POSTURE: Key to Power/Efficiency of Athletic Movements

In my last post I promised to outline some very simple activities that can be used to develop correct postural integrity in conjunction with athletic movement-skill development.

As mentioned in my last post, correct Postural Alignment allows the athlete to be more successful at accessing the “elastic components” transfer of energy to the skeleton for more efficient athletic movements. 

When the body is in correct, postural alignment it is able to successfully utilize the energy supplied by the “fascial band” that connects all areas of the body through a web-like system of tendons and fascial bands. This “band”, made up of tendonous and fascial tissues, wraps the body in a web-like “highway” that helps transfer muscular energy to the skeleton via the “stretch reflex” mechanism.

This “stretch reflex” mechanism is created through teamwork via the muscles’ contractile ability and the “elastic” ability of the tendonous tissue. While the muscle contracts “isometrically”(stabilizing) or “concentrically” (shortening) it is stretches the “elastic” tissue (tendon), which provides the power for movement about the joint or joints.

The spring-like qualities and power production potential supplied by the “connective tissues” that make up the Fascial Band and tendons that wrap around the body and all it’s joints ARE MORE EFFICIENT AND ACCESSIBLE when proper POSTURAL ALIGNMENT has been achieved through postural strength development.

Again, as discussed in the last post, this is a 24/7 task as failure to develop correct posture throughout all the daily activities (sitting, standing, walking, etc.) will negate any efforts at postural awareness during sport training/ practice times.

Proper POSTURE allows the athlete to develop intrinsic efficiency for all movements by empowering the muscles to work as stabilizers for the more efficient tendon/fascial tissue to stretch and recoil. This stretch and recoil by the tendinous-fascial tissues of the body allow the “connective” tissue to do the work via “stretch-reflex” rather than use the bio-energetic process of the muscles, which requires fuel (ATP) and various bio-chemical processes, depending the intensity and duration of the movements.

To simplify the above, CORRECT POSTURAL ALIGNMENT allows for the development of EFFICIENT ATHLETIC MOVEMENT!

Concurrent development of Posture and Athletic Sport Movement can be done in a variety of ways in order to be both time-saving and instructionally-efficient. Creativity by coaches in developing methods that allow for development of both posture and athletic movement patterns cannot be underestimated.

Since the brain will always take the “easy” road for movement patterns to save on energy costs, it is important to understand that this means the body will “default” to adopting patterns of movement AND posture that CAN BE DIFFICULT TO CHANGE.

Athletes who have developed CORRECT POSTURE are most likely, via “default”, to adopt patterns of movement that are EFFICIENT.

Athletes who have POOR POSTURE are most likely, via “default”, to adopt patterns of movement that are INEFFICIENT. This inefficiency cause a variety of “energy” leaks throughout movements that result in LOSS OF POWER PRODUCTION, GREATER ENERGY COST AND HIGHER INCIDENCE OF OVER-USE INJURIES.

Basically methods of instructing technical sports skills that develop optimal length-tension postures of key areas of the torso CAN address both POSTURE and BASIC ATHLETIC SKILL DEVELOPMENT.

A Posture that promotes optimal length-tension posture of the hip and pelvic musculature in running, throwing, hitting a baseball, forehand swing in tennis, etc. is the LOCK POSITION of the pelvis.

Correct LOCK POSITION of the pelvis as described by Craig Ranson, PhD and David Joyce in (Chap.3/ Enhancing Movement Efficiency) HIGH PERFORMANCE TRAINING FOR SPORTS appears below:

“Drills that can be used to quickly and effectively improve trunk-muscle recruitment involve running with arms stretched overhead. Bilateral overhead arm positions cause a reflexive co-contraction of the trunk musculature on the pelvis, further augmenting potential for energy transfer and reducing unwanted rotational or lateral motion of the trunk and pelvis…….”Running with a stick held as high as possible overhead (Overhead Position in Olympic Snatch Technique) will also harness this reflex and can have immediate positive effects on subsequent running technique.”----“For lock-position walking drill, the athlete begins with a broomstick (dowel) in both hands. Walking or skipping forward, the athlete pushes the stance-side arm upward while obtaining lock-position, elevation of the pelvis on the swing-side, hip flexion to approximately 80 degrees and maximal knee flexion and ankle dorsiflextion. Elbows remain straight (locked). Simultaneously, the athlete forcefully plantar-flexes the stance ankle.”

It should be noted that the lock-position of the pelvis can only be maintained IF the strength of the lateral hip musculature is adequate enough to hold this position.

Lateral hip musculature is another key to development of POSTURAL STRENGTH/ INTEGRITY critical for athletic movement skill capacity.

Since the pelvic-lock position in mid-stance is critical to striking and throwing sports development of the lateral hip musculature may go unnoticed.

Lateral hip musculature development is also a key factor in development of ANKLE STABILITY, KNEE STABILITY and can alleviate such sprint mechanical problems as “Cross-Over Gait” and power loss during ground contact phase.

Proper strengthening of the Glutes, Core stabilizers and External Hip Rotators allows for the necessary “stacking” of knee over foot, hip over knee and provide a level and stable pelvis OVER hip. THIS IMPROVES postural control that allows for ankle stability at ground contact.

Other critical areas of ATHLETIC SKILL DEVELOPMENT that can be successfully improved via Postural Alignment and Strengthening are CHANGE OF DIRECTION (COD) and JUMPING SKILLS.

Changes of direction, cutting jumping and landing are all athletic skill competencies that depend on optimal Postural Strength/Alignment to develop EXPLOSIVE FORCE about the ankle, pelvic control during single-leg support and torso rotation toward the desired direction of travel.

PLEASE READ THE ARTICLE BELOW, which pertains to the increase in arm-related injuries in youth baseball players. Again, this stems from “specializing” in one sport instead of changing sports during the various seasons. THEN READ THE NEXT ARTICLE CONCERNING AN AYSO ARTICLE ADVISING MULTI-SPORT PARTICIPATION. 

There ARE better methods for athletic development available that are  “free” and “proven” to be more effective IN THE LONG RUN!

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New Shoulder Injury Identified

Young baseball pitchers who throw more than 100 pitches per week are at risk for a newly-identified overuse injury that can impede normal shoulder development and lead to additional problems, including rotator cuff tears, according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology.

The injury, termed acromial apophysiolysis by the researchers, is characterized by incomplete fusion and tenderness at the acromion. The acromion, which forms the bone at the top or roof of the shoulder, typically develops from four individual bones into one bone during the teenage years.

"We kept seeing this injury over and over again in young athletes who come to the hospital at the end of the baseball season with shoulder pain and edema at the acromion on MRI, but no other imaging findings," said Johannes B. Roedl, M.D., a radiologist in the musculoskeletal division at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.

To investigate the unexplained pain, Dr. Roedl and a team of researchers conducted a retrospective study of 2,372 consecutive patients between the ages of 15 and 25 who underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for shoulder pain between 1998 and 2012. The majority of the patients, which included both males and females, were baseball pitchers.

"Among high school athletes, pitching is the most common reason for shoulder pain," Dr. Roedl said.
Sixty-one of the patients, (2.6 percent) had pain at the top of the shoulder and an incomplete fusion of the acromion but no other findings. The patients were then age- and sex-matched to patients who did not have the condition to form a control group.

Pitching history was available for 106 of the 122 patients included in the study. Through statistical analysis, the researchers found that throwing more than 100 pitches per week was a substantial risk factor for developing acromial apophysiolysis. Among the patients with this overuse injury, 40 percent threw more than 100 pitches per week, compared to 8 percent in the control group.
"We believe that as a result of overuse, edema develops and the acromion bone does not fuse normally," Dr. Roedl explained.

All 61 injured patients took a three-month rest from pitching. One patient underwent surgery while the remaining 60 patients were treated conservatively with non-steroidal pain medication.
Follow-up MRI or X-ray imaging studies conducted a minimum of two years later, after the patients turned 25, were available for 29 of the 61 injured patients and for 23 of the 61 controls. Follow-up imaging revealed that 25 of the 29 patients (86 percent) with the overuse injury showed incomplete fusion of the acromion, compared to only 1 of the 23 (4 percent) controls.

"The occurrence of acromial apophysiolysis before the age of 25 was a significant risk factor for bone fusion failure at the acromion and rotator cuff tears after age 25," Dr. Roedl said.

Twenty-one of the 29 patients with the overuse injury continued pitching after the rest period, and all 21 showed incomplete bone fusion at the acromion. Rotator cuff tears were also significantly more common among this group than in the control group (68 percent versus 29 percent, respectively). The severity of the rotator cuff tears was also significantly higher in the overuse injury group compared to the control group.

"This overuse injury can lead to potentially long-term, irreversible consequences including rotator cuff tears later in life," Dr. Roedl said.

Dr. Roedl and his colleagues suggest teenage and young adult pitchers limit the number of pitches thrown in a week to 100. The American Sports Medicine Institute currently recommends that baseball pitchers between 15 and 18 years of age play no more than two games per week with 50 pitches per game.

"Pitching places incredible stress on the shoulder," Dr. Roedl said. "It's important to keep training in the moderate range and not to overdo it."

Dr. Roedl pointed out that many successful professional baseball pitchers played various positions, and even other sports, as young athletes and thereby avoided overuse shoulder injuries.

"More and more kids are entering sports earlier in life and are overtraining," he said. "Baseball players who pitch too much are at risk of developing a stress response and overuse injury to the acromion. It is important to limit stress to the growing bones to allow them to develop normally."
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"Acromial Apophysiolysis: Superior Shoulder Pain and Acromial Nonfusion in the Young Throwing Athlete." Collaborating with Dr. Roedl were William B. Morrison, M.D., Michael G. Ciccotti, M.D., and Adam C. Zoga, M.D.
Radiology is edited by Herbert Y. Kressel, M.D., Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass., and owned and published by the Radiological Society of North America, Inc. (http://radiology.rsna.org/)

RSNA is an association of more than 53,000 radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and related scientists promoting excellence in patient care and health care delivery through education, research and technologic innovation. The Society is based in Oak Brook, Ill. (RSNA.org)
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Huffington Post: The Team That Did Not Practice 
November 3, 2014 
Editor's Note: Please enjoy this Huffington Post blog entry put together by Ann Brenhoff that follows the journey of a U-19 AYSO team that didn't practice, but had an undefeated season and won three Area playoffs.  
My 17-year-old daughter has been playing soccer since she was 5. One year of club soccer sent her running back into the arms of our local AYSO -- something that had little to do with her skill set and more to do with just wanting to have fun at a sport she loves.

I am happy to report that her Malibu AYSO Girls U19 team just won the area playoffs after an undefeated season. What I love most about that fact is this: They didn't hold a single practice all year. Not a one. In fact, on the roster of 21 girls, there were a couple of games where just enough players showed up to take the field and they played without subs. Still no pleading notes from the coach, no emails begging girls to show up. Nothing.

So how does a team that doesn't practice and doesn't insist that the girls come to games rise to the state level? Easy. To start, the coaches understood and made it clear from the start that this was only about having fun, so there was no pressure. We all like to win, but this wasn't about winning; it was about fun. Against a backdrop of looming college admissions, SAT prep classes and AP studies, plus stacks of homework best measured in miles not feet, the coaches realized that there wasn't room for One. More. Obligation. Not one more. So they wisely didn't create one.

Instead what they created was a breather. It was fun to hang out with whoever showed up for a game. It was fun for the parents too, especially now that most of the girls could drive themselves to the pre-game warmup and parents could just show up later to watch. Not that this team actually ever even really warmed up. Our warmups looked more like a coffee klatch the morning after a sleepover but with more stretching and a few casual practice kicks into the goal. It didn't matter; it was fun.

But there is another reason that the team that did not practice did so well. With a very few exceptions, these girls have been playing soccer together for about a dozen years. They know one another, trust each other as players, and all seem to like everybody else on the team. In more than a decade of watching them, I can't recall a single instance of a player finger-pointing or blaming a teammate for a defensive mistake or missed goal. They know each other so well that they sense where the girl playing left wing will run; they intuit which way the center midfielder will boom the ball; and the balls the mid-line kicks always land squarely at the feet of the forward because everyone knows how she runs and where the ball needs to drop. They pass the ball, they share the glory, and when a goal is scored it's a team goal not a player's goal.

So why am I writing about the team that did not practice in a column that generally discusses the experience of aging? Because there are a few life lessons in here: There are some situations in life that need to be recognized as crazy-making stressors. Practices when most of these girls were carrying rigorous course loads, play school sports and have tons of other obligations demanding their time was one such situation. Mid-lifers are known as the sandwich generation because we attempt to be all things to all people, caring for our elderly relatives and managing our families simultaneously. Maybe we can occasionally just stop practicing?

And then of course there is the real aging lesson from the team that did not practice: What you need to survive is to surround yourself with a bunch of people who actually know you well and on whom you can rely. I believe they're called friends.
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AYSO encourages younger athletes to play multiple sports to help build a better athletic foundation. If soccer players take part in a variety of activities, they will have a greater skill set and increased muscular development.