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The straight knee cannot rotate. The screw-home mechanism β the asymmetry between the medial and lateral femoral condyles β locks the joint at full extension by design. Telling a student in Trikonasana to “open the knee” while the leg is straight is mechanically the same as telling them to slowly damage their medial collateral ligament. The damage is not dramatic. It accumulates over months. By the time it surfaces, the cue that caused it has been forgotten.
π« The Six-Month Tear
The full knee Tech Support walks through the screw-home, the rotation window (roughly thirty to one hundred and ten degrees of flexion), and the protocols for training rotation deliberately inside it. The shorter teaching: never apply rotational cues to a straight knee. The cue you actually want is rotate the femur at the hip β and keep the foot honest, second toe pointing the same direction as the kneecap.
π Cue Hygiene
The first yama is ahimsa β non-harming. Most teachers think of ahimsa as something one practices toward students externally. It also applies to the language one uses with them. A cue that names the wrong joint and produces small damage over six months is a violence done in slow motion. Cue the right joint. Believe the body when it says no.
β MJH