Squat form check: 31 yr old with 61 year old knees

[Man hands]

So I started squatting again last month. I'm 18 months post surgery on both knees. Right knee had ACL, PCL & LCL reconstructions and the left had ACL, PCL & MCL reconstructions plus a shattered patella which was wired back together. Left knee has now has restricted range of movement to around 90 - 100 degrees of flexion. The limited flexion makes hitting full depth difficult to impossible at the moment, but its very slowly getting better.

I've worked up to a 100kg triple, but I'm pretty sure there is all sorts of wrong shit going on here. I find my reps are very inconsistent - sometimes I get reasonably close to depth, sometimes I'm several inches high. I find a fast decent helps get me lower when I get it right. I also find that I have to use a lot of forward lean to get that last bit of knee flexion. I can actually get very close to below parallel if I use a ridiculous amount of forward lean, but I don't want to go down that path with heavier weights.

My other lifts (1RMs) are as follows:

OHP - 80kg
Bench - 130kg
Deadlift - 180kg

I'm 31 and weighing in at 108kg. I want to compete in my first powerlifting comp in December. My goal is to be able to squat 140kg to depth by then.

Here's a triple at 100kg from today. 2nd rep I tried to get deeper by sitting back more but ended up going too far and getting all the weight on my heels. (grunting is not me btw, its the hero doing floor presses in the background)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H6t8fPOJvg

Heres a set of 5 at 90kg from today also. Some of these look better....2nd rep is probably the closest to depth I got today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp3pWOkA3zs

Now just for shits & gigs, here's a set of front squats at 70kg. For some reason it looks like I can get closer to depth with these. This initially made no sense to me, because front squats are meant to require more knee flexion (?), but after thinking about it I think its because the weight being in front allows me to sit back more than with a back squat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkZ5YwIkzDY

I would greatly appreciate any advice anyone can offer. I'm sure there is all sorts of fucked up shit wrong with my technique. All my other lifts are progressing well but I just don't know how to move forward with squatting. I feel like I can do quite a bit more weight, but I'm hesitant to add anymore to the bar until I've got my form down. I'm living abroad at the moment in a country which is collectively clueless about exercise in general, so finding a competent coach here is all but impossible. Also if anyone has a magical cure for getting ROM back into dodgy knees, I'm all ears.

Thanks

[Tom Campitelli]

Okay, there are several things here that need to be addressed, not the least of which are reading the posting guidelines and how to film form checks. Too many videos at once is problematic. We often get a lot of posts and we lack the time to watch several videos from one post.

You need some lifting shoes, not Tom's slippers. Narrow your stance, drive your knees out, look down. Watch the bar placement video on this site. Given some of the other issues, I suspect it may not be in the right place. That should get you started.