Hello, my name is Selena, 13 years old, and a cheerleader. About 4 and a half weeks ago, I ve been having pain in my left knee . We were practicing our competition dance and for one 8 counts, we have to get hard on the ground with our right knee up. Well, we did that many times and then I got bruises on my left knee that was on the ground. I don t think that s a problem at all, but I thought I would let you know... So, about 3 days later, the bruise went away and I started practicing my jumps without stretching . Ever since then, the bottom of my left knee hurts. (Only on the front, not the back of the knee) I believe it s called the patellar tendon . The pain isn t bad at all. It s nothing serious at all, but I m very concerned. I can walk, run, and do activities with it, but I feel very uncomfortable and SOMETIMES, I feel pain. My dad thinks I may just have a bruise in the inside on my knee from the dance, but I d rather hear it from a real doctor. I ve been wearing a knee strap, but it only helps a little bit... What do you think is wrong with it? My parents won t take me to the doctor because we re on a budget right now. If I had to rate the pain from 1-10 (10 the highest pain)... I would rate it 5.7/10.