Sport-Specific WHAT?!?!?

You don't have to look very far to find a sport-specific training routine. Regardless of the sport, these "sport-specific" routines look pretty much the same: Push ups, squats, rows, lunges, blah, blah, blah.  While these are fantastic movements for general conditioning, they are not in and of themselves really specific to any sport.  Now, you can make some of those movements more applicable to a sport or activity by tweaking the movements consistent with the demands of the activity, but that's not as easy as it may seem.

There are a number of considerations when creating a sport-specific routine (many more than listed below).  However, for the purpose of this post lets take an activity (baseball) and dissect it a bit to understand how we can create a routine consistent with the task demand.  Lets start by asking ourselves these questions:

1. What are the demands of the player's position?  (Lets pick the pitcher)

2. What is the position of the player relative to gravity?

3. What are the transformational zones of the key movements the player is required to perform?

4. What are the primary drivers being utilized to perform the activities?

5. What conditioning attributes are required to successfully fulfill the position requirements?

Before we delve into the demands placed upon a pitcher, lets first appreciate there are principles of human function that we must consider in order to create the program.  By the nature of the questions asked, we're considering three dimensionality, positions / motions, transformational zones, natural forces, drivers and task-specific conditioning attributes to name a few.

Three dimensional - All movement occurs in three planes of motion: forward to back, side to side and with rotation.  The first thing our pitcher will do on the mound is step / rotate his body to ready for the pitch.  Rotation through the lower extremity would be a component of his conditioning. 

Positions / motions - The positions we are in determines the motions we go through.  Consider squatting, as you lower your center of mass your hips are meant to flex (bend) symmetrically.  Now, place your R foot ahead of your L foot.  This stance positions your R hip in a flexed starting position while the L hip is starting from an extended position.  As you squat, both hips will flex BUT the R hip will flex more due to its beginning position and the L less due to the same.

Transformational zones - The zone where the body switches directions.  Think about a player swinging the bat.  As he pulls the bat backwards, he loads his body to prepare to hit the ball, before he comes forward and swings the bat, that is the transformational zone of the backswing.  Then, on the other end of the movement after the swing has taken place, the athlete must decelerate (slow down) the bat and that is another zone of transformation.  It is in these key zones (backswing / follow through) where we will focus our training and conditioning efforts.

Natural forces - Gravity, ground reaction forces, mass and momentum naturally stimulate the body and our muscles simply respond to control these forces.  If the player's body is upright relative to gravity, then the majority of conditioning should be upright.  Yes, for core work too!

Drivers - The part of the body that makes a movement occur.  Lets go back to swinging the bat.  The hands initiate the movement back, then, once loaded, the pelvis drives out of the motion creating the whip effect through the core.  So the hands and hips via the core drive the bat 

Attributes - The conditioning skill sets the player needs to successfully perform the position / task demands.  Lets focus on big rocks, this could be a really long list: speed, power, agility, coordination, balance and mobility.

These aforementioned principles are just some of the basic considerations when making a program sport-specific.

So to recap, our player needs a program specific to his position (pitcher), that is predominantly upright relative to gravity, that focuses on the key zones of pitching, running and cutting, that utilizes the authentic drivers of the hands, feet, hips, eyes and one that will enhance speed, power, agility, coordination, balance and mobility.  Now, tell me if you still feel push ups, squats, rows or lunges will give this athlete what he needs to be effective and efficient?  Most likely not.

Since we've identified pitching, running and cutting as the key movements of a pitcher (there are many more), we need to start conditioning our athlete relative to these demands.  Lets take the pitch itself. Our pitcher is R handed.  We must now consider the chain reaction biomechanics of pitching.  As a reference, lets focus on what the hips are doing throughout the movement although we need to know what is occurring at every joint within the body to help our athlete best.  Although the hips will experience movement in three planes, we'll reference the dominant plane of motion.  

Chain Reaction Biomechanics (CRB) of Pitching a Baseball (keep in mind there are different styles of pitching)

Our pitcher will start out facing the batter, he will take a R foot R rotational step away from the batter loading his groin complex (inside hip) on both sides rotationally, then his L knee will follow up and around in the same direction to load the R posterior hip (butt) rotationally and the L hip into flexion (pitcher's prayer).  Then, his L thigh will drive his lower body out of that position reversing all motions as he starts to explode / perform the movement.  This reversal of motion creates the whip effect through the midsection and as the L foot comes into the ground, the L hip flexes / externally rotates as the R hip extends and externally rotates.  As the L foot continues to accept more weight, the trunk pulls the arm around the body and just as the ball is released, the upper body falls forward and the L hip will dive deeper into flexion with extreme internal rotation while attempting to balance all the mass and momentum that just came crashing down onto the L leg.  Here, we have only referenced two joints of the 70+ we own.  It's imperative to know what is occurring at each and every joint within the body.

See it in slow motion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVQbvANljDs  

Considering the CRB of the throw, how do we now create a training program to enhance this athletes game?  After assessing what the bones are doing in space (real motion) and what they are doing relative to each other (relative motion), we can determine which muscles will turn on to control the motions of the pitch and create an environment for the athlete to subconsciously and authentically creates those motions for effective carryover or what we call sport- specific.  We would simply repeat this process as we assess the demands of the other activities the player would go through.  Lets take a few exercises from above and tweak them to make them more applicable to our player.

1. Push up to knee crossover - after each push up, pull your knee towards your opposite elbow to use authentic drivers to drive the core similar to how its turned on in baseball (position to gravity is not ideal)

2. Squat matrix with foot driver - with one foot steady, drive the moving leg in all three planes of motion along all 6 angulations of movement to functionally stimulate the hip complex (pitch is rotation dominant but challenge player in all 3D to over prepare him)

3. Single leg stance with 1 arm reach and row - stand on a single leg, place a cable in the pitching hand, reach cross body to allow the cable to load the stance leg (L) hip into flexion, adduction internal rotation similar to the demand of the pitch 

4. Pivot lunge  to balance reach - drive rotational lunge to stimulate hip / core separation and return to start position in a single leg stance and add balance reach to flex, adduct internally rotate hip according to demand of activity

*These movements will be tweaked to provoke development of the desired attributes  

Click here for the visual of this circuit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgzc1akqtlE&context=C4f67148ADvjVQa1PpcFMszfeKKfTbDoeJFNgz-U8VmTo03XpN92k=

So the next time you come across a sport or activity specific routine, ask yourself the 5 questions above and see if the techniques chosen pass the test according to what the athlete needs in order to accomplish the said activity.  It is always clear that the intent of the professional writing the programs we see are passionate about their sport, we just need to have a thought process relative to making our programs more functional with higher carryover.

For more information on Applied Functional Science, visit www.grayinstitute.com

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