Why Movement Behavior needs to be a priority for Athletes and Coaches

The NFL is a brutal sport. Grown Men, most over six feet tall and over 200 lbs, running full speed into each other in the hopes of one of them falling to the ground. Preferably the one holding the ball. That doesn’t even take into account the times that three or four of these men converge at once.

The obvious, and necessary, concern is the occurrence of concussions. That concern is real and pervasive. But, when it comes to pro athletes, there are other concerns to their bodies and health worth looking into.

Beyond contact injuries like broken bones and torn ligaments as a result of the collisions and play on the field, there are injuries that occur because of deficiencies in a player’s movement patterns.

He was drafted by Miami in 2015 in the fifth round (out of seven) despite a very productive college career and obvious talent. The big concern was his knees and how that might lead to a premature end to his pro career.

He had torn his ACL in 2011 and by all accounts recovered just fine, evidenced by his college career 2012–2015. However, leading up to the draft, there was a report that team doctors discovered the condition in his knee was that beyond a repaired ACL, there was also “almost no cartilage” in his knee creating a “bone on bone” condition according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

After the trade this year, speculation out of Miami was the Dolphins were going to move on from him in the off season due in part to his attitude and relationship with the coaching staff, but also because the Dolphins saw what is evident in this video, Ajayi is on borrowed time.

The pattern of Ajayi’s gait is concerning, to say the least. He runs laterally rotated in his hips. This means every step he takes his foot hits the ground with his toes…

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