MMV #043: 3 Signs of a Good Lead Leg

Oct 23, 2023

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Read time: 3 minutes

The main job of the lead leg is to transfer energy to the upper body.

How does it do that?

By stopping forward momentum.

Think of the lead leg as a brake.

The faster you can brake, the faster the upper body can accelerate.

Here are 3 signs you are doing this well:

1. Minimal Drift

The easiest way to look at this is to draw a line straight up from the front of your knee when your foot lands.

If your knee is drifting far past this line, you are leaking energy.

2. Minimal Knee Bowing

Some players knees will bow out before coming back in.

This is another version of leaking energy.

Usually this is happening with players that have minimal lead hip internal rotation.

Their hip is creating space the best way it knows how.

This is something that will likely need to be addressed in the weight room.

3. Knee Extends into Ball Release

Since we know we don’t want the knee continuing to flex after foot plant, what do we want?

The knee extending as we go to release the ball.

This is how you transfer force and energy up the chain.

Now, this isn’t a FORCED move.

It happens as a by product of good pelvis rotation and timing.

Not every player will have a fully extended lead leg at ball release and that's okay.

Along with the knee extending, the velocity at which it happens matters as well.

If you don't have access to a motion capture lab, you won't be able to measure this.

That is why looking at the degree of lead knee extension is the best option for most people.

RECAP

3 signs of a good lead leg:

Here are a couple of my favorite lead leg drills:

That's all for today.

See you next week!

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