Success is always rooted in the fundamentals

Train To Perform

"Successful performance is always rooted in the fundamentals"

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​Sports performance training can be misunderstood at times, most protocols are to develop the athlete to be big and strong primarily but there's so much more that goes into developing an athlete. Of course all coaches would love to have the prototype athlete, (big and strong) but with all the intangibles. Fast with great range of motion, strong with great endurance, Agile with great stability etc.  In order to develop an athlete in this manner it all comes down to the type of program installed. On every level of sports it is pivotal for the athlete to understand the fundamentals of movements and how those movements translates to higher performance levels.  Success is always rooted in the fundamentals, the quality over quality approach quantity wins every time. Training with optimum posture and proper exercise/movement technique is essential for maximizing muscle recruitment increases performance output while decreasing the chance if injury. Simplify if there are any doubts. That just means from a coaching a standpoint to simplify movements and  exercises be for progressing. Once there is sight of progression then to stack complexity, From the outside looking in sure enough a lot of these coaching principles are very simple but they all have their own level of complexity that goes along with them and will ultimately improve the athletes performance. 

​For me movement is broken down into two parts, coach general movement concepts as it relates to sports then there sports specific movement. By teaching and coaching movement patterns first the athletes learns the necessary motor skills and movement skills needed to perform them cleaner and efficient. Then I progress the movements to be more specific to their sport played and position, by doing this it teaches the athletes how it translates to performance on the playing surface. Most of my athletes trains four days a week, two days are linear based days (acceleration and absolute speed) and on the other two days the focus is lateral and multidirectional ultimately transitioning to a linear focus. Teach the foundation of each movement, (postural alignment and proper mechanics). I believe this benefits the athlete tremendously, this not only improves the athletes movement quality and efficiency but also teaches the athlete to be more sound and under control which in return limits the chance of injury.

​Exercise explanation and demonstration for me is definitely another key to getting the best out of each and every athlete. There is a distinct teaching component of active coaching, but the focus is on helping the athlete connect the WHY with the WHAT. Why am I doing this and what impact will it have on my sport and my performance. The exercise explanation and demonstration involves an exchange of information related to the aim of the exercise, how it is to be executed, points of reference and cues as well as outlining the expected criteria for successful performance. When demos are executed valuable cues are highlighted, linked to previous exercise experiences related to sports skills directly. Athletes tend to be more kinesthetically aware of their skill and sport movements and so they can provide to the coach and begin to better understand how to use their kinetic chain to produce more power, balance, control and fluid movement in their sport.

​There are many ways to train and coach athletes and there is no wrong way but one must find his niche and progress it but also be willing to be a sponge and continue to learn better ways to build upon what he or she does.