Braking Without Punishing the Knee: Deceleration Technique

Students learn to brake and change direction while protecting the knee: hips low, short steps and the knee lined up with the foot. In pairs they film each other in slow motion and correct with a checklist before moving on to reactive cuts.

How to play

1. Dynamic warm-up: easy jogging, lunges, side shuffles and progressive accelerations (5 min).
2. Teach the braking keys: drop the hips, several short steps instead of one long one, trunk over the hips, and the knee tracking over the second toe without caving in (3 min).
3. Progression in cone lanes: run 10 m (11 yd) and stop in three steps inside a cone box; then a 45-degree cut; and finally a 180-degree turn (8 min).
4. In pairs, one films from the front in slow motion and both review the video with the four-point checklist; repeat the move fixing the weakest point (5 min).
5. Reactive changes: the runner takes off and stops or cuts toward the side the partner points to at the last moment (4 min).

Rules

• Lanes are at least 10 feet apart and everyone runs in the same direction.
• Only increase speed once technique is correct at medium speed.
• Wear laced athletic shoes, and the surface must be dry.
• The person filming stands outside the lane, to one side of the stopping point.

Variations

Adaptations

• Wheelchair user: practices stops and turns in the chair in the same lane, working on hand technique.
• Knee injury in recovery: only does the straight stop at low speed with the physical therapist's okay.
• Hearing impairment: in the reactive phase the signal is visual only, an arm or a raised cone.

Learning goals

• Use a deceleration technique that reduces stress on the knee.
• Analyze knee alignment on video, their own and a partner's.
• Carry the technique over to reactive, game-like situations.

Equipment for a class of 25

• cones: 30
• tablets or phones: 7
• worksheets: 14

Teacher tip

Most non-contact ACL injuries happen when braking or turning: connect the session to the sports they play. A phone's slow-motion mode is enough to see the knee caving in.

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