Daily Mobility Exercises by Dr. Kelly Starrett › Forums › General › How does a non-contact knee injury happen?

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    • 07/17/2015 at 4:16 pm #71412
      AvatarKaren Santamaria
      Participant

      So here’s something that has really been bothering me for a month now: One of our athletes was playing basketball and blew out his knee on a normal stopping motion (I was playing with him and saw it happen). ACL, Meniscus, and I think MCL went as well. But here’s the thing, he has been training with us for four years and since Summer 2013, we have been very emphatic on his landing position. His feet are always perfectly straight but his knees click in pretty bad. We usually get him for four months out of the year due to him being away at college and during that time, we block movement with jumping nearly 100% of the time. We make sure his knees don’t budge during squats or pistols (which he is good at both). It’s just the double unders/box jumps we notice it on. Before he injured himself, I would say that he had definitely not fixed it completely, but improved a lot compared to where he used to be.

      Anyway, I was wondering how injuries like that happen? Does you ACL slowly wear away over time until it breaks? Or does it just up and pop one day? And, how is it still possible for the ACL to tear when his feet never turn out – to me, it would seem like an MCL kind of thing? I obviously feel terrible about his injury, being his coach and all, and just want to know more about it.
      Sorry if I threw a million questions at you!
    • 07/19/2015 at 5:07 pm #76107
      AvatarAnonymous
      Guest

      He reached the tolerance level of his tissue.
      Yes, correcting the issue was happening, however the cumulative effect of improper movement patterns over the years adds up. It wasn’t the one stopping motion that caused the injury.
      Understandable you feel terrible about the injury.
      Helping him through the rehab period and rebuilding proper movement patterns will help correct and prevent the situation from recurring.

    • 07/20/2015 at 3:40 pm #76108
      AvatarKaren Santamaria
      Participant

      Thank you Kaitlin. Can you explain a little bit about the tolerance level of tissues so I can have a picture about what was happening in his knee? So if, hypothetically, you take a five year old child and they land with their knees in from one jump, does that stretch the ACL in a certain way, though not tearing it? Then if it becomes a habit it will keep stretching and straining it? If that’s the case, would that also mean that his next bad landing – regardless of time frame – would cause this to happen?

      Again, sorry for all the questions. It helps me explain it to other people.
    • 07/24/2015 at 2:55 pm #76115
      AvatarAnonymous
      Guest

      Tissues have a tolerance for silliness (poor mechanics, improper movement patterns etc).
      You can buffer anything for a time until you can’t anymore.
      No warning just game over. I know Kelly has talked about it. Possibly on an old CF Journal video.
      It is addressed in the Movement & Mobility Seminar.

      All of the small deviations add up and yes it can be something seemingly “small” that puts it over the edge.
      However, its not that one occurrence its the cumulative impact that wears the tissue down.

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