I'll go ahead and field this one. Without knowing too much about the
athlete(aside from the fact that his knees are caving in as you
mentioned), I would bet that this athlete doesn't have an extensive
history of weight training, in general, and has pretty much prepared
for sport thus far by playing his sport. Moreover, you can validate
this for the forum if you wish, but this is going to be more apparent
in athletes who are neuro-rate and/or elastic-movement inclined.
This means that he/she is definitely NOT the type of athlete that
will be harped on by the coach to stop "muscling" his way through a
given movement- meaning, one of his better sporting assets is his
relative explosiveness. Now, to really go out on a limb, I would
suspect that this is a basketball player that you are referencing-
but it should be noted that even neuro-rate dominant powerlifters can
and will experience this problem. This is also a case that is more
evident in athletes with greater contraction rate ability; time his
rep speed versus a more muscular and/or stronger athlete and you will
find that, generally speaking, he opts to move at a greater rate per
rep with synonymous relative training percents than his peers
(especially if the athletes compared are of different sports).
Now, before I lead you into thinking that the cures for this symptom
are sport specific(even though the symptoms commonly are resultant
from such), I will help you fix this faulty function quickly and
easily. In other words, I WILL NOT mask the symptom with a bunch of
hoopla but, rather, I will focus the following content on the actual
heart of the problem.
Depending upon what fits best into the training complex that you have
assigned this athlete, select one or multiple options from the
following list:
(1) Miometric Squats: these are, essentially, positive-stroke-only
squats( "concentrics" and/or "isokinetics" are suitable). Overcoming
inertial resistance is a great way to reap gains as you re-program
faulty functions such as this. The reasoning; the athlete can no
longer rely on "stretch-reflex" mechanisms to move the weight, which
forces him to actually use the elastic constituents as stabilizers
and the frictional units(muscle fiber content) as the prime movers
(note: NOT ALL movements are the result of the limbs being pulled
into place via "cross-bridge" action, sometimes this action is
supportive in nature- but that is quite a conversation all unto
itself).
(2) Oscillatory-Isometric Hip Flexion Squats: these are performed by
elevating the hind leg into a stretched hip flexors position, with
the fore leg settled on the ground. There are a GREAT number of
variations to this general exercise prescription, but you will most
likely achieve your goal by placing the shin of the fore leg in a
perpendicular position(in relationship to the ground). This movement
will be loaded, and it follows a very critical series of events to
reap the benefits of oscillatory action. First, regardless of the
load implemented, the athlete should flex his way to achieve as much
tension as possible. Next, the athlete will then completely switch
gears and go from peak voluntary tension achievement to a condition
of peak voluntary tension alleviation. This means that the working
musculature must be demanded to relax as quickly and as completely as
possible. Of course, this relaxation period will cause the body/load
to fall briefly(thanks to the pull of gravity) BUT the distance/time
of this "free-fall" period will be decreased as the specific
neurodynamic proficiency of the athlete increases. In other words,
it will take a novice and/or poorly conditioned athlete longer to
switch from a high level of tension to a high level of relaxation
(neurodynamics efficiency deficit) than a more "mastered" athlete.
As probably already assumed, you will indeed follow up this
relaxation period with a reactive(reflexive firing) contraction and
then gain a stable tension condition, again, before going on to
another repetition. The purpose: the teach this athlete how to
connect sub-structural functions with structural functions. In other
words, not only will he "strengthen" his hips(which will help to
stabilize the knee position in the squat indirectly) but he will
balance out what is known as the "static-spring" effect(the harmonic
relationship between elastic constituent contribution and
participation with frictional unit function and activity in dynamic
conditions).
(3) Bring the squat stance in! If you get wider than the functional
flexibility limits of the hip adductors then your knees will always
collapse.
(4) Strengthen the hip extensors! Do you have access to a "reverse
hyper"(RBR) device? If so, brush off the dust and put it to work.
Not only should you allow the athlete to externally rotate his feet
(actually the action will come from the hips, so his knees should
turn out as well) but you should strongly encourage it!
(5) Isometric Squats: have the athlete take the weight from the rack
as usual, lower the weight to the desired depth and then hold for the
desired time frame. The faulty function that you speak of is
actually lost (a) during the pliometric(eccentric) and (b) the
isometric(which, no matter of how brief, still exists) prior to the
miometric(concentric); even though the "technique breakdown" usually
only becomes visually ostensible during the miometric(concentric)
(note: this is important to understand!).
If you are still unable to escape this injury precursor, known
as "poor form", let me know. But to narrow the search of what's
needed, please provide as much information about the specific athlete
in question as possible so that I don't send you a bunch of unrelated
cures. Thanks.
Dietrich Buchenholz
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