Functional Path Training

GAIN - The People

 

What makes GAN special in the network of people. On the GAINcast https://www.hmmrmedia.com/2023/01/gaincast-episode-260-the-network/ listening to three GAIN network members share their experiences just underscores what the GAIN network is all about – First and foremost it is a network. A professional development network that is unparalleled. Made up of professionals working in Human Performance who want to get better at what they do by learning from the best and sharing ideas. It is an active year around community, not a one-off five-day annual event. Don’t wait – apply now to be part of this great professional development network. https://thegainnetwork.com/events/gain2023/

What is Sports Science?

What I see today with the use of this generic term “sports science” being thrown around alarms me. I see so called "sports scientists" directing programs, making crucial decisions on athlete’s trainability based on algorithm derived numbers telling coaches that athletes cannot practice because they are too tired or too sore. Many so-called sports scientists have little or no practical experience outside of academia or some sterile training center environment where they have no real athletes to work so they can sit around theorize all day.

Sports science must be clearly defined, the so-called sports scientist needs to understand that they do not drive the bus. They must be at training sessions and actively involved with the coaches. They need to understand the culture of the sport and get to know the sport they are working with. They must help the coach to use the data they derive (Assuming it is valid data) by giving the data context. Applied sports science can be a valuable resource, let’s get back to where it needs to be - a resource that is on tap not on top.

The Posterior Chain?

What is the posterior chain? Is it a meaningful term or a term of convenience without real meaning? In a training manual that I just received produced by a national federation (In a sport plagued by hamstring pulls) there were twelve exercises listed under posterior chain exercises. On a visit to observe a DI football team the strength coach proudly told me how they do six posterior chain exercises as part of each lower extremity training session. Guess what, this year they had had more hamstring pulls and other lower extremity catastrophic injuries than any team in their conference. Is there something wrong with this picture? Sure, you bet there is. The prevention has become the cause. Frankly I just do not understand why we keep fooling ourselves, all you must do is understand function. Rather than focus on the areas of the body (Hamstrings) that are at risk of injury, look how that segment fits into the whole kinetic chain. But it is not usually the hamstring’s fault, it is a lack of coordination; other muscles did not do their job. The term posterior chain has created another problem rather solving a problem. It also has created confusion where and when we need clarity. Let’s get back to a focus on the kinetic chain and the interaction and coordination of the links in the change that result in efficient movement that is essentially a chain reaction. It does not require any fancy machines, no new terminology, just a repetition of basic movements in multiple planes, encompassing multiple joints that emphasize coordination of force production, force reduction and proprioception.

Coming Home to Roost – Injuries

Injuries at all levels of sport are off the charts. Despite much hand wringing, bloviating, and elaborate injury prevention programs injures continue to rise. In the actual sport training, we are so concerned with “load management” that we not stressing the athletes enough to prepare them for the rigors of the competition. In short, we are reaping what we sow – we have a generation of fragile athletes unprepared for the demands of competition.

Look at time spent training for the specific sport. Look at time devoted to so called “injury prevention.’ Look at time devoted to recovery – ice baths, massage etc. Then compare those time allotments with the time devoted to actual physical training in preparation for the sport. In most cases it is not even close.

Go back into the athlete’s background. Many specialized early. Few in any had physical education therefore have a poor foundation of physical literacy and competence. Coaching at the foundational level that used to be done by school coaches trained in sound pedagogy is now done by parents and travel team coaches who have no foundation in sound coaching.

At the collegiate and professional the increased specialization and compartmentalization of the coaching and support staff has been a major contributing factor. You have strength coaches, speed coaches, rehab specialists, injury prevention specialists, flexibility coaches and recovery specialists. All of those who come under the umbrella of sports medicine usually lead by a doctor who has no understanding of training. At the professional level you have too many of these individuals pointing fingers to keep their jobs instead of doing their job. All are in silos with no communication, all working independently of the sport coaches who have little or no understanding of the physical preparation piece all these people are working on.

Add to this extended competitive season with the pervasive myth that all you can do in season is maintenance work and here we are. It all has all come to roost, it is not the pandemic, this has been years in the making. It is going to take some serious recognition of the problems, asking, and answering difficult questions to reverse this alarming trend. Ladies and gentlemen, the chickens have come home to roost

What is Your Filter?

What is your filter for differentiating “Sports Science Fiction” from valid & valuable sports science research & content?

What is your filter for differentiating “Training Porn” from valid & valuable content on training athletes?

Focus on Function

The body is a system. It is a system like no other. It is a completely open system, that is highly adaptable. The whole of the actions that the body can achieve is greater than the sum of its parts. When the body needs to solve a moment problem it is almost magic what it can do. Never sell the body and its capabilities short.

If you want to understand function start with walking gait. Gait is very basic but incredibly complex when you put it under a microscope. Gait is the basis of function. The legs and arms move in opposition and the shoulders move in a counter rotation to the hips. There is constant loading and unloading from toenails to fingernails in response to the ground and gravity. Running adds another degree of complexity because of the flight phase but the principles are the same. Learn to look at movement with new eyes. Look at gait as the basis of throwing, jumping and freestyle swimming.

Searching for symmetry is contrary to how the body is constructed. The body is fundamentally asymmetric. The heart is on one side, one lobe of the brain is slightly larger than the other, there is a dominant foot, leg, arm, hand, eye, and ear. Because the body is smart this fundamental asymmetry is proportional and has no negative effect. Today because we are able to measure more, there has been a tendency to look at these asymmetries as something that must be corrected. If fact these perceived asymmetries may actually be what makes the athlete able to perform at their best injury free. We must also remember that as an athlete accumulates training age in a particular sport that the body will adapt and favor a limb or a side of the body.

To understand function in the body and how to train it don’t forget to look under the hood. You must understand muscle function which in most cases is significantly different that what is taught in traditional anatomy courses. We do not live in an anatomical position; we move all joints through multiple planes of motion heavily influenced by gravity and the ground. The brain does not recognize individual muscles, it recognizes muscle synergies and patterns of motion, therefore it is futile to isolate individual muscles. Isolating individual muscles results in neural confusion. Train the linkages and connections and the links will take care of themselves. The goal in training movement is to link, connect, sync and coordinate to produce efficient flowing athletic movements.

The solution is quite simple -  take advantage of the bodies wisdom and construction to train and rehab movement using multiple joints, working through multiple planes of motion in a proprioceptively enriched environment. Never lose sight of the fact that each athlete is a case study of one and will respond slightly differently so it is important to base training on principles and can be adapted to each individual.

Hopefully this post has raised some questions and will stimulate thought and discussion. The longer I coach, the more I am in awe of what the body can do. Just like I present movement problems for the athlete to solve, each day as they solve those movement problems raises more question about what I need to do to make the athlete better. It’s a process!

Muscles Firing - Where is the switch?

This is a post I wrote over many years ago, if anything this thinking is more pervasive now than it was then.

 

"A lot of things weren't firing -- his glutes, his hips, thighs," (Training Guru to the star player – name deleted to protect the guilty) told the newspaper. "I wouldn't say his condition was the most severe, I wouldn't say it was the best. ... But if I were to classify it on a scale of one to 10 with 10 being the most extreme, I'd say he was definitely in the seven, eight category."

This is definitely one of my pet peeves. If those muscles were not firing how did this player walk? Let’s get logical rather scientific. If there is an injury the body is very intelligent much smarter than the coaches and therapists who try to intervene by turning muscles on or off. The body will guard and call-in a substitute, as in most teams the substitutes are not as good as the starters, what we need to need to do is figure how to get the first string back into the game and playing as a team. We don’t do that lying on a training table trying to get individual muscles to fire and then hope we can get them back into sequence. We need to figure out what muscle synergies we can use to coordinate all those muscles to work together as a team. Otherwise, it would be so simple, just find the master switch, program the body, turn it on and just like flipping a light switch beautiful motion. Hate to break to the gurus, but there is no switch. We need to understand planes of motion and muscle actions and be able to figure out how to manipulate those variables along with the ground to get the first team players back on the floor playing together. Just remember if they ain’t firing you ain’t moving. It is not about firing it is about coordination and teamwork. Join the team and skip down the functional path to movement bliss. 

Landing

Working on landing as an isolated skill is probably misdirected work. Here is my thought process – aside from long jump, final jump in the triple jump and landings in gymnastic where sticking the landing is part of the judged routine, seldom if ever is landing a terminal action.

Much of the misunderstanding of landing comes from seeing still pictures of an athlete on one foot. There is no context of what the athlete did to get to that position or what they are going to do after that position. This is especially true of pictures of the so-called “position of no return” with the knee in an extreme valgus position resulting in a torn ACL. In change of direction the point of contact (landing) is essentially the position of the center of gravity in relation to the base of support, the goal being to change the direction of movement. Essentially you are passing through, not stopping.

For many years I was a big advocate of the stick & hold concept (Triple Flexion – Ankle/Knee/Hip) as a progression to teach proper force reduction. In certain situations, I spent an inordinate amount of time on this. I now think that I was wrong or at the least misdirected. Sticking and holding a landing and subsequently analyzing that on a force platform is relatively meaningless. It is just gathering more numbers that are essentially noise.

As an alternative I suggest a simple progression beginning with walking, progressing to easy controlled run and finally to sprint tempo. Just take a step forward and change direction 45 degrees, then ninety degrees and keep moving in the new direction. Repeat progressively getting faster. Then you can go to Jimmy Radcliffe’s speed cut and power cut progressions (This will be on a GAIN Master Class https://thegainnetwork.com/events/gain2020/ ). This will be time better spent and accomplish improved “landing” technique and will serve an injury prevention exercise.

Always relate the point of contact (landing) to where you are coming from and to where you are going. Then related this to the task that must be accomplished after the change of direction. It is part of movement and highly contextual.

Announcing GAIN Master Class Series

GAIN is a community of professionals eager to learn and willing to share ideas and information. This year was to be the thirteenth edition of GAIN at Rice University in June but the Covid 19 pandemic has forced a change in plans. We know we can’t recreate the unique live GAIN experience, instead we have created a whole new learning experience that takes advantage of the connectivity of the internet. I have always believed that adversity is opportunity in disguise. This is an opportunity to get out of our comfort zone and present a unique educational experience in an interactive format – the GAIN Master Class. This will not be another webinar with someone talking over PowerPoint. Instead we will have an interactive format with a featured presenter along with a panel of experts. The goal of each Master Class is to provide the highest quality actionable information, information you can use and apply now. There will be one class a month for twelve months. The topic areas will address the four areas of athletic development - Physical Education, Strength & Conditioning, Athletic Medicine & Sport Science​ - featuring experts who can connect disciplines and ideas across domains.

If you are hungry to learn, to be challenged and be comfortable with being uncomfortable, the GAIN Master Class is for you. As we proceed, we will seek your input, we will adapt, we will change to make it better for you, the learner. We promise we will not have someone reading slides to you for an hour. Each Master Class will have a plenary presentation, an expert panel, discussion groups, and exercise /training demonstrations. GAIN has never been about more exercises, sets, reps and training methods. It is about passionate people who pursue excellence with honesty, integrity and respect to make a difference in the lives of the people we coach and teach.

There will be sixteen master classes. The first class is free, open to all. The cost for a season pass is $499.99 or $55.00 for an individual session. In addition, each moth the attendees will receive a digital packet of information pertaining to that months Master Class. Contact us at [email protected] for group or institutional rates. To learn more about GAIN Master Class go to https://thegainnetwork.com/events/gain2020/ or call 941-378-178. Enroll Now! Don't miss out on this career changing experience.

 

Learn about GAIN

Don’t miss out on GAIN 2020 June 16 to June 20 at Rice University in Houston Texas. GAIN is open to Strength & Conditioning/Athletic Development coaches, Sport Coaches, Physical Therapists, ATC’s, Chiropractors, Doctors and Physical Education teachers. Those who attend are professionals seeking career advancement & renewal through a networking experience and who are interested in getting out of their comfort zone. https://thegainnetwork.com/  Application open January 15. To learn more about GAIN take some time to watch my opening State of GAIN presentation for 2019. https://thegainnetwork.com/video/state-of-gain-2019-gambetta/