| Course | D634 Health Sciences Capstone |
|---|---|
| Task | Task 3 |
| Paper type | Research-based solution proposal |
| Length | About 1,000 words, 3 pages |
| Format | APA 7 |
| School | Western Governors University (WGU) |
| Program | BS Health Science |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for D634 Task 3
Fifteen Minutes That Replace the Lap and the Stretch: A Research-Based Proposal for a Coach-Led Neuromuscular Warm-Up in a Composite School District's Girls' Soccer and Basketball Programs
Student Name
Leavitt School of Health, Western Governors University
D634: Health Sciences Capstone, Task 3
Course Instructor
Month Day, Year
Fifteen Minutes That Replace the Lap and the Stretch: A Research-Based Proposal for a Coach-Led Neuromuscular Warm-Up in a Composite School District's Girls' Soccer and Basketball Programs
The Problem and the Proposed Solution
Cedar Valley School District's four high schools recorded 11 anterior cruciate ligament injuries among girls in soccer and basketball over three school years, nearly four times the number among boys in the same sports. Research shows that female athletes in these sports are injured at roughly triple the per-exposure rate seen in boys (Montalvo et al., 2019), and that the consequences can include osteoarthritis in young adulthood.
This capstone proposes that the district adopt a standardized, coach-led neuromuscular training warm-up for all girls' soccer and basketball teams, from freshman through varsity, beginning next school year. The warm-up would take about 15 minutes, replace the teams' current warm-ups rather than add to practice time, and be delivered at least three times a week throughout the preseason and season. Coaches would receive in-person training, and compliance and injuries would be tracked every season.
How the Solution Follows From the Evidence
Each part of the proposal answers a finding from the literature review. The warm-up itself is justified by evidence that structured training programs cut the odds of any tear roughly in half and the odds of a noncontact tear in girls by about two-thirds (Webster & Hewett, 2018). The program model is a structured warm-up of running, strength, plyometric and balance exercises like the one tested among 1,892 adolescent female soccer players, which reduced severe injuries and injuries overall (Soligard et al., 2008); that program is freely available, and similar versions exist for basketball.
The requirement of at least three sessions a week, with tracking, answers the finding that injury rates are much lower when compliance is high (Sugimoto et al., 2012). The in-person coach training answers the finding that coaches who attend a workshop are more likely to finish every exercise in the routine and to correct athletes' technique than those who receive only printed materials (Ling et al., 2022). Replacing the existing warm-up addresses the most common objection coaches raise, lack of practice time.
Implementation Plan
Spring, planning: The capstone author will present the proposal to the district athletic director, the four athletic trainers and head coaches of girls' soccer and basketball. With the athletic director's approval, the district will form a small working group of one athletic trainer, one coach from each sport and a parent representative.
Summer, preparation: The working group will adapt the program into two versions, one for soccer and one for basketball, each with a one-page exercise card and short videos showing correct and incorrect technique. The district's athletic trainers will be trained as program leads.
August, coach training: Before preseason, every head and assistant coach of girls' soccer and basketball will attend a 90-minute in-person workshop led by the athletic trainers. Coaches will practice the exercises themselves, learn the most common technique errors, especially knees collapsing inward on landing, and practice giving cues such as land soft, knees over toes. Team captains will also attend so they can lead the warm-up when coaches are busy.
Season, delivery and support: Teams will perform the warm-up at every practice, with an abbreviated version before games. Athletic trainers will observe each team at least twice a month, provide feedback and log whether the full program was completed. A short midseason refresher will be held for coaches.
End of season, review: The working group will review compliance and injury data, gather coach and athlete feedback and revise the program before the next season.
Barriers and Responses
Time: coaches may resist anything that takes practice time. The warm-up replaces the existing lap and static stretching, so net time is unchanged. Buy-in: coaches and athletes may doubt the program's value or find it boring. The workshop will present the evidence and local injury data, invite a former Cedar Valley athlete who tore her ligament to speak, and include progressions that make the exercises more challenging as the season goes on. Turnover: new coaches arrive every year, so training will be part of the district's coaching onboarding. Drift: programs tend to shrink over a season, which is why athletic trainers will observe and log sessions. Schools with less support: one high school shares its athletic trainer with a middle school; captains trained to lead the warm-up will help there.
Resources
The program is inexpensive. It requires no equipment beyond cones already owned by teams. Costs include about 20 hours of athletic trainer time in the summer to prepare materials, a 90-minute paid workshop for about 24 coaches, printing and time for observation during the season, which athletic trainers can combine with existing practice coverage. The estimated first-year cost is under $4,000, far less than the cost of a single reconstruction and rehabilitation.
Evaluation
The evaluation will measure three things. Compliance: the percentage of practices at which the full warm-up was completed, with a target of at least 80%, recorded by coaches and verified by athletic trainer observation. Coach adoption: the percentage of coaches completing training and delivering the program with technique cues. Injuries: anterior cruciate ligament injuries per 1,000 athlete exposures among girls in both sports, compared with the three years before the program, along with other lower extremity injuries. Because the numbers in one district are small, the district should expect to evaluate injury trends over three to five seasons and should interpret a single season's results cautiously. Compliance data will allow the district to compare injury rates between high-compliance and low-compliance teams, as the research did.
Conclusion
The literature shows that neuromuscular warm-ups can halve anterior cruciate ligament injuries, but only when athletes do them consistently. This proposal therefore puts as much effort into coaches as into exercises: in-person training, a warm-up that fits into existing practice time, captains who can lead it, and regular observation and feedback. Implemented and evaluated this way, it offers Cedar Valley a low-cost, evidence-based way to protect its athletes' knees now and in the decades after they stop playing.
References
Ling, D. I., Boyle, C., Schneider, B., Janosky, J., Kinderknecht, J., & Marx, R. G. (2022). Coach education improves adherence to anterior cruciate ligament injury prevention programs: A cluster-randomized controlled trial. Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, 32(4), 348-354. https://doi.org/10.1097/JSM.0000000000000936
Montalvo, A. M., Schneider, D. K., Webster, K. E., Yut, L., Galloway, M. T., Heidt, R. S., Kaeding, C. C., Kremcheck, T. E., Magnussen, R. A., Parikh, S. N., Stanfield, D. T., Wall, E. J., & Myer, G. D. (2019). Anterior cruciate ligament injury risk in sport: A systematic review and meta-analysis of injury incidence by sex and sport classification. Journal of Athletic Training, 54(5), 472-482. https://doi.org/10.4085/1062-6050-407-16
Soligard, T., Myklebust, G., Steffen, K., Holme, I., Silvers, H., Bizzini, M., Junge, A., Dvorak, J., Bahr, R., & Andersen, T. E. (2008). Comprehensive warm-up programme to prevent injuries in young female footballers: Cluster randomised controlled trial. BMJ, 337, a2469. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.a2469
Sugimoto, D., Myer, G. D., Bush, H. M., Klugman, M. F., McKeon, J. M. M., & Hewett, T. E. (2012). Compliance with neuromuscular training and anterior cruciate ligament injury risk reduction in female athletes: A meta-analysis. Journal of Athletic Training, 47(6), 714-723. https://doi.org/10.4085/1062-6050-47.6.10
Webster, K. E., & Hewett, T. E. (2018). Meta-analysis of meta-analyses of anterior cruciate ligament injury reduction training programs. Journal of Orthopaedic Research, 36(10), 2696-2708. https://doi.org/10.1002/jor.24043
What the D634 Task 3 instructions ask
The third D634 task asks you to propose a solution to the capstone problem based on your literature review. Expect to set out the problem and solution, explain how the solution follows from the evidence, give an implementation plan, identify barriers and resources and describe evaluation. A district should be able to adopt it without new funding. Evaluators look for a solution that applies the strongest findings from Task 2, an implementation plan with steps, people and timing, barriers answered with specific responses and an evaluation that measures whether the solution was delivered and whether it worked. Many versions also ask who will lead the solution after the capstone ends.
How this D634 Task 3 example is built
The proposal opens with the district's injury data and the proposed warm-up. A section links each part of the solution to a finding, such as compliance determining effectiveness. The implementation plan runs from spring planning through the fall and winter seasons, naming who does what. Barriers, including time, coach buy-in and turnover, each have responses. The resources section shows that costs are low, mostly athletic trainer time. Evaluation measures compliance at each practice, injury rates per athlete exposure and coach feedback, with targets. The conclusion restates that the warm-up works only when teams do it, so the plan centers on consistency.
Where the D634 Task 3 rubric puts the marks
D634 Task 3 aspects are scored competent, approaching competence or not evident. A problem and solution aspect checks that both are clear. An evidence aspect rewards a solution that follows from the literature review. An implementation aspect looks for steps, roles and timing. A barriers aspect wants specific obstacles with responses. A resources aspect asks what is needed and at what cost. An evaluation aspect looks for measures of delivery and outcome with targets. Evaluators notice when the solution addresses the gap found in the review, and they expect sources from Task 2 to be cited where they justify choices. Proposals that show the solution fits within existing practice time tend to satisfy the feasibility concerns evaluators raise.
D634 Task 3 help: what sends it back
Solution proposals come back most often when the solution does not follow from the review. Link each part to a finding. Second, implementation is vague, such as coaches will be trained. Name who trains them, when and how. Third, barriers are listed without responses. Fourth, evaluation measures only injuries, which are rare and slow to change. Add compliance and process measures. Finally, keep costs realistic and specific, since a proposal a district could adopt next season is more persuasive than an ideal program with no budget. Name the person who will keep the program running next season. Pilot the warm-up with one team before rolling it out to all four schools, if the timeline allows.
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D634 Task 3 questions, answered
Must D634 Task 3 include costs?
Most versions ask about resources, and a short cost estimate strengthens the proposal. The sample shows the warm-up needs little beyond athletic trainer time and existing equipment.
How is D634 Task 3 success measured?
By whether the solution was delivered and whether it worked. The sample tracks warm-up completion at each practice, injury rates and coach feedback against targets.
How does D634 Task 3 connect to Task 2?
Each part of the solution should answer a finding from the literature review. The sample centers its plan on compliance because the review showed effectiveness depends on it.
Is the D634 warm-up program in the sample real?
The warm-up follows the type of neuromuscular program tested in published trials, while the district and its injury counts are hypothetical. Coaches can adapt similar published warm-ups to their sport.
Where can I find a free D634 Task 3 sample paper?
The complete solution proposal is reproduced above with comments. Share your D634 task and review findings, and your first tailored proposal is written free. The desk can match the plan to your sport and school.