Question
What interventions would you do with someone with a faulty jump that collapses inward?
Answer
That can be a number of things. You can see the faulty landing and it can be weakness, motor control, pain, or a lot of different things. Any time I see anything that does not look normal, my next piece is why. My first thought is going to be proximal weakness. Is there glut max weakness? Is there glut med weakness that will prevent her ability to control the femoral position when lands? I would test gluteus medius and gluteus maximus and if they are weak, then I would look at integrating that into a strength program. I will also look at hip flexor flexibility. If people have limitations in hip extension because of hip flexor tightness, I think that can often play a role in making it more challenging for people to get into the position of hip extension to actually isolate gluteus medius. When we are doing abduction exercises in a neutral or flexed position, we tend to get more TFL. When you get into a little bit more extension, you get more gluteus medius. That is an area that many female athletes that I see may have been doing the right exercises, so to speak, but maybe not with the best form. In that way, they are not getting gluteus medius as well as they need to or could. I think you also need to look at ankle dorsiflexion. When we land, we need ankle dorsiflexion to happen, if it is not there, the compensation may be to pronate and that is going to create valgus at the knee as well. If there is pain or if there is swelling, some of what you are seeing may be almost like apprehension. I look at all of those things and probably the order in which I mentioned them, is what I see most often, especially in women. It is typically going to be proximal weakness followed by restrictions in mobility distally. Then typically if you have someone who does have pain or something else that is happening, getting a sense of why that is or maybe it is not appropriate for them to doing any jumping in the first place. It is important to look at, not just identifying what is not normal and then standing in front of that girl saying, “Don’t let your knee drop in. Don’t let your knee drop in.” She may not have the ability to control it because she is not strong enough. I think we need to tease that out and then modify the program so she can have the foundational strength or mobility to be successful.
