Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Introduction to Biology series 34 videos
CourseraGreat variety of online courses running for 4-6 weeks and more. I recently did the Exercise Physiology course (review here) which was very in depth.
There are more ways to learn than going to University.
There are many ways to learn, and paying £30,000 to sit in a lecture hall with 200 other students 6 hours a week, for 90 weeks total may be a bit too much to swallow.
Childhood obesity on the rise, kids unprepared for sport
1985 heyday
In the news this week was the worrying fact that children as young as 7 are already becoming less active. The rise in childhood obesity can be seen in Primary schools. This trend can be seen since the 1980s and has an implication for sports coaches as well as parents.
Here are a few interesting stats on children playing gained from a Dutch colleague:
In 1985 the average child spent 30 hours per week playing outside. Today, that is just 5 hours.
So, over a year from ages 5-6 the 1985 child would have played outside for 1500 hours, today 250.
Over 10 years from ages 5-15, the difference accumulates from 15000 hours then to 2500 hours now.
So a 15 year old looking to take up sport today is already 12,250 hours behind their 1985 equivalent!
Source: Honore Hoedt (Netherlands)
What this means for parents
I keep banging the drum on this: let your kids play. Let them get dirty, fall down, get bruises and come home in tears sometimes. Let them make decisions for themselves and organise their own games.
They spend all day at school sitting down and being told what to do. They don’t need to come out of school and have yet another adult organise them every day of the week. Kids learn through trial and error, experimenting and from each other as well as from being coached.
Excelsior athletes of different ages
This includes trying to out run, out dribble or throw over the older kids. Most sports clubs are age restricted, so the kids are always with their own age groups. This limits what they can do.
Big kids regulate how they move around the smaller kids: they develop skill. They know that if they bosh the little ones, they won’t have anyone to play with next time.
What that means for sports coaches
This means that the general fitness of children, plus their ability to make decisions is less than it was 30 years ago. Yet, the assumption today is often that more specialised training is better, with better qualified coaches and “elite“ academies and “talent groups“.
Putting in specialised training without this general base means you are either likely to cause harm, or watch the kids fail because they are lacking skills.
You need to recognise this and put in elements of play, self direction and of course athletic development work because the kids are lacking this elsewhere.
Childhood obesity is an easily visible symptom, but the causes are more than just poor diet.
Children who get injured or burntout may be competing at sport too much and have too little opportunity to just play. These words on shoulder operations by Hall of Fame baseball player John Smoltz ring very true.
“I want to encourage the families and parents that are out there to understand that this is not normal to have a surgery at 14 and 15 years old. That you have time, that baseball is not a year-round sport. That you have an opportunity to be athletic and play other sports.
Don’t let the institutions that are out there running before you guaranteeing scholarship dollars and signing bonuses that this is the way. We have such great, dynamic arms in our game that it’s a shame we’re having one and two and three Tommy John (shoulder operation) recipients.
So I want to encourage you, if nothing else, know that your children’s passion and desire to play baseball is something that they can do without a competitive pitch. Every throw a kid makes today is a competitive pitch. They don’t go outside, they don’t have fun, they don’t throw enough – but they’re competing and maxing out too hard, too early, and that’s why we’re having these problems. So please, take care of those great future arms.”
Baseball Hall of Fame induction speech, former Atlanta Brave pitcher John Smoltz
If an adult is present, then the sport is organised. If the kids are left to their own devices they play more, compete with each other and on their own terms.
“Athletes have an inability to recover from one beat down to the next”
Dave Ellis presented twice at GAIN on fuelling athletes and supplementation. He is quite simply the best person I have seen talking about nutrition and feeding athletes in the real world. We shall be doing a live Q&A with Dave next week for our athletes and parents.
Stimulant dependent generation
A combination of lack of fitness, short off seasons, travel, pressure to perform and overall stress lead athletes to seek stimulants.
This means that there “are a bunch of landmines out there, that can go off at any time.” As a coach, you must realise what is happening, and be ready to adjust your training accordingly.
The stimulants come in different forms: over the counter ones like caffeine drinks or high fructose ones; or hidden in “herbal remedy” type health drinks or pills.
Chinese Grasp on supplementation
The slides, stats and videos that Ellis showed on the supplementation factories and warehouses were shocking to say the least.
Metal filings, hair, dust and bits of plastic are some of the things discovered in the food batches sampled. As they are sold by weight, metal might be heavier by volume than powder!
All the Vitamin C sources for fortification and supplements in the USA come from China. The quality control is not good, whether by accident or design. (This report from the FDA shows 615 supplements have been identified as tainted since Jan 1st 2008).
Talking of design, Ellis made some clear points about how the profit driven industry has a massive influence in the things we eat and buy.
It is a political landscape, where Gatorade pay the NFL $1.1 billion to be the official supplement provider to the league. Ellis can’t give Vitamin D supplements to NFL players because Gatorade don’t make them.
Research Fraud
The profit driven industry create poor research studies, then publish them in pseudo science journals, then spin the poor results to the health industry.
This comes to you the reader via newspaper articles or adverts featuring sports stars drinking sugar drinks.
Over trained or under recovered?
Ellis talked a lot about the stressors involved in serious competition and their impact on the athletes. Training volumes and intensities are not that great for college and professional team sport athletes.
Instead, the players do not recover enough due to other factors. His BIG 4 contributors are:
Lack of sleep
Binge eating patterns
Inadequate hydration
Missing post workout supplement/ food timing
3 step approach to fuelling
Great poster
Here comes the real world application. Ellis shows how he sets up eating stations or works with teams to get these 3 key steps followed:
1 Less down time due to illness: eat fresh foods and vegetables. This should be put on your plate first.
2 Energy critical for work: slow and fast releasing carbohydrates, to be periodised according to your activity that day.
3 Less muscle soreness and improved recovery time: low, medium and high fat protein sources. Use a variety throughout the day, and only low fat proteins on rest days.
The poster shown on the right lists all the foods that are recommended and how they contribute to this pattern of eating.
This was not some lecture by a pseudo scientist talking about lipids and pathways and a diet based around marathon running. Nor was it a fad junkie trying to promote the latest supplements.
Instead, it was a highly informative and practical look at how important nutrition is and how athletes can improve their performance through simple changes.
I have taken his 3 step approach and showed it the athletes I work with. I provide our athletes with one of these posters, and they are really useful.
I try to learn more than 7 things a week, let alone a whole year, but part of reflective practice is being disciplined and accountable. Limiting myself to listing the 7 things in a year helps focus my mind and stop readers from being bored.
Speaking on the phone to Mark Sheppard yesterday (whom I last saw in 2014), I said to him “I haven’t been standing still for the last 3 years Mark!” as we discussed formative versus summative fitness testing. “I wouldn’t expect you to” he replied.
Conversations with coaches like Mark, attending conferences like GAIN, reading, observing, listening to the athletes I coach and my own training are all fertile breeding grounds for ideas and reflections. Although I am unable to stop getting older, I am able to stay feeling young by continually learning. I may well be learning more at 47 than I did at 17.
1.The older I get, the less I know.
I am continually dumbfounded by the way in which young people deal in absolutes: “This session will work, 100% for sure” or “The hamstrings don’t go below your knee, they are in the middle part of the back of your leg“. These were two quotes given to me by different cyclists. No room for middle ground here.
I seem to be telling athletes who come to train with me “Maybe” or “perhaps” or “we’ll try it and see” a lot more than I did 10 years ago. Maybe it is the short attention spans created by too much screen time, or maybe it is the ability to shut out people who have different opinions from us, but young people (and some coaches) are rarely able to dig deeper than asking “is yoga good” and expecting a one word answer.
2. Getting under the bar is hard for most athletes.
Maybe I knew this already, but it has come into focus this year as many of our weightlifters can pull high, but struggle to get under the bar in the snatch. Thanks to Keith Morgan who reminded me of these exercises.
3. Predicting 1 mile times in children.
The best indicators are faster 50m sprint time,taller and lower body fat percentage compared to peers. Too much emphasis is spent on trying to “train for the test” by running further and slower. Children who eat healthily and are very active will run faster over distances. We need to allow them to do more of this.
4. Summative versus formative testing.
I got this from “Physical education for children: a focus on the teaching process.” (thanks Greg Thompson). In a rush to replicate “elite sport“, children are often subjected to the dreaded “battery of fitness tests“. However, they are normally in a developmental stage and are either learning the exercises, or still growing. In this case any testing should be formative: assessing how they move through good observation skills.
Summative testing is the common feature now, even taught in schools for children to perform on other children. It measures the absolute and assumes that the skill is robust enough to be tested. This is suitable for athletes experienced at that activity, rather than just experienced athletes.
For example, testing back squat on International Rugby players is fine as they are experienced in the weight room. Doing the same test on 12 year old girls who look like new born foals when they try and squat is completely inappropriate.
Fascia
5. “Fascia is like a onesie for your body”
So said Dr. Homayun Gharavi at breakfast one morning at GAIN. After reading “Anatomy Trains” earlier in the year (thanks Joe P) I became much more aware of how fascia works in our body. At 47, I need to get moving more and more to counteract the influence of gravity which is beating me into a slumping Trogladyte at every opportunity.
The connections that fascia have, and how they adapt to continual postures and positions is something I have really found interesting. My training now includes getting into as many different varied and continued patterns as possible.
6. Rudolf Laban was a genius.
This Hungarian immigrant spent about 20 years in the UK where he had a big influence on teachers through his observations of movement. This started in dance, but was then applied to other disciplines such as gymnastics, which is where I became interested.
Rudolf Laban
Unfortunately, all his good work seems to have been forgotten, in a race for schools to either just talk about p.e. or to play competitive sport (I see this first hand in Devon, ironically as Laban spent much time at Dartingotn School near Totnes).
Nowadays you will hear much talk in coaching circles about “constraints led coaching” as if it is something ground breaking. Laban was using guided discovery and environmental and task constraints 70 years ago. The work by Logsdon, Mauldon, Layson, Morison et al. built on this and created “Educational Gymnastics”.
I am using a lot of their work and approaches not only in my gymnastics coaching, but in everything else I do (works wonders on the fascia too). I am standing on the shoulders of Giants.
7. If you have to measure one thing, measure attendance.
3 of our best attendees with lanyards
I got this from Steve Magness at GAIN. I took it on board and have been diligent in recording and rewarding attendance publicly. Every athlete who attends 15 sessions gets a club lanyard: from the youngest gymnast to our Senior Internationals. As John Wooden says “I will give you the treatment you earn and deserve“.
This has really highlighted who turns up regularly, including many “ordinary” athletes, but who continue to improve. If they keep this up, who knows where they might end? But, they are getting into good habits.
The downside of this has been parents having a pop at me when their children don’t turn up and they don’t get a lanyard: they can’t be bought, they have to be earnt!
Thanks for reading and helping me with my reflective practice. If you have anything special that you have learnt in 2016, please add a comment below.
I look forward to doing better coaching and learning more in 2017. Merry Christmas to you all.
“The best way to stay in shape is not to get out of shape”
Jim Radcliffe.
As coaches we are here to help our athletes improve their skills and enable them to play as much as possible. Keeping hockey team players fit for the whole season can be a hard task and we often have to deal with injuries throughout the season.
The Christmas break is an ideal opportunity to reflect on how training has gone, if you’ve had any injuries and where you need to improve.
Here Duncan Buckmaster gives 5 tips to help your team stay fit for the season:
1. Make effective use of warm ups and warm downs
Warm ups are an easy and effective place to introduce athletes to injury reduction exercises. Simply playing small sided games is very limited, while it warms the body, it tires the players it fails to improve any of the core pillars. Here, we discuss how to design a warm up
2. Continue training through the season
Athletic development is more than a 4 week pre-season training block. Players are generally busy with school or work we need to help them find time. Players need to work on all areas of athleticism: strength, speed, agility & power.
This can be done within skills sessions or as separate sessions depending on the athlete. As little as 5 minutes a day can make a difference, over a year this equates to over 20 hours, the same as a 4 day training camp.
3. Factor in the effects of skills training
The current directive from England Hockey is constraints based coaching, this leads to improved decision making as there is always context to training. It also means players spend more time in a hockey position, creating muscle imbalances on top of already imbalanced bodies due to poor posture.
This extra work in a hockey position needs to be countered; warm ups, warm downs and continued athletic development is vital to reduce the injury risk bought on by this coaching style.
Try:
10 mins skill block
3 mins “conditioning aspect”: lateral movement and control
10 mins skill block
3 mins conditioning: acceleration and braking drills
10 mins game.
Your players will benefit from the shorter focussed sessions, they will try to apply skills whilst fatigued.
Compare this to: 5 mins jogging, 2 mins of exercises, 45 mins of skills, 10 mins of games, 4 sets of doggies at the end!
4. Know your athletes as people
For both young players and adults we need to get to know our athletes, this helps us motivate them and understand them. Several times I have got part way through a session and found out that an athlete got injured at the weekend or feels ill. Building the relationship with them makes it easier
to find information out and then sessions can be adjusted accordingly.
5. Make sure players get a break from hockey
Field hockey is now played almost all year round. Younger players have county and regional training scheduled in the summer. Adults have summer and indoor leagues.
While many younger players will play multiple sports at school, they will be pressure in to specialising in one.
We need to encourage as wide a variety of sport and free play as possible so our athletes are adaptable, rather than confine them to structured sessions.
I have found adults also need time away from their main sport, the winter break is one opportunity for this, it allows them to recharge their batteries and see friends & family.
I am trying to make agility workouts more frequent, more specific and a lot shorter in duration than has previously been done for the athletes I work with.
I am starting with teaching them how to walk naturally (a recent report suggested that babies don’t spend enough waking time on their tummies, so don’t crawl as much and this leads to impaired physical coordination skills at primary school age), then faster movements, then with balls, then against opponents, then in small games.
It concerns me when players say they are doing agility drills for fitness– rapid, repeated movements, including jumping and bounding, without adequate landing ability and leg strength will lead to injury.
I would rather they work more specifically, with better quality, and then do more of those sessions each week. The warm up is a good place to work on it, see this video for an example (trainee strength and conditioning coaches).
I also find the day after competition is useful. The players are tired which means they are keen to learn new skills with good rest times, it is also a change from the usual routine and we end with some fun agility games.
Rugby agility drills
Here are some recent ideas on how I have developed this with Rugby players as an example:
Working with some rugby players on their agility I noticed how some of them do artificial movements in the hope that it makes them more agile. What I mean by artificial is a pre programmed series of steps\ head movements \ shoulder shimmies, rather than natural reactions.
Steve Morris pointed this out in my own movements, and I have used his underlying principles in going back to basic movement patterns and then training them. We will then work on putting in unplanned scenarios and small game situations to work on the patterns under pressure.
Today we worked on using skipping as a method of co ordinating hand and foot speed, specifically increasing the hand speed to make the feet move quicker. We then did some simple evading another person at walking speed with an acceleration to get past them.
We then added the hand\ shoulder speed of movement to make the feet go faster. The key point here was doing it with the hands in a ready position, and using the internal plyometric action of the shoulder joint to help generate foot speed. That way the players get used to keeping their hands up ready for catching\ passing \tackling.
The next thing was using head movement to generate change of directions- watch a baby crawl or move- the head always leads the body, not the other way round. As the players started to combine the head and fast hand actions, they started to lean forward into a better position to make a tackle, or to break a tackle.
These are natural movement patterns. the key is to enhance them, not to run the players through a series of non specific drills that don’t address these issues. By the end of the session all the players had some idea of what to do. The key is now to make this a little and often practice, not leave it for months and get it trained out of them.
Agility off the floor
There is much more to Rugby agility than using ladders! Here is a video on how to get more agile at getting up from the break down, or back into defence.
Scurvy has made a reappearance in Australia with only 7% of Australians eating enough vegetables every day. Less than half eat 2 portions of fruit or more too!
Before trying to get “specific sports nutrition advice” you have to take care of the basics.
A recent study1 has identified 41 “Powerhouse” Fruit and Vegetables which can significantly improve health. These nutrient dense foods have been found to be the most effective in reducing chronic disease.
Here is a review of the main findings of the research, as well as some practical guidance for getting the most out of your nutrition:
Research
The study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention1 took numerous fruit and vegetables and analysed their nutrient content based on the 17 nutrients of public health importance:
Macronutrients– Protein, Fibre
Minerals– Iron, Potassium, Calcium, Zinc
Vitamins– A, B(Niacin, Folate, Riboflavin, Thiamin, B6, B12), C, D, E, & K
The foods were assigned a nutrient density score based on the bioavailability of the given nutrients. The highest scoring foods were classed as Powerhouse Fruit and Vegetables and are listed below in their categories.
Cruciferous- watercress, Chinese cabbage, kale, arugula, Broccoli, Cauliflower
Green Leafy- chard, beet green, spinach, chicory, leaf lettuce, romain lettuce, kale
Citrus- lemon, orange, lime, red and pink grapefruit
Berry– strawberry, blackberry
How many of these foods are you currently getting into your diet?
All these foods contain nutrients which reduce your chances of getting ill, meaning you can spend more time training and competing.
It is important to eat a variety of these fruit and vegetables to ensure that your body is receiving all of the vitamins and minerals it needs. You should aim to include at least one or two of these foods with every meal.
For example, in order to enjoy a healthy breakfast, include some blackberries and strawberries in a bowl of porridge, with some chopped nuts for extra protein.
Even simple additions to your daily diet such as a bag of fresh mixed green salad leaves with your lunch, or snacking on fresh fruit, will pay big dividends.
As with all good training, diet and lifestyle practices, it comes down to forming a habit. To learn more about habit forming, and for tips on how to implement positive changes to your routine, read here.
Eating for competition
When planning your meals around training and competition, it is still important to maintain a good intake of nutrients to help your body recover.
However one nutrient which should be limited directly prior to training or competition is fibre, as it is hard to digest and can potentially lead to gastric discomfort.
I have recently been asked to help coach “disengaged” girls in school p.e. I am doing weightlifting at one school, gymnastics at another. Funding is available to help these girls as they are unenthusiastic about “traditional p.e.” My experience coaching them is different from what I was told to expect.
What is “traditional p.e.”?
I keep getting told by twenty-something p.e. teachers that the sports model is failing and so we have to find non-traditional ways of “engaging” girls (I use girls, but most of what follows applies to boys too). But, once again, p.e. is getting confused with sport. They are different (or at least should be).
This quote from 1969:
Hockey team 1921
“Organised games playing in girls’ schools has been much maligned as purposelessly aping the boys’ tradition and either producing hearty hockey players or a tight-skirted, unenthusiastic, unskilled rabble…
To the age of 13 or 14 the majority of girls are likely to be keen. After this age many girls do not take kindly to hockey, lacrosse or netball; there should then be a wider scope for individual activities such as tennis, athletics, swimming, archery or dancing.”
There are two points here: are the girls opting out because they have found something which matches their talents and desires better? Or, are they deselecting themselves because they lack the basic skills required to perform a team sport such as hand-eye co-ordination, running, skipping and throwing/ catching skills?
The first is perfectly acceptable and requires schools to offer a selection. The latter is a travesty and shows we are failing our children.
Sports modules instead of physical development
Ready for p.e.
One of the reasons we are failing our children is the insistence on using sports modules in p.e. classes. When I was growing up, we had p.e. twice a week in shorts and white T-shirts. We had games once a week wearing a reversible rugby shirt. We did physical education in p.e. and games in Games.
Now, even Primary Schools are dominated by sports modules. “Invasion games” is a module, cricket, athletics, tennis and rugby are modules. These all presume that the children have underlying motor skills and that sport will get them fit.
The cynical part of me sees schools being given resources by Sporting National Governing Bodies (NGBs) that show complete lesson plans for 6-8 weeks to help teachers run p.e. classes. For the drowning Primary School teacher this is a lifeline that helps them survive for a little bit longer.
But, the NGBS are chucking resources at schools as part of a big recruitment drive to increase participation and then get more funding from Government: this then allows the administrators to keep their jobs for another year.
But, what is the point of having “Invasion Games” if the kids are unable to throw or catch, let alone run and jump as well?
I was playing catch with my 6 year old son before school one morning and 3 other boys asked to join in, 2 of whom were 8. Of the four boys, two could throw with a contralateral overhand action with some degree of accuracy. One of the 8 year olds had an ipsolateral shot putting action, the other did an underarm loop effort which went vertical and was never near the target.
Why do “invasion games” with this bunch? Where is the differentiation? To rub salt into my wound of dismay, a teacher came up and said “You are encouraging rule breaking Mr Marshall”! I wonder if that teacher is able to spot different throwing actions, let alone improve them.
Even Athletics which could be considered as teaching fundamental movements is corrupted by competition. (At every level it seems).
Rare sight in schools
In Devon, the schools competitions take place at the beginning of the Summer term, rather than the end. That means only the kids who participate outside of school are likely to be selected. The keen, hopeful young girl who learns throughout the term, misses out on opportunities that happened 6 weeks earlier. School then stops and resumes in September with rugby…
The problem is endemic and we have a generation of teachers who have not experienced quality physical education as a pupil. I recently had a Secondary school p.e. teacher on a course who did not know what the tabs underneath the bottom of a bench were: he had never run up a bench onto a frame. I promptly changed that. Now his pupils will get an opportunity to do so.
But boys like competition
“But, however much they are encouraged, games cannot altogether take the place of physical training. They have not the same corrective effect, many of them are “one-sided”, the same regular systematic and progressive results cannot be obtained from them, and apart from the difficulty of obtaining sufficient space for all to play, the greatest drawback to the use of games alone is that the weaker and less expert performer (i.e. the very man who requires most training ) is often discouraged by his want of proficiency and so ends by becoming a “looker on”. (2).
Girls like getting fit
Do you see schools that have a structured physical training programme with the goal of children being able to move properly and be physically fit? The only area where targets have been laid down and schools make effort is with swimming.
What about fitness? In Devon, the schools are given misguided advice about the intermittent shuttle run (beep) test: they are prohibited from using it. There is no measurement of aerobic fitness, let alone strength let alone co-ordination that is used across Primary Schools.
If we don’t measure it, we can’t be seen to be failing. Instead we can measure “numbers” and “hours on the timetable”. That way we can show success.
What a load of claptrap. That is an easy option for pencil pushers to pat themselves on the back. They are failing our children. No wonder the girls become “disengaged”.
Children are lazy
Let them play
Unlike the parent who told me last weekend that “kids are lazy”, I strongly believe that kids relish opportunity, challenge and boundaries. They just need support and guidance.
I told that parent to come to Willand at 3:30 after school and see just how “lazy” these kids are. The recreational field is covered with scores of children running, skipping, playing, climbing and shouting. In short, being children.
Is it the child’s fault that they are driven everywhere, and plonked down in front of a screen whilst their Mum updates her facebook status, or while their Dad checks football scores on twitter?
Is it the child’s fault that they are told to sit down in p.e. lessons so that they can “learn” about fartlek, rather than run around the park?
Solutions
Here are a few solutions:
Stop confusing sport with physical education: they are different. Sport is an expression of physical abilities, rather than a tool to develop them. Traditional p.e. was just that.
Have some balls and set some physical targets for your school. Make them public and accountable (all pupils leaving Primary school able to climb a rope, vault a box,run 800m without stopping and throw 20 metres would be a start).
Give teachers skills to observe and encourage quality movement, rather than laminated lesson plans which are about survival.
“The Teacher…must also know how to stimulate and control the pupils’ efforts so as to obtain the quality of performance that brings out the full value which the exercise has for the pupils at the particular stage of development and training they have reached. Technical skill alone will not enable him to do this: sympathetic understanding and powers of leadership are needed.” (3).
Here is an example of a group of kids aged 12-14 doing a small circuit round the gym. Whilst it may be called gymnastics now, it is only p.e. from the 1960s.
Increasing club head speed will allow you to drive the ball further. This will help you reach the greens in regulation, and then you need to practice your putting. It’s that simple.
Doing the right kind of exercises that actually help you increase club head speed is another matter! In this post I will look at some common mistakes golfers make, what we do with the professionals and then answer some questions we get asked regularly which will allow you to get started at home.
Common mistakes golfers make in the gym
“I wish I was in as good shape as a golfer” said no one ever.
Where golfers go wrong is to try and copy bodybuilding exercises or personal trainer programmes from the internet. Bicep curls and deadlifts may have their place, as does trying to balance on a gym ball– but if done without thought, you will only get better at bicep curls, deadlifts and balancing.
Alternatively they might try to work on isolated low level muscles. I often get asked questions such as “how can I strengthen the multifidus” or “how can I improve core strength?” The body does not work in isolated parts.
Instead, if you want to increase your golf club speed and improve your drive length as a consequence, you need to look at your body and swing together.
That is one of the key points we do in our analysis before starting to train aspiring and professional golfers.
What we do with the professional golfers
Jess Bradley
I was speaking to Stuart (a golf coach I work with) about using the Central Nervous System to make athletes faster. He said he couldn’t see the application for golf, because club head speed is developed by sequencing a series of linking actions together.
That is what all fast actions require. The speed of any action- a downswing,a throw or a jump for example- is exponentially increased by involving joints together to provide acceleration. The technical aspect of speed- running, throwing or hitting a golf ball can all be improved by looking at 4 stages:
Intra muscular co ordination – how an individual muscle learns to act as required to perform an action.
Inter muscular co ordination– how groups or sequences of muscles work together
Thought (the CNS and reflexes to help put the previous 3 together)
When working with golfers, each one is different. Some may be very coordinated and have a fluid swing, but are just weak. Others are very strong with individual muscles, but struggle to get them to work together.
Others have the package, but could get faster- that is where using exercises to enhance the properties of the CNS help. This is quite advanced and requires 1:1 coaching. But, there is plenty for you to do at home.
How to train at home for golf
James working with golfers
That might be a bit advanced for those keen amateurs, so here are some tips that you can use at home to improve your gold.
If you want to increase your club head speed, you need to have good posture, balance, stability and mobility: what we call “Structural Integrity“. For some golfers, this may be a specific stretch to help get a better hip turn. For others, it is the stability of the stance as you shift weight through the downswing that needs working on.
“You can’t fire a cannon from a canoe” (Vern Gambetta), so alongside the technical aspect of your swing, you need a solid platform. I see a lot of Golf Professionals trying their hardest to get the golfer into positions that their body is simply unable to perform…yet.
Whilst it is tempting to look for the exercise to target the “golf specific muscle“, we find that it is usually a non golf specific reason for having poor control of the swing leading to a weak or inaccurate swing.
Once you have worked on your Structural Integrity to build a solid foundation, you are ready to move on to some exercises to help get you stronger. There is no “best golf exercise” and we try to work the muscles in coordination with each other using dumbbells, medicine balls, kettlebells, sandbags and good old Gravity against the body.
Here are two videos showing medicine ball exercises and then dumbbell exercises.
I hope that is of some use to you.
Our Sports Training System was created to help aspiring athletes such as you get expert advice in your living room. The first 4 weeks get you off to a great start working on Structural Integrity and learning how to exercise safely on your own. Start now and by the Spring you will notice the difference on the course.
Dave Ellis presented twice at GAIN on fuelling athletes and supplementation. He is quite simply the best person I have seen talking about nutrition and feeding athletes in the real world. We shall be doing a live Q&A with Dave next week for our athletes and parents.
The Christmas break is an ideal opportunity to reflect on how training has gone, if you’ve had any injuries and where you need to improve.
Field hockey is now played almost all year round. Younger players have county and regional training scheduled in the summer. Adults have summer and indoor leagues.
Agility for the real world
All these foods contain nutrients which reduce your chances of getting ill, meaning you can spend more time training and competing.
When planning your meals around training and competition, it is still important to maintain a good intake of nutrients to help your body recover.
