Concept2 Forum

Here's an interesting article from SportsSpecific.com:
An interesting site to subscibe to by the way....

Could be a disguised ad for Xeno!!



Teaching Movement Patterns
by Will Haskell


When I was a young athlete I always remembered hearing coaches say “this game is 90% mental and 10% physical”. The obvious question that has to be asked is why are our training programs simply designed to improve our bodies? As a college athlete our typical day consisted of practice followed by weight training and agility work. The only mental aspect really gained from the experience was attempting to study every night after each grueling workout. If sports are really 90% mental the logical course of action is for trainers to consider the mind when developing a training program. Every developing athlete develops a motor program that is a mental plan or model of what a skill movement should be like. Teaching a skill like acceleration will create an “acceleration” motor program that carries over and will be applied regardless of the situation. If we change the surface from natural grass to turf or if the situation changes from getting to a ground ball or driving to the basket for a lay-up, the acceleration motor program still exists and can still be carried out. These are six points that can be incorporated into a mental training program that will help athletes develop and perform correct motor programs.

1. Observe and imitate a skilled model. Imitation provides a good mental picture of a skill. As a trainer it is very important to show the movement first so the athlete can gain a mental representation of what the skill should look like. It is always a good idea for young athletes that carry similar traits to pick an athlete that has mastered a skill or a professional athlete to model themselves after. Just make sure that the athlete they are modeling is a good representation of there own physical characteristics. It wouldn’t be a good idea for an athlete who is five feet tall to model the way a seven-foot tall athlete moves and plays the game.

2. Introduce verbal rules to back up motor learning when the motor skill is first being presented to an athlete. When an athlete is learning to accelerate, have the athlete say something like PUNCH! PUNCH! PUNCH! It can help an athlete that is having trouble accelerating to remember to “punch” and drive the knees to create force back into the ground.

3. Make practice as lifelike as possible. Sports are random in nature so the drills incorporated into a movement program should also be random. The athlete will learn to receive the random stimuli, interpret the stimuli, and then react accordingly making athletes more receptive and improve reaction time when they encounter similar stimuli during games.

4. Make sure the athlete is receiving feedback. A mirror, videotape, or even the trainer can visually show where the athlete is making mistakes so they can be corrected. If skills aren’t corrected they will be repeated and become technically poor motor programs that are detrimental to performance.

5. Whenever possible, have the athlete practice natural units before breaking the task into artificial parts. When developing acceleration it is better to make an athlete perform acceleration than breaking down each aspect of acceleration and making them perform each component separately. Only in cases of poor technique should a trainer break down a drill to teach proper form. In the case of acceleration, an athlete that fails to drive the knees adequately can be drilled to improve technique. Drills can be simplified to correct knee drive but should also incorporate other components of acceleration (dorsi-flexed toe, hands passing behind the hips).

6. Athletes must learn to analyze their own performance. When an athlete performs a skill incorrectly they must be able to recognize the mistake. As a trainer, when an athlete makes a technical mistake ask them, “what did you do wrong?” A simple question like that will help the athlete recognize and correct errors so when they aren’t under a trainers supervision they can make adjustments to stay technically sound.

As an athletic development specialist I’ve found these techniques can make better athletes by incorporating cognitive functions of the mind to help develop the body. Give these techniques a try you’ll be amazed in how much better your athletes will perform.

Will Haskell Sport Performance Director Sirius Sport Performance 518.743.0162 HoopDreams51@aol.com



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In point number 5, what is knee drive? How looks correct one? Anyone?

This isn't a crew specific release is it? It's just general for muscle memory patterns, correct?

My reason for wondering this is that most coaches go ahead and do the exact opposite of point 5. I have never encountered a coach that has not taught novices and the such to drive the legs first, then the body swing, then the arms (when teaching the sequential stroke atleast, common in the US) and break this apart into the respective pieces. Do people feel that it would be better to teach it as one motion, as this article suggests, or do people feel that rowing is a sport in which this rule changes?

Hey folks,

I saw that my article was up here and wanted to answer some of the concerns on the information I've presented.

Rowing efficiently is a very precise skill that has to be broken down into segments in order to be understood and repeated correctly. The article I wrote is geared towards generalized movement patterns. The ability to run, jump and throw are all examples of motor programs that are acquired during pre-adolescent development. My suggestions are simple, young athletes have already established some form of these mental/physical processes prior to engaging in a training program. So, it would be a virtually useless task to teach a young athlete to lateral shuffle starting from the basic fundamentals when that athlete already has some lateral movement aptitude. We can refine the technique to make it more efficient by utilizing a variety of means, from which we can break down specific skills within that set to further enhance that efficiency.

If we were teaching a young athlete to throw for the very first time, it would be ideal to break down form and technique into a manner in which they can understand and replicate. However, teaching an athlete that has been throwing for several years, will require refined techniques, possibly by breaking it into a smaller segment, to achieve greater accuracy, velocity, etc.

In point #5 regarding acceleration (sprinting), an athlete that fails to drive the knees adequately could have various hip, knee or joint capsule issues that could make that motion difficult and those needs certainly will be addressed. However, the athlete already knows how to run and accelerate with some form of understanding without structural faults but, if I want to improve leg drive (which will ultimately improve speed/performance), I can break down the activity so that athlete can get a kinesthetic and visual understanding of where an acceleration knee drive needs to be to improve speed.

These steps are generalized instructions that can aid in the development of an athlete. My professional goal is to create athletic bodies that have the capability to absorb and apply a great amount of force while remaining free from injury. It is the coach's responsibility to teach the specific skill of the sport.

I hope this clears things up for some of you. My contact information has changed so if anyone has further questions, I can be reached at the email address shown below. Thank you all for your time and have a great day.

Will Haskell
Athletic Development Specialist
will@tsanorthwest.com