Kevin Neeld — Hockey Training, Sports Performance, & Sports Science

Groin Pain 101: Movement Analysis

The final step in our groin pain analysis is to look at a few movement patterns and see if you can pick up on any “abnormal” movement.  

Nothing too complicated here.  Basically we just want to have them perform a couple double-leg and single-leg movements and note the positions of the femurs, hip, and lumbar spine.  

Double-Leg Movements

  1. Squat Pattern (Hands behind head)
  2. Deadlift Pattern (Hands at side)
  3. Stiff-Legged Deadlift Pattern (Hands on front of legs)

Single-Leg Movements

  1. 1-Leg Squat
  2. 1-Leg Deadlift
  3. 1-Leg Stiff-Legged Deadlift
  4. Reverse Lunge

With all the other information we’ve collected at this point, some of the movement impairments should be pretty easy to pick up on.  For instance, if your athlete didn’t have hip flexion above 90 degrees during quadruped rocking, you’ll probably notice some sort of compensatory movement (probably at the lumbar spine) during the double-leg movements when this hip angle is reached and likely some form of rotation during the single-leg movements.  

Two of the other big things to look for are the knees caving in during any of the movements, and the femur internally rotating during the single-leg movements.  In general, this is indicative of poor strength and/or motor control of hip abduction and/or external rotation and will lay the foundation for some of the future training to prevent the reoccurrence of groin/hip injuries.

An important note: Remember that if your athlete ALREADY has groin pain, it’s possible that any movement abnormalities that you observe are a RESULT of the injury/pain and NOT the cause of it.  Frequently the two will go hand in hand, but it’s important that we don’t automatically assume it’s the poor movement causing the pain, and not current pain causing circumstantial poor movement.  

Keep working hard…

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Kevin Neeld

Kevin Neeld Knows Hockey

Kevin has rapidly established himself as a leader in the field of physical preparation and sports science for ice hockey. He is currently the Head Performance Coach for the Boston Bruins, where he oversees all aspects of designing and implementing the team’s performance training program, as well as monitoring the players’ performance, workload and recovery. Prior to Boston, Kevin spent 2 years as an Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach for the San Jose Sharks after serving as the Director of Performance at Endeavor Sports Performance in Pitman, NJ. He also spent 5 years as a Strength and Conditioning Coach with USA Hockey’s Women’s Olympic Hockey Team, and has been an invited speaker at conferences hosted by the NHL, NSCA, and USA Hockey.