rehabilitation has been nothing short of revolutionary. For athletes who are recovering from tears in their anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) or ruptures in their Achilles tendon, the difference between getting back to their pre-injury level of performance and not being able to do so is often how well the rehabilitation process is done.
VALD Health, an Australian company that thousands of top organisations around the world trust, has become the world's top provider of objective measurement tools that change how health and performance professionals deal with these difficult injuries. ForceDecks dual force plate systems and the DynaMo handheld dynamometer are two of the most important products in the VALD ecosystem. They both let you make real-time, data-informed decisions that weren't possible in most clinical settings before.
Why Objective Measurement Matters in Lower-Limb Rehabilitation
For a long time, traditional rehab after ACL reconstruction or Achilles repair has used time-based protocols and subjective tests like "how does it feel?" or manual muscle testing. These methods can give experienced health and performance professionals useful information, but they aren't accurate or reliable enough for elite sports. VALD technology makes everything different by allowing for objective measurement. VALD systems help doctors find problems that the naked eye can't see by getting exact strength, power, and asymmetry data. Because it directly relates to a lower risk of re-injury and faster safe return-to-performance timelines, Premier League clubs, NRL and AFL franchises, NBA teams, and military special forces have all started using this data-driven method. The fact that it is trusted by thousands says a lot about its effectiveness.
ForceDecks: The Gold Standard
Dual Force Plate System
ForceDecks is the dual force plate system at the centre of the VALD technology suite. It is now known as the standard for high-performance testing in sports science. Single-plate systems can only guess at the movement of the centre of mass, but the dual-force plate design of ForceDecks gives real bilateral analysis during countermovement jumps, squat assessments, isometric mid-thigh pulls, and landing tasks. For an athlete who has had ACL surgery six months ago, this means that the VALD system can show a 15% limb symmetry deficit right away. This is something that might not be noticed until the athlete tries cutting drills and feels unstable. The VALD service is quick, with results showing up in seconds. This means that performance professionals can change the load on the same day instead of waiting weeks for a re-assessment.
DynaMo: Portable Objective
Strength Measurement
Integrating VALD Technology
into Clinical Workflows
One of the best things about VALD Health solutions is how easily the technology works with existing clinical and performance workflows. ForceDecks, DynaMo, NordBord, and HumanTrak all send data to a single cloud-based VALD Hub. This lets health and performance professionals see long-term progress at a glance. A Premier League physiotherapist can easily see if the rehabilitation programme is closing the gap by comparing today's squat jump asymmetry with test results from three months ago. This unified system gets rid of the separate departments that used to be there for physiotherapy, strength and conditioning, and science for sport.
From Data to Success with Clients
in the Real World
Client success is the best proof of any technology, and VALD systems have done amazing things all over the world. A professional Australian rugby league player who had a complete Achilles rupture was able to return to contact training just 24 weeks after surgery because weekly DynaMo testing showed symmetrical plantar-flexion strength sooner than traditional time-based protocols would have allowed. In the same way, several Premier League soccer players have said that ForceDecks data-informed decisions helped them return to play months sooner after an ACL injury without re-rupturing, which was thought to be unavoidable in elite soccer.
These stories are not strange. Health and performance professionals can push progress when the data supports it and pull back when small differences persist, because VALD technology provides objective measurements rather than educated guesses. As a result, athletes can get back to sports faster and more safely, and the "second-season syndrome" that has affected so many ACL patients in the past has dropped dramatically.
Why VALD is Better: The Science Behind It
VALD is dedicated to sports science, as shown by its ongoing work with top researchers and institutions. The British Journal of Sports Medicine and the Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy often publish articles that use VALD products as the best means of measurement in high-quality musculoskeletal research. The company's normative data sets keep getting bigger as they test thousands of elite athletes. This means that every VALD user has access to benchmarks that aren't available anywhere else. When a physiotherapist in Perth or Manchester does a countermovement jump on ForceDecks, they are instantly comparing their patient to the same reference values that the best clubs in the world use based on insights into performance.
Future Directions: Expanding Objective Measurement
The future of objective measurement in rehabilitation looks even better as VALD Health keeps coming up with new ideas. Existing VALD systems already receive over-the-air updates that add new ways to track the rate of force development, the eccentric utilisation ratio, and dynamic control. This means that tomorrow's rehabilitation programmes for people with ACL and Achilles injuries will be even more tailored to each person. Performance data will guide every decision, from early post-operative protection to final clearance to return to competition.
Precision Rehabilitation Has Arrived
You don't have to guess when an athlete is ready to return after an ACL reconstruction or Achilles repair anymore. Thanks to VALD technology, like ForceDecks, DynaMo, and the larger VALD Health ecosystem, health and performance professionals now have the tools they need to make decisions based on real data. In elite sports, objective measurement has gone from being a goal to being an expectation. The results speak for themselves: athletes recover faster, have fewer injuries, and return to the field at the same level of dominance they had before.
The message is clear for any clinic, club, or performance centre that still uses stopwatches, manual muscle testing, and hope. The best organisations in the world, like Premier League teams, national sports institutes, and special operations forces, have already switched to VALD systems. Objective measurement is no longer an option in modern rehabilitation; it is the standard. VALD is still the best company at providing it.
