Do you have rhythm?

Many coaches, parents and players tend to go straight to the fancy plyometric training when they think sports training. But as we discussed in the last blog, that is a crucial mistake that can lead to injury at worst, poor performance at best. But if you really want to get faster, you must simply coordinate the body and muscles to move faster and more efficiently while minimizing wasted movement.

The best way to go about this is to develop rhythm. Rhythm is one of the foundations of agility.

Skipping is a quality power/rhythm exercise

One of the best way to teach rhythm is by doing a very basic motion, that surprisingly many kids and adults struggle with:

Skipping.

Skipping requires rhythm, coordination, power, timing, balance and strength. It's no wonder that quick skips are favorite of youth agility coaches everywhere. 

How can you plug this great exercise into your warm-up? It's pretty simple. Towards the end of your warm-up have your group skip 20-30 yards. But remember that skipping has to have a purpose. And remember there are many different ways to skip, each emphasizing movement patterns that are very useful in sport.

Start with short quick skips with the athletes pushing hard through the ankles only. 

Next have them do form skips, focusing on driving the knee up.

Next have them skip for height and distance. This one is a true power exercise. This is a good warm-up for a day emphasizing linear power development. But other ways to skip are backwards, sideways, sideways with a cross over, straight leg skips, single side high knee skips. Then if you've got a hill you can have them skip uphill. DO NOT SKIP DOWNHILL. The force placed on joints is simply too much and there isn't much technique or strength benefit from it.

Implement this drill with your athletes and you'll be amazed at how much it improves their speed, power as well as power!

PS/ Don't forget that our FAST Forward and Movement First programs are starting on August 30!! To sign up and improve the speed, agility, core strength and rhythm of your team or athlete, send me an email at aaron@pairmarotta.com. You can also visit www.pairmarotta.com/fitness for more information on our programs.

Coordinating Coordination

Just about every day players or coaches ask me what they can do to get faster or help their players get faster. The top item I tell them is to work on coordination and stretching. I could talk about both here, but you don't have all day and I don't want to overwhelm parents, players or coaches with a bunch of technical jargon.

So onto the coordination explanation.

Most if not all kids these days are already specializing in sports. I don't want to talk about whether or not I think that is good, I'm just going to explain how it can hinder performance.

When kids begin to specialize at a young age, they start to go through repetitive motions over and over. Many times this goes on for years. And because they specialize, they are not exposed to other stimuli that could be beneficial. Baseball is a prime example of that. 

There is not a lot of running in baseball compared to soccer or football. This unfortunately does not bode well for the young player when he really needs to start running during a game. His body has essentially developed the movement patterns that he trains the most (Pitching and hitting) and everything else just kind of gets left to the wayside.

Running requires coordination: you have to know how far should I extend my knees, how far forward should I lean, how big of an arm swing do I need, should I bend my knees more, should I land on my heel or on the ball of my feet, etc, etc. 

There are many instances of coordination being needed but when  a child specializes they tend to not get exposed to these tasks that demand coordination. So at our In-Season Baseball Training, we are laying a base and developing coordination each and every day by doing this sequence of a warm-up:

1. We start with the agility ladder. Most of these exercises are designed to get the kids to move their feet and place them in a specific position, while also learning to transfer body weight from one foot to the other.
2. We then progress to active stretching that requires strength to get through the stretch, but also has a very high balance demand to it. 
3. Next comes our skipping, bounding and more dynamic warm-up. These require, rhythm and timing, coordination between muscles and muscle groups as well as a spatial awareness that most youth athletes are not exposed to.
4. We then go into postural exercises and skill development such as the mini-hurdles or rapid response exercises to teach asymmetrical movements while maintaining proper posture.

The one thing about this program is it is highly asymmetrical, meaning that when one side is moving the other side is either not moving, or it is stabilizing or moving at a different rate, in a different direction or through a different range of motion. This is what kids MUST develop in order for them to become better athletes. They need to focus on movement first in different directions, with different tempo's, different ranges and different rhythms. 

If you notice that there is just something off with the movement of you or your athlete, that things just look a little off, odds are it has to do with coordination. And if you really want it to improve, do it more frequently than just at Pair & Marotta. Do the skipping in the back yard, add rapid response exercises to your pre-game warm up, and start working on running and moving in different directions than just those used in baseball. I enjoy baseball. But what I enjoy even more is watching young players become better athletes, not just better ball players.

This is what we do at Pair & Marotta Sports Performance. We teach athletes how to move their body. They are starting to see how amazing their body really is and once they realize that, their potential is unlimited in not only sports, but also in life.