CASE STUDY - CEPHAS NATIONAL SOCCER PLAYER

INITIAL SCREENING

• Weak glute activation and endurance
• Mobility at the hips and control when squatting
• Very poor single leg stability - unable to perform single leg hip bend with control
• Overuse injury - Early signs of patella tendenitis or jumpers knee

FINDINGS

A very common issue with young developing atheltes the glutes or gluteus muscle complex (gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus) are a extremely important muscles to control the hip. If they are not working efficiently then many secondary injuries and poor movement patterns can occur. Once of the main reasons that the glutes do not work to their full capacity is usually due to an individual spending long period sitting down of which can cause the glutes to switch off. Another common reason is another muscle over working or being over engaged to do the same movements as the glute. In this individual case, poor movement pattern when squatting showed a dominance in loading the knee and using the quadriceps to control the movement. This overloading is likely the cause of excessive force through the patella tendon causing jumpers knee symptoms.

PERFORMANCE PROGRAM

Moving forward, the first month of training will involve,

• Repatterning the athletes squat
• Increasing the conscious activation of the gluteus complex through a range of movements
• Progressively challenging single leg stability
• Increasing core and lateral stabilizer endurance
• Teach technique of main lifts
• Build strength endurance for a range of movements.

CONCLUSION

Changing direction, sprinting, jumping and landing will put a lot of stress through his lower limbs. Due to his current movement patterns a lot of stress is directed to his quads and knees causing early signs of patella tendinitis. We must re-pattern this movement so that the glutes absorb more force and the efficiency of the lower limbs are improved. Once this platform of movement and strength is achieved we can move on to building high threshold strength throughout the body which will lead to dramatic improvements in performance.

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