THE #1 QUALITY OR ATTRIBUTE AN ATHLETE MUST DEVELOP, CULTIVATE, ENHANCE, PRESERVE IN SPORT IS COORDINATION.

Anything that disrupts the quality of coordination must be thoroughly vetted and scrutinized before adopting in one’s program or exercise regime.

Development of strength, power, and speed must be implemented in such a way that it supports and enhances the coordination of the athlete. Reciprocal Innervation; the ability of the antagonists’ muscles to relax before the agonist muscles are crucial and MUST be fostered for optimal coordination.

A few years ago, I was asked to review & change an athlete’s program that was designed by their team’s strength coach.

The program is utterly littered with slow-moving and short range of motion exercises. This is basically isometric (no movement) in nature which does not contribute to a dynamic sport that requires fast reactive abilities through varied ranges of motion.

I told him that continued training in this manner will contribute to morphological changes that will disrupt his coordination.

We agreed to do remote coaching, we modified his program and did it secretly because we didn’t want him to have to be stressed about politics.

Needless to say, a few years later training secretly with us, the only person on his team that was drafted to the professional leagues, was him.

To quote Russian Sports Scientist A.I Falameyev, 1985:

“All of this has a negative effect on muscle elasticity, the ability to stretch and relax. This has an unfavorable effect on sports exercises that require speed strength and muscle coordination.”

And Soviet Sports Scientist, N. G. Ozlin, 1949:

“Achieving a somewhat larger mobility in the joint than is required for the select type of sport, creates a mobility reserve in the joints, which in turn makes it possible for the athlete to execute movements with greater speed and greater force.”

These are two of many major problems in sport and training for athletes:

  1. The overuse of slow locomotive strength exercises in a limited range of motion, and getting strong with a limited range of motion.
  2. [2] Using modalities to increase the range of motion without taking the time to strengthen that new range of motion.

In my research and findings, these are the two factors that contribute to the rising cases of ACL tears, hamstring pulls, and Achilles tendon ruptures in sports.

The point I am trying to make is that an abundance of slow-moving, short range of motion exercises done with a large amount of repetition will disrupt coordination for that athlete’s given sport. Which leads to not only disruption of playing ability but shortened and tight tissues such as ligaments, tendon, and muscles which caused injury over time.