DairyQueen

March 13th, 2015 at 3:23 PM ^

 

If you watch closely (I see it in game footage, but then again I'm trained to analyze tape and see this sort of thing) the short clips from Jake Ryan's pro day, show he has valgus movement to his knees. Meaning, an inward collapse of the the knee towards the midline of the body.

You can see it best when he moves laterally in the video. And funny enough, you can LITERALLY see how it slows him down. It's like, T-E-X-T-B-O-O-K biomechanical insufficiency. I actually feel bad for him, it's literally unbelievable how his trainers couldn't correct this at all. It's such a tell for future knee problems, uneven cartilage wear, and lost power.

Of course lateral movement will cause somewhat of a valgus movement, but he even has it when he runs straight. It's easy to see because their feet flop outward instead of pointing straight outward.

I for one was COMPLETELY shocked that this was never fixed, as I noticed it in him YEARS AGO. And it's the same with Jake Butt and Drake Johnson (3 ACL tears between them). And to imagine that Drake Johnson was an all-state track star WITH this inefficient and maladaptive motion is INSANE, because it means with a little tweaking he could have run SIGNIFICANTLY faster.

The fact that it hasn't been fixed is a testament to just how inept this coaching staff was, from top to bottom and everywhere in between. And it's not just about being injury-prone (a la leading with the helmet vs shoulder), he's literally DUMPING POWER by bending his knees inward. Meaning, he COULD have been EVEN FASTER.

Of course ACL tears can still happen in players with great mechanics, but the fact that the mechanics these three players displayed throughout the years were VISIBLY PATHOLOGICAL from a watching on TV, is insane.

 

I was literally in shock when I could see it from a view as poor as a television broadcast. It's an absolute representation of the wildly out-dated " return to old school" mentality pervading the program that ultimately drove this program into the dirt. We're talking YEARS without seeing/fixing this successfully.

 

But yeah, seeing how the nfl team doctors poke, prod, pull, bend, measure, MRI, x-ray, before they even go out and run, I'm sure this is hurting his draft stock. Because when he can stay healthy he's a great Linebacker.

Joined: 04/20/2014

MGoPoints: 6642

LBSS

March 13th, 2015 at 4:24 PM ^

Really good point. RGIII is another great example of a dude who's so gifted but whose knees practically knock together, especially when he's trying to do something explosive. Look at him doing the broad jump at the combine (at 0:23).

The angle in that vid isn't great and I couldn't find the front-on view that I remember from watching on TV, but you can still see the valgus. It was just like, Yep, that guy's gonna have knee problems. How had he not at least partially fixed that? 

 

Joined: 11/21/2009

MGoPoints: 9642