CrossFit Athletic Group

When Dillon Sharp was put under max load at Lifts 4 Gifts her squat looked about as good as a squat is possible to look. When she was under max load and high pressure competition at the Powerlifting meet last month, she looked the same. This naturally led me to believe her squatting movement pattern was good and fixed from what it came in as in the Summer.

Then tonight happened.

There is something going on with her left knee in these squats: we call it the "speed wobbles." This siezure-looking thing comes from losing tension in the hips (and therefore midline) on the descent. There have been banters on this site before- note notably in JZ/Collin's 2015 post - on whether or not that small flinch is okay or not. But there is no debate; in the Champions Club squatting like that is not okay and not a habit you want to build regardless of setting.

Anyway, the interesting thing is this flinch was not seen in any capacity on her loaded squats, it only came to light when Dillon was moving as fast as she could. Notice in the second clip of the video she took her shoes off and slowed it down and she was able to control it better.

CrossFit can be the world's best diagnostic tool if you know what to look for. Dillon has never injured that knee in her life, but introducing speed exposed a fault we haven't seen before. The remedy will be to slow the speed a bit until she displays better control, then gradually crank the speed back up.

Only a few weeks until soccer starts. We got some work to do!