Rubber Legs Syndrome

Are there days when you don't feel right out there? Like whatever you do you are in for an epic fail day. Perhaps your expectations are validated by unconscionable errors and awkward stroking. Your body feels normal, but still, if someone hits a ball at you, you are going to have a meltdown. These complaints, while vague and non-specific, are very often secondary to the occult form of Rubber Legs Syndrome. Rubber legs are what happens to you when your quadriceps muscles are depleted of available tone and energy from overuse or "hard living". When your quads are weak, you can't carry your bodyweight on sufficiently bent knees. This condition does not completely preclude entering into dynamic balance; you can still bounce your weight from one foot to the other with slightly bent knees and will still find your weight moving forward onto the balls of your feet, but the range of knee bending will be severely curtailed.

As soon as you have to move to the ball you find yourself blinking in and out of static balance as your knees alternately bend slightly, lock up, then bend slightly again. I call this "hitting the static band". The instant your knees straighten, your quadriceps muscles lose control of your body's attitude, and you go into static balance mode. Moving your body weight from one foot to the other now throws you off-balance, so you hesitate to move your feet at all (see Paralysis Syndrome), and your brain starts messing with your strokes to keep you upright. Absent dynamic balance your connection to the earth is tenuous at best, and you can't push off to develop pace and control. If you make contact with the ball power is pathetic.

The solution, which is to bend your knees and get your legs moving, is obvious but sometimes impossible. If your quadriceps are exhausted, then you are done.