Stephen Curry, Ankle Injuries Analysis

Mr. Stephen Curry had surgery few days ago in his right ankle to “repair instability caused by recurrent sprains”.
Mr. Curry had several ankle injuries since February 2009 when he first seriously sprained his left one. In April 2010 he reported in his web page that he was feeling stiffness and soreness in the same ankle and that progressively its pain was worsen. By August 2010 he sprained it again.
Two month later, in October 2010, he sprained his right ankle. Successive episodes happened since then with five right ankle sprains reported to the media and “some minor tweaks here and there”, until May 2011 when he decided to have surgery.
Dr. Anderson, the surgeon, reported that he decided to make the procedure to “repair” the instability in his right ankle caused by the recurrent sprains that Mr. Curry suffered. But even though it is possible that after successive injuries the ankle became unstable, we can estimate that the main sources of instability are related to his movements mechanics.
Analyzing Mr. Curry’s techniques we can see that he has a tendency to load the external border of his feet during walking, running and direction changing (see the videos and pictures below).
Every time that Mr. Curry stops to change direction his foot rolls out. This is not because a stability problem but rather it is his "normal way to move". You can observe this tendency in his early career videos (check the draft videos and early games).
When he rans and or walks his first contact with the ground is most of the times done with the external border of his feet. This increases the risk of damaging the structure of his ankles and feet and also of rolling his foot during dynamic actions.
The constant load (thousand of steps in his daily and competitive life) in the external aspect of his foot was probably the main stress that changed the structure and strength of his ankle-foot anatomy.
And even tough the reparation might help to stabilize the ankle after so many injuries, it will not prevent that the risk of injury remains the same than before the surgery. His sprains were mechanics related (technique-coordinative inefficiency) and not a result of an anatomical deficiency. Therefore without a reeducation of his movements, he will always be under constant sprain threaten.

Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 10, 2011 at 4:30 AM

    Have you considered approaching issue using the "energy model" of the body rather than the "medical model" as it is a recurring problem. When a person focuses on what he would be doing if they were free from a particular problem, the body will set up energy patterns which are decoded using a series of muscle tests = neuromuscular feedback. By focusing on the whole body, not just the problem area, we aim to get to the root cause of the issue and reset the subtle energy systems in the body.
    Sincerely
    Katie Rossi
    PKP Kinesiologist

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jared Van Anne MS, DCJune 16, 2011 at 7:42 AM

    I agree that Curry's foot positioning may leave him more susceptible to recurrent sprains; however, I'd like to see how he distributes load/produces power through the entire lower extremity. If I were to guess, he is using more ankle and less hip and it should be the opposite. Also, take a peak at Barry Sanders pics... why didn't he suffer worse injuries?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bert StraneJanuary 11, 2012 at 7:38 PM

    This guy Daniel really knows his stuff. Baseball players especially base stealers need to have this info from the Big Leagues down to the little leagues

    Bert Strane- Former Pro Baseball Player

    ReplyDelete

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