Explaining Zion Williamson's movement retraining: Knee alignment, jumping/landing mechanics, & more

Dr. Rajpal Brar, DPT details New Orleans Pelicans rookie' Zion Williamson's extended rehab and movement retraining program, including how the team may have modified knee alignment (knee valgus), jumping and landing mechanics, running gait analysis, eccentric control and strength, and key factors when assessing carry-over of those new patterns into actual games.
If you’re only interested in certain sections, here’s the timestamp roadmap:
- 0:00, Intro
- 0:53, Clearing up a misconception
- 1:43, Reducing knee valgus
- 3:07, Jumping & landing mechanics
- 6:53, Running gait analysis
- 8:55, “Improving the brakes”
- 10:35, Assessing Zion’s changes
- 11:39, Final thoughts

[@colincunningham5820]

Found the vid from /r/nba. Great content and you got at least one new sub out of it! I had 2 lateral meniscus tears, one surgically repaired and the other I just rehabbed it and stayed in shape, so I'm always interested in learning more about knee mechanics and injuries.

[@3cbperformance]

Thanks for watching and feel free to shoot me any questions

[@ShinetheLightofTruth]

Doc, your detailed explanations are unparalleled. When I saw doctors for knee problems in my youth, the doc, may have shown me a model of the knee to explain my issue. I hope you can use your video's with your patients with similar injuries. Or at least they can go to your channel to get more info. I think your videos are invaluable! Much continued success for your efforts and professionalism.

[@3cbperformance]

Thanks for watching and for the kind words mate

[@justrecentlyi5444]

Absolutely fascinating insight, thank you very much for the video! I don't know if this is a consistent issue, but I found most of the section header texts being obstructed by the green lines a bit distracting. Not a big deal by any means, though, the information is what matters and it didn't prevent that from coming across overall.

[@3cbperformance]

Gotcha - that's the design of that animation but I'll find a cleaner one

[@justrecentlyi5444]

@@3cbperformance What's weird is that it works perfectly for your conclusion. Maybe your section header titles are longer than expected and that's causing it to glitch out a little?

[@3cbperformance]

JustRecently Ah good catch, assuming that has to be it then. Lemme know if any other improvements come to mind as well

[@unbroken6469]

In basketball the stride length can be very beneficial (eg. the euro step, post moves, and stepping over screens, etc.) where as smaller strides offer us more balance. Is there another way you can reduce the ground reaction force, and the energy absorption in the lower extremity, without giving up those extra inches?

[@3cbperformance]

Decreasing stride length doesn't mean you have to do it for everything, it's all about variability. For example, watch LeBron - really short stride while running but uses longer strides when needed.

[@BrianSuttererMD]

1:53 knee alignment shouldn't be evaluated in a spot like that photo and line overlay where no weight is even in that leg. I get what you're trying to say but it's important people watching don't look at non stance phase/landing/jumping in players and try to make judgment about knee valgus. Commonly people send photos of guys getting ready for jump shot and knee looks to be caving in, but in reality it's more the entire position and rotation of lower limb and not high risk knee valgus. Otherwise this is a good comprehensive overview!

[@3cbperformance]

Good catch and I was trying to find a better photo of valgus in weight-bearing on Getty but couldn't find one to my liking. I should have just gone with an eccentric step down test photo, point well taken. Further, to your point about the jumper knee valgus, exactly why I didn't include it...it could easily be LE rotation or compensatory rotation (especially for guys who like to twist their upper bodies a little bit like DLo for example)

[@kimchi2780]

Even watching Zion walk you can see he's going to suffer from lower body injuries frequently in his career. He's also very awkward and clumsy (though in control) while running, jumping, and landing from his jumps. He's always jump and landing off balance and when he runs he runs almost like he has pigeon toes. I think retraining jumping and landing more controlled is key but you can't change his body shape and his hips really seem to be the focal point of his issues.

[@rushpeeples5332]

Damn , feel like Derrick Rose needed this in his prime :(

[@3cbperformance]

Would’ve definitely helped. His current training is vastly different than when he was younger, all about control