Do You Know Your A,B,C's???

There are so many different ways to train out there these days it can make your head spin!!!  There are so many coaches, trainers, specialists, organizations, etc...how do you keep it all straight and not get overwhelmed?

This can be directed towards players, coaches and parents.  Everybody can be thrown into the mess.  If you are a parent trying to obtain the best possible information for your son or daughter how do you keep everything in order and know what is best for your child?  If you are a player working on your craft, which road do you go down?  If you are a coach and you want to make your players better and have parents like you or at least get off your back (lol) who are you supposed to trust?  Well, I don't need to go that far, it is not as crucial as trusting the person in front of you, really it is just about feeling good about the information you are paying for or passing on to your players.

Well, let's look at it this way...do you know your A,B,C's?  Really, I could take this blog session in a million different ways after asking this question, but let's see if I can get a bit more specific.  I want to just focus on the player for a minute.  When I ask, do you know your A,B,C's, I am referring to proper movement patterns in relation to the players.  I can't tell you enough how crucial it is for athletes to learn proper movement patterns in ANYTHING they do, not just in their specific sport.  The better the movement pattern, the better the result, at least 9 times out of 10.  I would think that I could get most of you to agree with this statement.  Haven't you heard the best players, trainers and coaches make a statement very close to this before, "if I can just get into this position when my foot touches the ground, everything else will happen for me."  It is so true and I here it all the time.  If we just focus on baseball, most would agree that the swing and the throw happen on its own as long as you can get your body to a specific position at foot touch.  The issue with this is that there are better, more efficient ways to get to this crucial point in the movement.  So if we are talking about pitching, there are many ways a pitcher can get to the "power position" (for lack of a better term), but when it is time to now rotate and throw, if the pitcher got to this "power position" in a non-efficient manner, there is no way they will be able to produce what they want to produce to gain results.

This all goes back to knowing your A,B,C's.  If I am an athlete and I took the time to educate myself on proper movement patterns in basic things like running, rolling, bounding, skipping, jumping, striking then I am going to be prepared to compete in almost any sport.  My body will line itself up the way it needs to in order to perform the movement efficiently.  If I do not know my A,B,C's how is my body aware of what it needs to do for anything???

So, let's try to bring this all back and include players, coaches and parents in this manner.  If I am a parent and I have a young athlete I want to know that the coach I am providing for them knows his A,B,C's.  I want to know that this coach is willing to break down the movements made to throw a ball, hit a ball, catch a ball, whatever it is I am trying to get better at.  If I am a parent and I go to observe the workouts and I see that there is no work being done on breaking down movements and introducing the A,B,C's to my son or daughter, I know this is someone I may not want to use at this point in my young child's career.  There are basic developmental stages that kids should go through as they grow up and blossom from young kids to young adults to mature men.  If there is a stress put on the basic movement patterns to athletics early on in life, this process is made much easier and you will see how successful the athlete can be.

Now, is this to say that the only way a young athlete can learn is to break down every movement pattern and then build it back up again, not at all.  There are many different ways to do this.  The first suggestion I would give a parent with a young athlete is to sign them up for as many different activities that make their kids move in many different ways.  For example, dance classes are great for balance, coordination, agility, proprioception, and general strength.  Or how about martial arts, gymnastics, or any sport that a young child could play, like soccer, football, basketball and of course baseball.  By allowing your young athlete to participate in these different activities, it allows them to learn movements that their body would not be aware of if they only played one sport all year around at a young age.  That is why travel ball is not something I am a big fan of.  Kids play baseball all year around while juggling other things.  They never own their craft by training, they just play.  Not to mention the pitchers who throw during the weekend but never pick up a ball during the week because it is not baseball season.  That is an injury waiting to happen, but that is a conversation for a later date.

To wrap this up, basically it is important for all interested parties to know their A,B,C's.  Know the basic subjects an athlete should be fluent in as they build their athletic career.  Understand that this is a process and it is long term when we are referring to these young athletes.  Rome wasn't built in a day and it didn't need to be.  Take your time, don't rush it, enjoy the process and work your A,B,C's!!

Ok, that's all for this one....hope all is well!!!!  Talk with you soon!!