Basketball Free For All

As I’m sure you remember, Greg Oden will once again miss the rest of the season due to another horrific injury.  This time he fractured his left knee cap.  First, it was a right knee injury in his rookie season that led to microfracture surgery.  Last year, he missed 15 games due to a bone chip in his left knee and 6 games to a foot sprain.  It’s no wonder Blazer fans are scared out of their minds as they’ve gone through big man troubles with Bill Walton and then Sam Bowie.  So what does the future hold for Greg Oden?  Specifically, can he take some precautions to significantly reduce the liklihood of injury?  On a broader note, is it feasible to eliminate the injury prone label from all NBA players?

To best determine the propensity of injury, we need to go beyond the simple misconceptions such as some players are simply more prevalent that others.  Consequently, we’re going to turn to everyone’s favorite subject – science!  Surprisingly, Newton’s Third Law of Motion is quite applicable in which every action there is an opposite and equal reaction.

The kinetic chain is made up of the muscular, skeletal, and nervous systems, which work together to allow optimum function.  If any component of the system is out of balance, it leads to a complex dysfunction.

Muscles work most efficiently in specific positions.  They have an ideal length-tension point or position from which they can produce the most force.  If a muscle is “stuck” in a lengthened or shortened position, then force production decreases.

Likewise, joints also function in an ideal position.  During movement, two joint surfaces roll, glide, or spin on one another.  The path of instantaneous center of rotation is the path that one joint takes on another during motion—think of the head of the humerus moving on the glenoid fossa of the scapula as you lift your arm over your head.

Muscles and joints have sensory receptors that are constantly sending proprioceptive feedback to the central nervous system.  When the muscles are the right length and the joints are moving correctly, the central nervous system receives the correct information to allow optimum performance.

However, if muscles are too short or too long, they change the position of the joints to which they attach.  Both muscle length and altered joint position change proprioception to the central nervous system.  This altered kinesthetic awareness leads to synergistic dominance, reciprocal inhibition, athrokinetic inhibition, and decreased flexibility.

Source:  Momentum Media

So in English, it would appear human bodies need to be in a lot of correct positions in order to minimize failure, and thus, injury.  So did Greg exhibit the correct positions?  Definitely not, according to one non-medical pain relief site, as Greg was in trouble even before he left the ground:

What’s cool is it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see postural imbalances.  When we look at Greg Oden and his history, things become very clear: he’s been told his right leg is longer than the left (if I was able to look at him, we’d probably see that it’s actually a hip disparity (hip elevation/tilt imbalance) that is causing the leg to appear longer when it’s really not), his feet turn out (evert), his right shoulder is lower than his left, and his knees do not line up with his ankles and hips.

Source:  EGOSCUE Portland

So one can surmise that Greg Oden has had to make a lot of compensations for the way his body is built when landing and jumping.  Can it really matter that much?  How about a resounding YES!

The knees are designed to point straight ahead in-line with your hips and ankles and vertically aligned one-on-top-of-the-other.  If your right foot turns out and your right knee turns in and your left side lines up the way it’s designed to, which knee do you think you are going to injure?  Yes, the right knee.  It’s just basic physics – all about forces, action-reaction, friction, and stress.  If joints line up correctly you easily distribute forces through the structures the way they are designed, the proper action-reaction in the bones and muscles occurs, and friction and stress on the body are minimal.  Joints don’t line up?  Hello friction, stress, pain and injury.  Misaligned joints are injuries waiting to happen.

Source:  EGOSCUE Portland

It has been proven that most basketball injuries occur in the second half, whether in the NBA or NCAA.  This tells us that repeated instances of physically harmful activity can add up and increase the likelihood of failure due to fatigue.  So really a rigorous NBA schedule of 82 games really only leaves the question of when.

What are athletes to do then?  There is no denying that Greg Oden has worked hard in his rehabbing after every injury.  Greg Oden has even done pilates to better condition his body.  However, considering his injury track record it appears to have been to no avail.  I posit that he’s simply not undertaken the correct steps of rehabilitation.

Muscles move bones. So it is a muscle imbalance issue.

Didn’t Greg Oden rehab his muscles after his last knee injury and surgery?

He got stronger, that’s for sure. But not in proper balance. The problem with the conventional approach is people think let’s just get in the weight room as get as strong as we can. Let’s get as fast as we can. Let’s get as flexible as we can. And we think that means he’s rehabbed.

Source:  EGOSCUE Portland

There are numerous tests and exercises that can be done.  For those interested, here is just one example:

Squat Jumps

Athlete will stand with feet shoulder width apart, spine neutral, eyes looking straight ahead with knee and hip joints flexed.  Hands are initially above the head to start a counter movement before the jump.  In a quick and controlled movement, the athlete will drive the arms down along the body and perform a squat.  When the athlete has reached parallel in their squat, they will rapidly extend through the hips and knees to perform a jump.  The athlete will land on the balls of their feet with knee and hip joints flexed to absorb the impact of the landing.  Complete 5-6 reps working toward perfect form every time.

Source:  Sparq Training

All of this seems so simple, but how can we be sure NBA players already aren’t taken the proper precautions to injury?  Well, Tim Grover discovered that one of the NBA’s best player over the last decade has been basically doing it all wrong – Tracy McGrady.

His whole body was imbalanced from basically his shoulder blades down to his feet,” Reavy says. “He was developing a lot of back problems … He was developing strength in an imbalanced fashion. And what I see in Tracy, in general, he had no core strength, he couldn’t hold a plank.

Source:  ESPN Chicago

According to Grover, it’s no wonder that McGrady has had to deal with so many injury issues during his career.  Since we still don’t know whether putting Tracy in the proper positions will eliminate his penchant for injury, we’ll look at a more suitable model of proper form and function leading to fewer injuries – the Phoenix Suns.

The Phoenix staff works to avoid player injuries by correcting body imbalances with flexibility exercises and corrective therapy. That process – like the Suns’ partnership with the Mesa-based National Academy of Sports Medicine – is nothing new. The Suns started it seven years ago. Three years later, they had cut injury treatments 62 percent.

Source:  AZCentral.com

Their most shining example has to be Grant Hill.  During a 5 year period (2000-05), Grant missed 275 games (that’s only 135 games played).  He was 33 and it appeared doctors had no solution in keeping his ankles and feet healthy.  Well, since becoming a Phoenix Sun, he has missed 12 games in the last 3 years.  Difficult to not be a believer!

Although it appears this new wave of prevention is gaining steam, it isn’t happening quickly enough.  This year we’ve been saddened by the season ending injuries of Greg Oden and Blake Griffin.  In addition, we may have witnessed Michael Redd’s last game played this year as he recently tore the same the knee ligaments he did a year ago.  I question how many more injuries have to occur before every team mandates their players receive the best training from the knowledge of human movement science, functional anatomy, physiology and kinesiology.