Jumper's/Runner's Knee and Serving

thatguymattin

thatguymattin

Professional
I have been injured with Jumper's Knee for quite some time now on my left knee. I'm a right-handed player; so whenever I serve, I'm primarily jumping off of my left knee. Every time I serve, I can feel my left knee bothering me. Is there any method to reduce the pain?

I have tried using a platform stance instead of my pinpoint stance serve, but it only helps so much. I have also been using a jumper's knee brace and strengthening my quads.
 
do you warm up well before serving? its vital to stretch out your gluts, hamstrings, quads and calves and even the upper body since serving is a motion that requires the entire body.

instead only strengthening your quads, you should also do glut and hamstring exercises so your weight can be evenly distributed throughout your lower body.

be sure to ice down your knee as well.

i am not 100% sure but reading your OP makes me think that your left leg/knee takes the blunt of the weight distribution when you go through your serve. that is why i think you should try strengthening those muscles that i mentioned above. if need be id be more then glad to share some simple exercises.
 
I do warm up before serving, and I usually stretch after practice and at the end of the day before I sleep. I've been strengthening my quads because I've read that doing so helps jumpers knee the most, but my left knee still feels a lot weaker than my right knee due to all the pressure placed upon it while serving.
 
Has your injury been diagnosed by a Dr? If so what was the treatment? Any physical therapy?

Jumper's Knee is a tendon injury, correct?

How long have you had the injury?
 
thatguymattin said:
I do warm up before serving, and I usually stretch after practice and at the end of the day before I sleep. I've been strengthening my quads because I've read that doing so helps jumpers knee the most, but my left knee still feels a lot weaker than my right knee due to all the pressure placed upon it while serving.
Click to expand...

i see, well i would still try to work on all your leg muscles to avoid muscle imbalance.

maybe you should change up your serve to where your weight is eventually distributed?
 
It was a self diagnosis, all the symptoms and causes seem to point out to jumper's/runner's knee. It's the tendon under the knee, and I seem to have gotten the injury around early December while running. I was careless and thought it was something temporary, and now it's bugging me when I put excessive pressure on my knee. Currently I am working on strengthening my quads, and I have also been stretching my lower body, along with icing it. It does seem a platform stance aids my the pain a bit, but not entirely.

What I'm curious is what I can in my form to lessen the pain. I'm going to try to distribute the weight more evenly across my legs, but it does seem that the pressure is mostly in the left knee regardless of weight distribution because I'm a righty.
 
I had it before - went to a physical therapy and they put me on a very seemingly easy stretching and strengthing program. Look around on youtube - you can find similiar programs for free nowadays.

Some seemingly stupid exercise moves like glute bridges and leg lifts are helpful - as well as foam rolling the it bands and the hamstrings along with hamstring and calf stretching.

If you have insurance though - go see a doctor and then go to physical therapy. It really works.
 
thatguymattin said:
It was a self diagnosis, all the symptoms and causes seem to point out to jumper's/runner's knee. It's the tendon under the knee, and I seem to have gotten the injury around early December while running. I was careless and thought it was something temporary, and now it's bugging me when I put excessive pressure on my knee. Currently I am working on strengthening my quads, and I have also been stretching my lower body, along with icing it. It does seem a platform stance aids my the pain a bit, but not entirely.

What I'm curious is what I can in my form to lessen the pain. I'm going to try to distribute the weight more evenly across my legs, but it does seem that the pressure is mostly in the left knee regardless of weight distribution because I'm a righty.
Click to expand...

Stop stressing the knee altogether and especially with the same forces that caused the injury in the first place. See a well qualified Dr for a diagnosis and treatment.

Tendinitis (with inflammation) can become tendinosis (with defective healing) in a short time.
http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=442912

Tendinitis Myth
"Animal studies show that within two to three weeks of tendon insult tendinosis is present and inflammatory cells are absent."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1122566/

Tendinosis description.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3445129/

Update with more recent view of tendinitis & tendinosis.
http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2013/03/08/bjsports-2012-091957.full

Free, full research papers found searching "Jumper's Knee". Search this PMC database for full free research papers.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/?term=jumper's+knee

Chronic tendinosis is what occurs when people develop chronic tendon injuries such as Tennis Elbow or Golfer's Elbow.

You may not have a tendon injury.
 
Last edited:
GuyClinch said:
I had it before - went to a physical therapy and they put me on a very seemingly easy stretching and strengthing program. Look around on youtube - you can find similiar programs for free nowadays.

Some seemingly stupid exercise moves like glute bridges and leg lifts are helpful - as well as foam rolling the it bands and the hamstrings along with hamstring and calf stretching.

If you have insurance though - go see a doctor and then go to physical therapy. It really works.
Click to expand...

I tried rolling my iliotibial band with a makeshift roller, and it did wonders for my knee! It doesn't feel as if there is a lot of pressure on my knee when I put pressure. Though the pain isn't all gone, the it band rolling did help a lot. Thank you for your words of advice.
 
For some, runners knee is the result of misalignment of the kneecap which wears down the cartilage. I've had this problem on and off for many years. A knee brace helps as does rest. Getting the balance on the quads is supposed to help too.
 
Glad to hear the soft tissue work has helped decrease your pain. Keep at it, and don't be afraid to explore along your entire leg with your roller to loosen up more restrictions. As long as you don't force anything, you won't injure yourself.

As another way to help decompress painful regions, you can get a small sink plunger and use it like this guy demonstrates:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wwtw7-GUK6I

If you can fit it around your knee you can use there too.

Might be hard, but if you squeeze it to fit around your patella tendon it can distract it as well.

Once you've got a good seal, lift up with enough pressure to decompress but not enough to break the seal.

Sometimes to ensure a good seal, you can put a little baby oil around the plunger.
 
Last edited:
Chas Tennis said:
Illustrations for Jumper's Knee. These Google search pictures can be inaccurate.
https://www.google.com/search?q=jum...7MueysQSy9IGIDg&ved=0CCsQsAQ&biw=1223&bih=729

Illustrations for Patellofemoral Pain (older term Chondromalacia)
https://www.google.com/search?q=Pat...YNOHgsATQv4LwAg&ved=0CCsQsAQ&biw=1223&bih=729

Paper on Patellofemoral Pain. See Table 2 for various causes of knee pain.
http://www.aafp.org/afp/2007/0115/p194.html
Click to expand...

I know a self diagnosis isn't advisable, but I'm in really no position on seeing a doctor.
All the signs point towards Jumper's knee, and multiple techniques aimed towards relieving jumpers knee has helped as well. I'm not basing my self diagnosis on google images, but I do believe I have Jumper's knee. I thank you for further educating my knowledge on the whole subject matter of jumper's knee.
 
Jumpers knee

I did the Same thing as you. Self diagnosed. No doctor. Keep playing. Hurts when I serve etc. iam 1 day post op from the surgery. Take my advice Go get an mri and stop ALL tennis especially serving and net play
 
Ok, I had it last week but I am better now.

Work hard on recovery, do the right things and it will heal.

1)Ice for 48 hours after every match pain or no pain. Until you are positive it is healed.
2)After 48 hours alternate ice and a hot water bottle.

3) Stretch like a madman. Quad stretch, Hamstring, Every damn stretch you find on the internet that involves your legs. Lots on runners knee and jumpers knee in this thread and on internet focus more on those but you cant do too much stretching, or its very very hard to.

4) If pain is starting to go away. Try some strengthing like quad dips, holding yourself in seated position against a wall, Many more just look on internet...

Ice, stretch, strengthen (only if no pain).
 
Pain is actually mostly gone now. The only thing is that the tendon feels tender compared to my other knee's tendon.

I have been stretching as a madman. Thankfully I'm quite flexible.

What really helped was rolling my it band. It took off a lot of stress to the knee. I continue to stretch and strengthen every day. And so far it's been good, thanks to the help of you people on this forum.
 
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