As you would imagine I get a lot of questions on which exercises are the best for certain sports, athletes or contexts such as injury prevention, strength etc. It’s an impossible question to answer. But what I can tell you is that I guarantee that after drilling down into this the likely outcome is that you revisit the fundamentals…
I get a lot of questions on which exercises are the best for certain sports, athletes or contexts such as injury prevention, strength etc and it’s an impossible question to answer.
- We must know more than is usually presented.
- We need to know what’s come before.
- What’s coming after.
- How the athlete likes to train, what equipment is available etc.
Context is key!
But what I can tell you is that I guarantee that after drilling down into this the likely outcome is that you revisit the fundamentals.
Get out of the middle circle!!
What am I talking about I can hear you thinking?!
Imagine 3 circles side by side.
The first circle is the movement fundamentals.
The furthest to the right is the sport itself.
Then there is the middle circle.
In that circle goes sport specific training.
Let me tell you right now that 95% of the time you never need to step into that circle.
Concentrate on the fundamentals of movement. The ability to squat, lunge, push, pull, brace and rotate. There’s unilateral and bilateral. Slow, fast, with load, without load, reactive, under fatigue, with decisions.
Be creative.
Solve problems.
Then let the sport take care of the rest.
The middle circle is reserved for activities close to the season or event.
For when the athlete needs to be thinking about their game-plan and solving specific problems.
And truthfully even then it is rare that you need to spend any time in there.
It really depends on your role as a coach. Are you a specific movement specialist?
Or are you a specialist generalist.
Most of us are the latter.
And that is where the results are to be had.
Thanks again for reading and have a fantastic week.
To your success,
Brendan
