Today’s episode features Ben Patrick ("Knees Over Toes Guy"), coach and founder of the “Athletic Truth Group,” a gym and online training service based out of Clearwater Beach, Florida.

Ben overcame debilitating knee and shin pain, as well as subsequent surgeries through a personal journey taking knee and foot strength training means to their fullest potential.  Ben transformed his basketball career, going from being continually injured and under-achieving to having a successful junior college stint by improving his own knee health and performance. This culminated for Ben with a scholarship offer to Boston University for basketball, but due to NCAA eligibility rules, Ben turned it down and began training athletes.

I’ve been aware of Ben’s training group for some time, but a string of friends and colleagues in the field who have been recommending Ben’s methods as completely transformative in their knee pain has pointed my eyes more closely to his work.  If you look through Ben’s social media, you can see how passionate he is about health and human performance.

For today’s episode, Ben keys us into his progression in knee training and how it transformed his basketball career.  He also shares some important ideas on long-term vertical jump training and health, and how a hip-centered focus, although useful for short-term gains, can actually set an athlete backward in the long run by ignoring critical links in jumping.

Ben also talks about his four pillars of performance, as well as foot training concepts.  It’s always fun to connect dots in this field, and much of Ben’s ideas resonate with things I’ve learned from Jay Schoreder’s system, such as strength through length, terminal end-range strength, in movements, fixing compensation patterns, and more.

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, a supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.

View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage.

Timestamps and Key Points

6:30 Ben’s athletic journey from knee pain, surgeries, and injury to pain-free performance

12:47 How Ben got started with the “knees over toes” idea with the late Charles Poliquin

18:40 How it is crucial to bulletproof the ankles and knees as part of a vertical jump training system

26:31 The four pillars of Ben’s athletic training system

31:37 How to progress knees-over-toes training for knee health, strength, and performance

46:07 How Ben approaches footwork in his training

Ben Patrick, “Knees Over Toes Guy", Quotes

“(Throughout performing knees over toes training) In the course of the season, everyone else lost inches on their vertical, I gained 3”

“I do more exercises involving my feet than my knees…. I do the most volume for my feet, second most volume for my knees, third most volume for my hips because if it was the other way around, having an amazing deadlift is awesome, but the less proportionate now you are going down to knee and ankle strength, then when you go to plant and jump you have a higher chance of pain”

“It’s (feet and knees as a priority) a long term approach, but in the scheme of things, I run into athletes all the time who aren’t jumping higher than they were 5 years ago”

“I’m not a fan of only flexibility and without having strength in that range”

“As I get athletes more strength through length, they become less likely to get hurt and they get more strength in the process”

“At the end-ranges themselves, we get freakishly strong”

“I go backwards with the sled, every single day (for knee health and strength)… it takes quicker steps for a beginner to feel a burn in the VMO and the feet, while an advanced person can take bigger steps….. when in doubt, we go slow in one direction, and then we go back quickly”

“The second progression after the sled is the sissy squat”

“The reverse sled work is a foundation for the foot”