So as I've traveled the long and winding road of health and fitness I've notice that, just like in the rest of life, performance oftentimes is a lot of Give and Take. There are a lot of ways in which I could make use of that old cliche, but in this particular instance I'm talking about how a fast, efficient athlete (or average walking talking human being) must be able to effectively Stop before they can ever hope to effectively Go. In just about every athletic endeavor there will come a point where your average athlete will have to halt whatever forward inertia they've created, no matter how fast or slow, and some themself in a completely different direction. Think about the cut of a runningback; a center fielder having to make a throw to home plate after running back to the fence to make a catch; or in a slightly more abstract (and perhaps more relevant) example, an Olympic weightlifter stapling him/herself under a few hundred pounds and not being squished.
Every one of these athletes must have the ability to rapidly and effectively DEcelerate their bodies and just as rapidly and effectively be able to stabilize and reposition their center of mas in the direction they need to go before any type of strength or explosive REacceleration can begin to happen. The best athletes in the world can cut the time of this type and magnitude of directional change down to fractions of a second. And the ones who can't? They get to collect a lot of second place trophies.
Luckily for You, Me, and Them, your body has a very impressive capability to absorb and redistribute a huge amount of force... but only if trained to do so. Most athletes, and people in general, spend a majority of their time, if not all of it, training their bodies to Go, to Explode, to Drive. But what they tend to forget is that the ability to create these types of movements from a dead start are rarely the real opportunities to display true athletic prowess, not to mention leave their competitors eating turf and clutching at air. To really train your body to be explosive in the performance realm your systems of deceleration and stabilization must be trained just like your systems of acceleration.
One of the most effective ways to train this type of ability is through training Plyometrically, and in every conceivable plane of motion. Plyometric training is a way of training your body to absorb and redistribute force more quickly and efficiently. Simply speaking, try to imagine there are little slinkies wrapped around your muscle fibers. The entire job of these slinkies (actually called Muscle Spindles) is to monitor the length of your various muscles both while still and during movement. Your brain uses this information to calculate where your different appendages are at, a term we call Proprioception. However, these slinkies have another very important capability. When a muscle stretches very quickly, such as in absorbing the impact of jumping down from a couple of steps, these slinkies can trigger a massive contain of that same muscle in order to counteract the forces of gravity, mostly so you don't eat shit and far all your muscles in half. However, with proper training we can use that contraction response to not only stop your body more quickly and stably, but also create a great deal of force in a different direction.
Aside from just this involuntary contraction from your slinkies, there are two other ways we can generate force in order to make this whole process more powerful. First off, many of the various tissues in your muscles have some degree of elastic properties. To keep things simple, imagine that mixed in around inside your muscles are thousands of rubber bands. When you quickly stretch that muscle all those rubber bands get stretched out, and immediately want to rebound to their normal position, which creates a lot more of that counter active force in the other direction. Last but not least is your ability to voluntarily contract as many muscle fibers as you can to create force in the opposite direction. Each of these three systems can be trained to be more efficient and powerful. Ask yourself, if you could have the power of three systems of contraction, versus just one, wouldn't that be a pretty sweet deal to take advantage of?
Quickly, let's perform an experiment to demonstrate what I'm talking about. Grab a chair and sit down so your hips are about level or even a touch lower than your knees with your feet on the floor. Now position your center of mass over your feet so you can jump straight up and not lose your balance. Without swinging your arms or learning forward, jump as high as you can. It helps to have a friend nearby to keep track of how high you're going. Next, stand straight up, arms extended in front of you. When you're ready, squat down and swng your arms back behind you, concentrating on feeling that energy storing up in all your little rubber bands. A split second after you hit the bottom of your squat drive up as hard as you can with yourlegs and arms and jump as high as possible. See if your second jump isn't significantly higher.
You see, sitting in the chair all you get is the force you can voluntarily produce with the muscles in your legs. Whereas using that squat first, a method we call a Counter Movement, allows you to store up and redistribute the energy in your rubber bands, as well as take advantage of the force generated by the activation of your slinkies. Many people train that dead stop power, like jumping from the chair. But to really take advantage of your capabilities, training the other two systems is vital, and pays big dividends.
Other factors apply as well, such as good flexibility, core strength and stabilization, and a Shitload of time practicing the actual redirection skills (which is improved through a different type of training), but being able to increase the ability of your muscular system to absorb force, stabilize your joints/body, and redistribute that force in a fast, effective manner will make even the most average of individuals a much more explosive athlete.
To find out more information about how to incorporate Plyometrics into your training program contact your nearest strength coach. If they look at you funny or ask Why, find yourself a new strength coach. I know a few as well if you don't have one...
Now, Go Forth Athletes, and practice the Art of the Stop!!
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