Dude, dont waist your time with knee / tracking braces. If your having problems with tendonitis you need to do 2 things. 1) Subdue the painful effects while playing, 2) strengthen the muscles whilst not. Number 2 is definitely the most important, if you concentrate on number 1, you may never fully recover until you address number 2.

In theory the patella braces do two things. 1) they hold the patella tendon in place (counter the unbalanced muscle forces) and 2) they apply pressure to the tendon to flatten it, and allow all forces to be absorbed over a larger area.

These braces pretty much acheive nothing more than cost you money. Secondly they dont fix the problem.

Hope this helps. Ive got more tips if required...... And the contact for an awesome trainer who can help you with biomechanics of your knee.

There are a lot of different braces you can get for your Patella problems. These will offer a lot of support for various ailments. You can also get the same support from using various taping methods.

Having or using the wrong one can be detrimental to your injury.

You should first have your knee assessed by a speciallist. In Adelaide there are a good cross section of sporting speciallists but normally you have to be referred by a GP.

The following is a list of 'speciallists':
SportsMed - Stepney
Northcare - Salisbury
Glenelg Sports Medicine - Glenelg
There is also one in Wakefield Street, near Wakefield Memorial Hospital but I cannot remember the name.

If I was told "the outside of my leg being stronger and tighter then the inside of my leg" I would strengthen my VM and stretch my ITB, there are a number of ways to do this, and a number of things that could be wrong causing tracking problems. Treat the cause(s) not the symptom(s).

You seem to be smart enough, as you are visiting an expert. They would have to see you to know exactly what is wrong. Take your own advice and that of others here and see someone who knows what they are talking about. It will be worth the cost, think about how much you spend on playing and what it is worth to you vs how much a visit to a specialist costs, and then they seem cheap. Good luck.

ITA is correct about strengthening the VM, and stretching the ITB.

Stretching the Calves and Drivers is essential in overcoming patella tendon inflamation. Think of that tendon as a rubber band stretched between the two muscle groups (calves and drivers). The further that band has to stretch, the easier it can become damaged and imflamed, if you can lengthern the muscles on each end, the tendon dosent have to stretch as far.

Keep stretching everyday (after you warm up, not before) and youll notice an improvement steadily over about 4 weeks. Strengthern the VM by riding your bike (make sure the seat is at the correct height otherwise you'll do more harm than good.

Thanks guys for all the information you have given me. I was working my inside of the leg out which i felt great but with work commitments that slowly faded away and the pain slowly come back. My dad is a remedial massage therapist so i might get him to have a look at this. Ill still look at gettin a knee brace for the time until i feel more comfortable.

Thanks once again guys

Newbie in my knee, the patellar tendon (yes there is an r on the end when talking about the tendon, but not when talking about the patella itself, so nobody bag me) inserts into the tibial tuberosity.

You have given some good info in your posts re stretching etc (esp. VL and ITB), I am sure you know what you are talking about, just made a mistake. As you know VM is most active in the last 30 degrees of extension, which implicates a number of modifications to exercises to target VM over RF or VL. G-Funk the specialist will explain these I am sure, cannot show in words as they will be able to in person. As I said there are many other things that will affect tracking issues, gait, excessive Q-angle (females have larger one) etc etc. Again good luck, get back to playing soon :)

suggestion get refered to Sports med , if you can to a dr crowley,

he has assited me with some serious knee injuries from sport (2 knee recon 1 shoulder recon) and since then they have been stronger then ever they also tailor pretty good management systems and techniques,to prevent re occurance

i asked him about braces and basically was told they are a band aid fixs for the problems.

hope that helps