How to functionally condition athletes that dominate

After athletes have been able to get a good hold on the FUNDAMENTAL MOVEMENTS that were discusseed in part II of the "HOW TO FUNCTIONALLY TRAIN ATHLETES THAT WIN CHAMPIONSHIPS", we now move onto the ENHANCEMENT MOVEMENTS.

These are the enhancement variables that stimulate conditioning for the intended activity/sport: 

Functional movement (replicates specfic movement within sport)

Cardiorespiratory training

Speed, Agility, Quickness conditioning

Structural conditioning

Complex conditioning (Power Snatch, Power Clean, Hang Cleans, etc)

As you can see, these movement are a lot more complex than the lunges, squats, skips, jumps, etc that make up FUNDAMENTAL MOVEMENTS. These enhancement movements are as close to the activity/sport as you can get, so having the fundamentals well established will benefit all athletes. It's hard to do Power Clean if you cannot squat properly. The same goes for lunges in 3 planes of motion with Speed, Agiliity and Quickness training. Low mobility and stability (mostability) in the body, in particular the hips, equals `low results from the training. It's as simple as that.

Whenever we take on a new class of athletes, they ALWAYS want to do the sexy lifts like Power Cleans because they think that will get them results faster. Of course they will get some results, but unfortunately, they eventually plateau. As soon as we can convince them to take a month or so off of the "Big Lifts" and focus on the FUNDAMENTAL MOVMENTS, they moan and complain at first, but when they come back a few weeks later, they find that their lifts have skyrocketed WITHOUT them doing any of the lifts. Imagine that!

However, when they do move to the ENHANCEMENT MOVEMENTS we insist that they still do all of the work in 3 planes of motion and not limit themselves to the traditional stances. After all, we are getting them as close to the activity as possible and unfortunately, sports are not predicatble. The movements within the acttivity, must be spontaneous but controllable. The athlete needs to know that they can be in almost any position and be able to decelerate their body eccentrically so that they concentrically accelerate or unload the entire neuromuscular system.

As we look through this functional process, we see that it is a process that when followed, yields results that athletes can take to the field and even to the bank!

I will revisit the ENHANCEMENT MOVEMENTS in future posts to go further in depth on one particular conditioning as well as the various tweaks that can be applied to them.

Here is a video that demonstrates one category of the ENHANCEMENT MOVEMENTS as well as a FOOT POSITION tweak that is applicable to the Complex Conditioning lifts.


This clip is a 3-D version of the Power Clean. Traditionally, the move is taught with the feet facing forward but rarely do we still a symmetrical stance in sports, so we had Tony move into various foot positions to illicit different neuromuscular responses. This should not be attempted until an athlete has a very good grasp on the various positions with low to no weight.


RESULTS: One athlete in particular, as a high school junior (6'2 185lbs- wide receiver), was able to max squat 405lbs  even after he had surgery for a sports hernia about 6 months prior (Note: He was cleared by the doctor for full activity). This athlete did not squat heavy for most of the summer but had been working with the various squats in single, double and triple plane stances, so when it came time for more weight, all of the muscles were able to coordinate to eccentricallly decelerate to a concentric acceleration.

As always I love comments and questions.


Thanks,

Will