Below is an elite-level high jumper (Janick Klausen) in slow motion displaying quality movement mechanics for jumping backward. The knee of the plant leg goes inwards as the knee goes into valgus and the hip internally rotates, the arch collapses, ankle pronates, and the heel goes inward as the hip externally rotates after takeoff. He accomplishes these mechanics with inside edge/big toe side foot pressure.
Below are videos of Michael Jordan displaying quality movement mechanics for jumping forward off of one leg. The knee of the plant leg goes outwards as the knee goes into a genu varum (bowed position) and the hip externally rotates, the arch does not collapse, the ankle supinates, and the heel goes outward as the hip internally rotates after takeoff. He accomplishes these mechanics with outside edge/pinky toe side foot pressure.
The two different athletes have mechanics for jumping that are the opposite of each other. Which elite athlete is wrong? The answer is neither due to the direction that each athlete is jumping. MJ and the high jumper use the proper mechanics for the task.
The problems arise, however, when trainees use the backward high jumper movement mechanics to move forward during lifting, walking, running, landing, or jumping. Many commonly used exercises are unknowingly causative in ingraining the wrong movement software into trainees and athletes’ nervous systems. Non-contact lower extremity injuries, gradual wear and tear of connective tissues, pains of various types, and the need for hip and/or knee replacements happen as a result.
The arch shouldn’t collapse, the ankle shouldn’t pronate, the knee shouldn’t go in to out, and the heel shouldn’t flick inward on release to move in any direction other than backwards. Jordan, a high-level, injury-resistant athlete, shows us how to move forward properly — the ankle remains in supination without arch collapse during ground contact, the knee moves out to in, and the heel goes away on release.
Some of the so-called best exercises for athletic and muscular development are overwriting the forward software learned from birth and writing in the reverse movement code. Future blogs will expand on how one or more components of the backward-moving software is synonymous with injury in the non-high jumping training population.
