If you’re like me you love to play sport, the competitive challenge of testing your skills and physical attributes against a worthy opponent. Sport is a fast paced affair- and anyone who plays sport loves the speed of the game.

I was recently talking to one of my coaches and he was raving about some of the more ‘sport specific’ speed drills and medicine ball drills he saw me doing with some tennis players.  I was worried that his take away message was that all tennis players should be doing for training is just very specific speed and strength drills.  This debate is a bit like the one about free play and fitness – where it is argued that the best type of fitness for a sport is just playing the sport itself.

The essence of sports activities lies in the movements of the human body.  A sport movement is a complex motor action (movement).  In team sports or sports like Tennis it may be necessary to solve many motor tasks.  To do this we have to learn ‘movement patterns’- a sequence of movements arranged in time and space- which when put together make up a familiar sports movement.  This requires coordination.

In general, we all aspire to increase the speed at which we can perform these sporting movements. So if the name of the game is mastery of the sporting movement at speed why don’t we just imitate the sporting movements in the gym all the time? Well you see, speed of movement is really only the outcome of the ability to do something very important first. To change your body position (gravitational centre of mass) or modify limb position in space, an athlete has to overcome the forces of gravity and inertia.

In order to increase speed, the athlete must develop an adequate level of force.

Therefore the final goal of training is always related to the capacity to express power– produced by:

• Force of overcoming external resistance
• Skill to coordinate the effort
• Speed of movements

This capacity to overcome resistance at speed is known as your ‘motor potential.’

One of the most important training principles is that an increase in your motor potential must precede your capacity to utilise it in a sport specific regime.  In layman’s terms you can think of your motor potential as your general fitness.  If you prepare your body in a general sense first- you will be able to carry out the more explosive sport specific exercises later with a higher intensity and less injury potential.

General Fitness

General fitness is also known as Health related Fitness and incorporates five key aspects- cardiovascular endurance, muscular endurance, muscular strength, flexibility and body composition (the proportion of muscle and fat you have).  To be truly fit- either for everyday living or for sports performance- requires that all these elements are worked on and are either maintained at a healthy level or are continually improved beyond that level.

With focus on qualities such as suppleness, strength and stamina the body can adapt safely to gradual increases in intensity.

It’s about developing your motor potential.

The types of training methods to get your global muscles and energy systems prepared are quite similar across sports.  Hence the term ‘general.’ Younger athletes and those with lower training histories would risk injury if they are exposed too early to too much sport specific fitness- which by it’s nature is very high intensity.

With these athletes I tend to train with linear periodisation (a topic for another day!) and bring it some more specific training nearer important competitions.

Sport Specific Fitness

Being fit for sport means being able to meet the physical demands of that sport.  This can be thought of sport specific fitness.

To be fit for sport involves additional sport specific skills and physical attributes such as speed and power but these should be developed on top of a broad base of general fitness.

Athletes with high levels of preparedness will already have high levels of general fitness.  I like to think of it as they have already filled their bucket of motor potential to the top.

Their strength, speed and stamina capacities are already very high so their training needs to be focused on more sport specific explosive training, and for more of their training time.  This is about expressing their motor potential.  With these athletes I use more concurrent periodisation which means there is always some power work in the programme but the bias shifts to more sport specific power and speed work nearer important competitions.

It is true that these sport specific attributes will help you to play harder and last longer.  You will be more consistent and make better decisions under fatigue.

A lot of people who want to improve their sports performance for these reasons believe that they need to focus their time here- but be warned, if you don’t do the preparatory training and try and concentrate on these explosive methods of training such as sprinting, throwing and jumping you could injure yourself.

Play Sport to Get Fit

Also, even worse a lot of people believe will get all the speed and power work they will need by playing the sport.  Firstly- this is a myth.  There is no single sport that can fully develop one quality.  Even a 100m sprint requires multiple types of speed.  Instead check out these top tips to keep you on the right path.

5 Top Tips for getting Fit for Sport

Top Tip 1- Do a fitness test

Seek out a sports performance specialist such as a UKSCA accredited strength & conditioning coach who can assess your current levels in sport specific fitness.

Top Tip 2- Do Strength training

Let’s not forget that the demands from most sports place very high stresses on the body.  Most people are not well conditioned to cope with these demands, but they can be handled better by doing appropriate strength training.

Top Tip 3- Do speed training

To fully develop speed and power you also need to train these attributes in isolation when you’re fresh to maximise their capacities.  Playing sport isn’t enough.

Top Tip 4- Work on addressing your imbalances

To develop sport specific fitness without maintaining general fitness across all these parameters can lead to physical imbalances and even injuries.  Most sports are one sided or over work certain muscles from repetitive use.  So it is important to do work outside of the sport to correct these imbalances by following an injury prevention programme.

Top Tip 5- Plan your workouts

Working on general and sport specific fitness doesn’t mean you need to do seven different workouts to develop all the fitness attributes.  Many fitness activities work one or more of these attributes at the same time.  You just need a qualified coach to help you put the training programme together.

In summary

Sport places high demands on your body.  Many of the injuries incurred are preventable.  Make sure you invest in your fitness and get fit to play sport!

If you would like to be trained by a team who work with professional athletes which will assist you improve faster and win more then contact APA Director Daz Drake at: [email protected] www.athleticperformanceacademy.co.uk

I just wanted to give you some more FREE content courtesy of APA.  This week I put together a little video series of Reaction Speed drills.

It is not the first time I have referred to Reaction Speed- or cognitive/perceptual training.  I have written several blogs on it:

• Perception is the new frontier of athletics
• What is athleticism and have you got some 2015
• What is athleticism and have you got some 2016

And if that wasn’t enough I decided to film seven of my favourite reaction speed drills that you can go out and use with your athletes NOW!

Hope that gives you some ideas of how to develop a movement based programme that can support development of Skill.

This week I have had the privilege to guest lecture at the University of Hertfordshire Sports Studies 1st year and 3rd year coaching modules.  The topic was ‘The Art of Coaching: How to Communicate Effectively.’  For ideas on this topic feel free to read the previous blog on this topic.

One of the great things about watching other coaches is you can pick up some cool ideas for drills – a lot of the drills I saw were games based.  This was great for me to see as I often tend to coach through technical drills and I feel I need to open up the drills sooner into challenges/games which include more decision making.  The use of decision making was the inspiration for this blog, and was something I referred to a lot in my recent workshop.

Workshop Review

This weekend I presented on the second in the APA series of workshops, ‘Coordination and Strength training for Sports.‘ Because the majority of attendees were tennis coaches and the focus of their work was with young athletes we focused on the area of skill, specifically coordination.  Later on I’ll come back to the role of decision making.

I wanted to achieve a few objectives in this workshop:

1. Define Athleticism and Skill
2. Discuss theoretical concepts of skill acquisition
3. Show some drills to develop Skill

Definition of Athleticism:

This was our start point……..I then wanted to build on this concept of ‘movement’ and go a step further by talking about movements that involve constant shifts in someone’s centre of gravity.

This was where we discussed AGILITY.

I wanted to highlight that the components of Fitness in the centre of the diagram are higher order components that are built on the foundation components of Fitness around the outside of the diagram.  If you look closely you will see that there are more arrows pointing back into Agility.  Agility is an expression of:

• Power
• Speed
• Coordination
• Flexibility

In today’s workshop we focused on the ‘Coordination component.’

Definition of Skill:

I introduced the concept of Skill with it’s sub-components (at APA we also talk about Balance and Reaction Speed)

• Balance
• Coordination
• Reaction Speed

Balance:

• Static Balance- drills where you are stationary.
• Dynamic Balance – where you are in motion and have to bring yourself to a stop either in response to a cue or following completion of a movement sequence.

Coordination:

• Locomotive and Manipulative.
• Locomotion- movement skills that are designed to get you from A to B.
• Manipulation- movement skills which involve the sending or receiving of objects such as kicking/striking/throwing/catching

Reaction speed:

• Response time is the sum of reaction time and movement time.  Focus on skills that challenge reaction time.  It doesn’t necessarily have to involve locomotive tasks – in fact in the beginning it can simply involve tasks that can be performed stationary.
• Simple reaction time is the motion required for an observer to respond to the presence of a stimulus. For example, a subject might be asked to press a button as soon as a light or sound appears. Mean RT for college-age individuals is about 160 milliseconds to detect an auditory stimulus, and approximately 190 milliseconds to detect visual stimulus.  

Theoretical concepts of Skill Acquisition:

We can all agree on one thing – whatever coaching philosophy we have when it comes to developing movement skills – the outcome we all want is a permanent change/improvement in the way the (tennis) athlete moves on the court.  We want to directly or indirectly enhance the quality of movement where it actually counts- on the field of play.

The slide above is basically saying that while the racquet skills (sport skills)  are critical to getting the outcomes you want in terms of effectiveness of ball, they need to be supported by effective footwork (movement skills).  It’s because of this that I wanted to talk about methods to develop movement skills that transfer to on court performance. Therefore in the workshop presentation and practical I discuss different aspects of Skill development.

Perception Skills:

In the video below there is a strong case made for the need to train cognitive/perceptual responses to a stimulus in order to call it Agility training – otherwise it is just change of direction.  This is why the reaction speed component of skill is something that we bring in early to challenge the athlete’s decision making ability as a precursor for Agility training.

Video: courtesy of Sport Science Collective

It says there is recent research to suggest that there are no significant difference in change of direction test performance between higher and lower level athletes.

It goes on to say that neither strength/power training or change of direction training enhance Agility.

It highlights that Agility training includes technical components such as foot placement and body lean and posture, as well as physical components such as core strength, straight speed, and leg muscles qualities (Strength, Power and Reactive Strength)

Yet despite the physical components research indicates that training for strength and power does not enhance agility.

So how do we train for agility?

The cognitive component is highly trainable through use of drills involving decision making and small sided games. 

ie., Add a perceptual challenge to a technical task- such as first step speed drill in response to a visual cue

Video: courtesy of T&K Tennis Team Tunisia

Technical and Physical Skills:

But before we all hurry to our play book of games I don’t think we should underplay the role of the other components.  The technical components relate to kinematic aspects of skill which can be coached and corrected with almost immediate technical feedback (teaching).  The physical components relate to kinetics aspects of skill which require longer term practice to overload the muscular skeletal system (training).  I see the cognitive components as just another aspect of skill development where you can perform the skill under decision making pressure (performing).

Video: courtesy of E.M-Sports Science

Then the final expression of the skill is the actual sport itself.  So at APA the skill development model for speed might look like this:

Basic 1– teach the technical components of foot placement and body lean in more stationary positions (see video above- E.M-Sports Science)

Basic 2– teach the technical components of foot placement and body lean in more dynamic positions

Basic 3– train the technical components using combinations of movements (complexity) and decision making pressure (add the perceptual component- see the video T&K Tennis Team Tunisia)

Advanced– train the physical components using overload stimulus (resistance) and later repetition (fatigue)

All all times the final skill can be tested in games based environments to keep engagement levels up and measure progress

Final point: Implicit and Explicit Teaching Methods

An effective coach will use drills that firstly engage the athlete –  we want our athletes to be ENGAGED by the task, whether that be a maximal effort, or a  really difficult challenge in some other way. Sports related skills are what excite the athlete so we need to find ways to tap into that sort of feeling in S&C with engaging tasks! What makes sport so compelling is the competitive element, the chaos and the constant mental stimulation and decision making!!

Focus on the Outcome and the Process takes care of itself:

There then needs to be a clear OUTCOME, the INTENTION–  The athlete is clear on what they are trying to accomplish. What do you want them to be able to do?  In tennis this is obvious, get behind the ball and beat the bounce; it’s especially important to have the right intent in that situation because intent drives visual focus!!!  But what about in S&C?

• It could be a time based goal – beat your best time, or win a race.
• It could be to catch a ball without it bouncing twice or dropping below waist height
• It could be a distance based goal – jump or throw a certain distance
• It could be a reps based goal- achieve a certain number of reps in a certain time

The we come to the PROCESS- the ATTENTION

This is an area I feel I may have over coached.

Focus on a few External cues – where you want to get your body to (external) rather than how to get there (internal).

I feel I have put too much emphasis on drawing the athlete’s attention to a lot of internal factors (such as range of motion, control of the load, bracing, breathing and alignment/foot position).  This creates a high level of awareness of what the BODY is doing in relation to the ground.  The coaching is very Explicit.  It might be better to select a FEW KEY COACHING CUES.

I still feel technical components need to be worked on without a perceptual challenge in many cases, however.  For example, if the athlete appears to lack the coordination to organise themselves both with or without a perceptual stimuli. It may also have a use in developing symmetry in the body.  But I think we need to bring in perceptual challenge too- probably a lot sooner than I have done and it is more engaging for the athlete.

The video below is an example of a common approach I have taken which is entirely focused on awareness of what the feet are doing.  I actually define the spacing of the feet with physical barriers.  The opportunity for Discovery Learning is eliminated because I am telling them where to put their feet.  But my rational has been that it is effective coaching because the hoops/hurdles coach the drill for me by forcing the athlete to use the correct footwork.  This certainly works better than trying to ‘tell’ them where to put their feet – or do it by copying me.

But there is no cognitive component in terms of visual stimulus to respond to.  When we actually play tennis we don’t want to be paying attention to our feet while hitting a ball- we want to focus on the ball.

The key thing here is the need to develop a ‘non-awareness’ strategy.  We don’t want the athlete to pay attention on the task while it is in progress.  Ives and Shelley (2003) advocate against athletes focusing on themselves – e.g. looking in a mirror/or at their feet – but would rather have mental effort directed towards strategies and cues relevant to sports specific performance (i.e., focus on the ball).

In the video below the athlete is practising a vertical jump but has their attention placed on a visual focus above them which gives a better indication of how they would move in an open sports environment.  The video above could simply be performed with the athlete moving to hit/catch a tennis ball.

Start with the End in Mind:

Secondly- I feel I have been guilty of breaking skills down often without firstly examining how close the athlete is to performing the final skill.  I came out of the Whole-part-Whole school of skill acquisition.  But from conversations with colleagues it might be said that the most effective coach is the one that gets the athlete to the final skill the quickest.  Only break down if you have to, and even then consider trying keeping the final skill but just make it a little bit easier (e.g slow the movement down or give more time etc).

So if someone appears to have a poor process- first check you have given them a sufficiently challenging outcome to reach and give them a few goes to achieve the outcome before you decide to break down the process.  It’s amazing what someone is capable of if they are challenged to achieve the final skill.  Also try to give them as few cues as possible to make the changes- you may find that you can draw attention to just a few simple cues to make the corrections without a drill rather than having to stop the drill and break it down.

In this week’s blog I would like to give an example of how we can develop the role of S&C in sport skills coaching at the elite level. Last week I wrote about some of the ways we can assess/train physical qualities within a sports coaching session (click HERE). This should hopefully empower sports coaches to work on the fundamentals even if they don’t have the resources to pay for a full-time S&C coach.

Footwork Fitness

In this instance I want to talk about a session where a sports coach could conceivably be working on development of a physical quality (endurance) while at the same time working on a tennis player’s sports skills (footwork).

This week I had the privilege to work with a professional Tennis player who as part of their physical programme was incorporating some endurance into their training week.  Given that the workload of a professional player’s session is often at the high end of intensity and mechanical loading it is often smart to think of ways to either:

a) incorporate cardiovascular endurance into tennis sessions

b) perform additional cardio sessions that minimise excessive joint loading

Some times you actually want to do more mechanical loading such as a running based session but with all the pounding the body takes from moving on the court for 2-4 hours per day, in this case we went for an option that put less impact loads on the body by working on footwork rather than sprinting or high intensity running.

Use of a mask

For this session the athlete is wearing a training mask 2.0.   Find out more about it HERE

Here’s an overview of what the developers have to say

Respiratory training is a new concept in the fitness arena and the Training Mask 2.0. is a light, hands free, functional respiratory resistance trainer that strengthens the muscles you use to breathe. The diaphragm is the centerpiece of your breathing musculature.  Training Mask 2.0 kills two birds with one stone by strengthening your breathing muscles and creating a hypoxic environment for you train in. No mountains required.

I have seen social media light up with haters ready to criticise use of any such training device.  But just to be clear I use it for one simple reason- it makes the athlete feel like the session is harder.  I’m not going to enter into a debate as to whether it creates hypoxic conditions or it doesn’t, whether it increases VO2max or it doesn’t or whether it strengthens the breathing muscles or it doesn’t; I’m simply finding a way to jack the heart rate up without needing to increase the mechanical loading associated with high speed running and/or change of direction.  It does!

Feedback from the athlete is that the same footwork drills done wearing the mask make him feel like he is working much harder.  I’m actually going to ask the athlete to repeat the same sessions in a few days without the mask so I’ll put the heart rate data up for comparison.  But I can tell you in advance, what you will see is that the heart rate will be higher for the same level of footwork intensity wearing a mask, and that’s all that we care about.

Work to rest Ratios

I have posted the video below and the screen shots of the Heart rate data so you can see the cardiovascular response to a session which a Tennis coach can easily do with a tennis player that will help develop some sports skills (footwork) at the same time as working on endurance.

This five-minute video shows you a complete session plan that was used with a Professional Tennis player that works on cardiovascular endurance whilst performing tennis specific footwork patterns.

By keeping the work to rest ratio 2:1 and using work intervals between 20 and 40-seconds it keeps the heart rate elevated.

Session Plan

Summary

The average heart rate of the session was 152bpm and the Maximum Heart rate was 175bpm for a male Professional player.  This is actually very similar to the Heart rate profile of a competitive match- although the actual work profile of the entire match will look slightly different to the heart rate summary profile above.

First step speed 6 minute block
Figure 8 lateral 20 seconds work: 10 seconds rest x 2
Figure 8 forwards 40 seconds work: 20 seconds rest x 1
Figure 8 backwards 40 seconds work: 20 seconds rest x 1
Repeat again, then have 90-seconds rest

Tennis footwork: lateral baseline movement 6 minute block
All exercises 30 seconds work: 15 seconds rest
Forehand only
Backhand only
Forehand and Backhand
Forehand and Inside Out Forehand
Repeat again, then have 90-seconds rest

First step speed Diagonals 6 minute block
All exercises 40 seconds work:20 seconds rest
Short Backhand: Deep Forehand
Short Forehand: Deep Backhand
Short Forehand and Backhand: Deep Forehand and Deep Backhand
Repeat again, then have 90-seconds rest

Total time: 24 minutes

Heart Rate Recovery

The goal is to get the Heart Rate down to 120 beats per minute after every 90-second rest period which the athlete successfully did indicating a high level of conditioning.

Hope this helps and I look forward to hearing how you get on applying these drills into your own training.