By Nathan Long
When parents watch a game, their eyes usually follow the ball. They are watching the pass, the shot, the tackle, or the play their kid is about to make.
What can go unnoticed is how the player reacts during those moments. When a player jumps for a rebound, lands after heading the ball, or plants their foot to change direction, a large amount of force is moving through the knee.
If you watch closely during those moments, you may notice something subtle. When the player lands, the knees cave in when landing, and in some cases the knees even touch.
This is something we pay close attention to when working with athletes. If you are seeing this happen consistently when your player jumps or lands, it is a movement pattern that should be corrected before it leads to bigger issues later on.
Why This Happens
In many cases this movement comes down to strength and control.
Running, jumping, and playing sports keep young athletes active, but those activities do not always build the kind of strength needed to stabilize the knee during explosive movements. They also do not develop the muscles around the hips and legs evenly.
When those muscles are not strong enough to control the movement, the knee can drift inward when the athlete lands or pushes off the ground.
You often see this more clearly in athletes who are still developing strength or who do not naturally have a strong or muscular build. It can also appear more frequently in young female athletes, who may place more stress on the knee during jumping and landing if the hips and legs are not strong enough to support the movement.
Another reason this pattern shows up is that most athletes are never taught how to land. They learn how to jump higher and run faster, but very few are coached on what should happen when their feet hit the ground.
Over time the body simply repeats the same movement pattern again and again.
Why It Matters
There are two important reasons to pay attention to this movement.
The first is performance.
When an athlete jumps, the goal is to transfer power through the hips, knees, and ankles in a straight and controlled direction. When the knee collapses inward, some of that power is lost. Instead of driving force directly into the ground, part of that energy leaks through the movement.
Athletes who learn to control their knees during jumping and landing are often able to jump higher, move more explosively, and change direction with better balance.
The second reason is the stress this movement places on the knee over time.
Many non contact injuries in sports happen during landings or sudden changes of direction. They rarely come from one single moment. More often, they develop from repeated stress placed on the same joints again and again.
When the knee collapses inward during landing, that stress increases. Over time, that pattern can contribute to serious injuries, including ACL tears.
This is one reason we spend so much time teaching athletes how to jump and land properly. Small movement habits repeated hundreds of times during practices and games can either protect the body or slowly wear it down.
What Parents Should Take Away
Movements like jumping and landing happen constantly during sports. Because they happen so quickly, it is easy to overlook what is actually happening when an athlete’s feet hit the ground.
But those small details matter.
When athletes develop strength in the hips and legs and learn how to control their landings, their movements begin to look different. The knee stays more stable, the athlete absorbs force more smoothly, and their body handles the demands of the game more efficiently.
Over time this not only improves performance, it also helps reduce unnecessary stress on the knee.
For parents and coaches, simply learning to notice these movements can be the first step toward helping young athletes build stronger and more resilient bodies.