Performance Video Analysis

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This case study started as a personal project to explore how movement asymmetries may contribute to injury risk in elite basketball players. I used only public resources, Google, archived game footage, and Dartfish video software. With no access to internal team data, this was a way to better understand how post-injury movement strategies might persist and influence load, recovery, and risk  especially in a complex case like Joel Embiid’s.

Embiid’s early-career navicular injuries and surgeries presented significant performance and return-to-play challenges. NBA teams cannot use wearables in games, which limits access to real-time load data. Still, patterns can be observed through careful video analysis.

This led to a question:
What can we learn from visible, repeatable movement strategies over time — especially when they appear consistently post-injury?

• Searched publicly available footage from college through multiple NBA seasons
   
• Used Dartfish to analyze frame-by-frame mechanics
   
• Focused on takeoff, landing, valgus patterns, and joint alignment
   
• Referenced research on asymmetry, neuromuscular compensation, and eccentric load
   
• Cross-compared video evidence with known return-to-play benchmarks (P3, Cohen, Hart et al.)
   

• Consistent left-leg takeoff and landing dominance, even on basic jump shots
   
• Symmetrical landing appeared mostly during blocks or paint finishes, rarely on jumpers
   
• Frequent valgus collapse on landing, especially on the left
   
• Persistent use of single-leg loading during high-impact movements like layups and dunks
   
• Lack of Dunk Dissipation strategy — very little absorption or shock control post-takeoff
   
• Movement tendencies suggest a possible neuromuscular adaptation developed after foot surgeries
   

The left-leg dominance seems to have started post-injury and continued across multiple seasons. This may have originally been a protective response but eventually became a repeatable motor pattern.

Embiid is able to perform at an elite level despite this asymmetry. That raises the question: how much of this is functional compensation versus something contributing to cumulative soft-tissue or joint stress?

• Could a simple change in landing mechanics reduce injury risk without affecting shot mechanics?
   
• Would force plate or single-leg CMJ testing confirm neuromuscular asymmetry thresholds?
   
• How should this be evaluated as part of a complex return-to-play strategy involving coaches, performance staff, and medical?
   

There are more questions than answers, especially without access to internal testing, force data, or medical records. But this case study reflects how movement tendencies — especially those formed during rehab — can persist and potentially affect performance and health.

This was built using only open access tools, journal articles, and video clips. Sometimes meaningful insight doesn’t require elite tech — just time, attention, and a framework for asking the right questions.

• Hart, J.M. et al. (2016). Return-to-play asymmetry thresholds in elite athletes
   
• Zazulak, B. et al. (2007). Neuromuscular control and injury risk in landing
   
• Leporace, G. et al. (2011). Kinematic analysis of single-leg landings
   
• P3 Sports Science – asymmetry trends across NBA seasons
   
• Antflick, J. – NBSCA 2019 Presentation on CMJ testing
   

I’m just a guy in small-town Arkansas who loves basketball and performance science. This wasn’t for a paper or presentation. It was just a question I had, and this was how I started trying to answer it.

 Jersey Wolfenbarger - High School