Misdirection & Kinetic Chains

Misdirection - the art of deception in which the attention of an audience is focused on one thing in order to distract its attention from another.
Let's check out how it works:

J. Daniel Atlas: "The closer you think you are, the less you'll actually see"
In other words, when you focus on something, you lose sight of everything else.
One of the most common flaws among junior/learning physios - misdirected by pain.
(Not just in terms of physio assessment, but in terms of handling life situations as well)
How many of us are so obsessed with pain that we only look at the area of patient's complain?

Let's just say the skeletal above has complains of medial knee pain.
We may expect knee joint to be painful on overpressures, accessory movements, muscles may be tight, hip & ankle joints are pain-free on overpressure.
So do we still ignore the hip and ankle joint?
Of course not, as seen from above,

• pronation of the feet
• internal rotation of the femur
• scoliosis of spine 

could very well cause the knee the be in a valgus position, compromising the joint biomechanics -> compromising the length tension relationship of the muscles -> causing abnormal stresses on the knee -> resulting in medial knee pain.
Surely localized treatment for the knee may help the patient for the day, but the pain will still return if the underlying dysfunctions in the body is not resolved.
Thus, its important to understand the basic concept about kinetic chain - limitation in mobility of a joint will result in compensation in the proximal or distal joints.
Applying concepts of kinetic chains is easier said than done especially for physio students/junior therapists as simply understanding the concept is not enough because its difficult to just look out for compensations if we do not know what they are.
To make things easy for people new to the concept, the simplest form of movement patterns are the PNF patterns which ties in nicely with joint biomechanics

Extension-Adduction-Internal Rotation as seen in the receiver's arm and terminal stance leg.

Flexion-Abduction-External Rotation as seen in both shoulders & Hip
Implication: Reduced ROM in ANY plane of the 3 motion will cause compensation to occur in the remaining 2 planes and/or compensation in the (spine) proximal/distal joints(elbows/wrist)
So, think about what compensations happen in the muscular level?
If you want to know more about movement patterns, fascial lines in anatomy trains and other PNF patterns would give you more insight about them.
Hope this post helped you understand a little bit more to be a better physio.