The Injury Analyst

"The path of least resistance describes the physical or metaphorical pathway that provides the least resistance to forward motion by a given object or entity, among a set of alternative paths. The concept is often used to describe why an object or entity takes a given path." - Wikipedia.

Let's discuss the Tibia. That's the shin bone or to be more medically astute, your leg. When you walk, run, or land from a jump, the tibia needs to go somewher: forward. Now according to the laws of physics it will only go forward if that's the path of least resistance. In most cases it is. Now what if it wasn't. What if your calf muscles were so tight that they caused some resistance towards that forward path that was set for the tibia. Where's the tibia gonna go? 

We discussed in the last post about Derek Rose and different possibilities why he blew out his knee. Let's take a different approach. Let us assume Mariano had nice strong Glute muscles and no feet problems. But what if he had these tight calf muscles from sitting in the bullpen the whole game, chewing on tobacco and seed, just waiting to come out and finish the game. His tibia would have to go somewhere when he was shagging fly balls in the outfield and landed with a career ending ACL and meniscus tear. The path of least resistance for Mariano's tibia must have been inwards instead of forward. And although Rivera has defied the laws of baseball by pitching lights out at such an old age, one can never defy the laws of physics.

Don't Get It? Try this:

Stand with feet hip width apart. Slowly stary to bend down like your faking going down an elevator. Do you get stuck at a certain point? You feel tightness in the back of your legs? Maybe you and Mariano should start stretching together.

J.M.