Absolute Concept: Joint Specific Accommodation to Sport

Practice and play without joint-specific training concurrently is a driver of joint-specific accommodation to sport: The Patrick Kane case.

Patrick Kane underwent a hip-resurfacing procedure as a result of joint-specific biological accommodation to his sport, which is hockey, this offseason. Source

Joint-Specific Accommodation to Sport

At Absolute, we've delved into the concept of biological accommodation to provide a fresh perspective to strength practitioners. Despite its importance, there is a lack of literature on the Biological Law of Accommodation. To illustrate, 'The Science and Practice of Strength Training' only briefly touches on this subject in three paragraphs. Recognizing the untapped potential for further exploration, our aim at Absolute is to broaden our understanding by introducing the concept of joint-specific accommodation to sport.

A Blindspot in Modern Sports

This particular form of biological accommodation, occurring at the joint level, demands attention from all strength practitioners due to its inherent significance. It serves as a limiting constraint on modern athletes' ability to achieve and sustain high performance in sport. Despite its paramount role in limiting athletes' capacity to train at the Level of Adaptation and play at the Level of Competition, this aspect of accommodation has gone completely unnoticed and undefined in the field of Training Science. We are proud to play a pioneering role in identifying and defining this specific form of biological accommodation.

Kane’s hip joint biologically accommodated to the demands of the sport (hockey) and behaved as a limiting constraint on high performance, generating pain to the point where he chose to undergo surgical reconstruction of his hip joint. Source

Understanding Joint Specific Accommodation: Training Work vs. Practice Work

For the strength practitioner to comprehend joint-specific accommodation, it's crucial to differentiate between training or treatment work and practice work. As subscribers of Absolute know, training and treatment work are often used interchangeably as simply training work.

Training work involves the constrained release of energy at the level of adaptation. It’s self-determining, shaping the physical state of the self (i.e., athlete). When considering the joint as a "self," training work stimulates the development of the joint’s biology.

Conversely, practice work is the constrained release of energy at the level of competition, encompassing both practice and play. It’s self-organizing, dictating how the self, the athlete, organizes itself.

A coherent understanding of this distinction is paramount as it illustrates how, in the absence of joint-specific training work, the athlete's joint will adapt and accommodate to the demands of the sport. This phenomenon, known as joint-specific accommodation to sport, is entirely undesirable. This type of accommodation elicits maladaptive effects to the joint, moving it further away from joint function Point B.

Joint-Specific Training Work: The Antidote to Joint-Specific Accommodation to Sport

To clarify, if an athlete's joints are accommodating to the demands of their sport, it signifies a failure on the part of the strength practitioner and staff. The role of training work is multifaceted, one of which is to prevent accommodation at the joint level.

Understand: Joint-specific training is the antidote to joint-specific accommodation.

Patrick Kanes Hip Biologically Accommodating to the Sport of Hockey

To gain a better understanding joint-specific biological accommoation consider the case of Patrick Kane, historically one of the highest-performing NHL athletes, who underwent a partial hip joint replacement in his mid-thirties during the offseason. Let’s pause and reflect: one of the league’s most valuable assets, in the prime of his career, required major hip surgery. How could a professional athlete in his mid-thirties degenerate his hip joint to the point where he would need resurfacing? The answer lies in the blind spot of joint-specific biological accommodation to sport.

Despite undergoing consistent treatment (he had pain) and training, Kane remained oblivious to the fact that his hip was accommodating to the physical demands of hockey, gradually moving further away from the physical (i.e., biological) prerequisites of a high-functioning joint - a key element for generating high performance. This accommodation represents a deviation from the norm, a complete divergence from the established standard of a high-functioning joint, which we have identified and defined as a fundamental capacity of Point B.

FRA = Leading Indicator, Sport = Lagging Indicator of Accommodation

An assessment like Functional Range Assessment (FRA) would have behaved as a warning system - a leading indicator of the occurrence of joint-specific biological accommodation. However, it seems such measures were overlooked, highlighting how joint-specific biological accommodation was a limiting constraint and career-changing blind spot for Kane.

Kane only recognized the gravity of the situation when his dysfunctional hip joint impeded proper function, resulting in debilitating pain that hindered his on-ice performance - a lagging indicator. Unfortunately, many athletes lack any leading indicators for joint-specific accommodation, only realizing the problem when joint pain surfaces during competition - a reactive, rather than proactive, approach to sustaining Point B in terms of joint health and functional capacity. A key takehome for strength practitioners, in this case, is to understand that sports serve as a lagging indicator of joint-specific accommodation.

Kane describing the pain generated from his biologically accommodated dysfunctional hip: "Anytime I would take a hit on the right side of the hip, the joint would kind of compress and it would basically feel like bone on bone," Kane said. "So your leg like shuts down for like 30 or 45 seconds. It's just painful, right? You're almost playing the game not to get hit, which you can't do in this league."¹

The Patrick Kane case highlights a significant blind spot regarding joint-specific accommodation while also emphasizing the necessity for improved monitoring of joint health and function in athletes. As Absolute readers are aware, this situation could have been avoided if joint-specific assessment, treatment, and training protocols were in place, as they serve as leading indicators of joint function and health.

Essentially, Kane's case underscores the imperative for enhanced monitoring and intervention strategies aimed at preserving athletes' joint health and mitigating the constraining effects of biological accommodation at the joint level.

Strength Practitioner Key Take-Home Points