Train Your Way Out of Early Extension
Early extension is an extremely common, yet avoidable faulty swing characteristic. In fact, 70% of all golfers early extend and 99% of PGA tour players do not. Quite the correlation for great ball striking, wouldn’t you say? There's a good chance early extension is hurting your score card because it significantly increases the risk for a block or hook shot. It also has potential for causing some harm to the body as it results in rapid, forceful, undesirable spinal movement. So, what is early extension? Early Extension occurs when the hips
The Rower: A Minute to Learn, A Lifetime to Master
Rowing is a relatively simple form of exercise with a relatively simple stroke. The nuances of the stroke are what make this sport so incredible. My goal through this blog is not to create any rowing masters. My hope is that these tips allow you to use the rower in a more safe and effective way. By properly setting up the machine and performing the stroke, you can save yourself from aches, pains, and injuries that could come along with improper use. By understanding how to read the monitor, you
Reducing The Risk for ACL Tears with Movement Quality Screening
Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) tears are nothing short of soul-crushing. Athletes who suffer one are in for a long 9–12 month ride of surgery concerns, head-scratching post-op differences of opinion, and the potential for insurance companies to prematurely cut them off, resulting in high risk for a re-tear. It is extremely frustrating that we still lack common knowledge about this injury. Especially when we have been seeing such a huge spike in ACL tears in recent years. In America alone, over 200,000 ACL injuries occur each year and 70 percent
Become A Faster Defender On The Court
When we talk about speed, we often think about linear speed and acceleration. While these components are significant to the success of athletes in their sport, we often overlook the importance of training laterally. If you watch a basketball game, no matter the level of competition, you will notice players constantly moving side-to-side and changing direction. Staying in front of an opponent as a defender requires a considerable amount of lateral speed and the ability to change direction quickly. The best way to improve sport specific movements is to mimic
Fighting Low Back Pain Through Exercise
Low back pain (LBP) is the single leading cause of disability worldwide, preventing many people from engaging in work as well as daily activities. While working out with back pain may seem undoable to many, neglecting it entirely can oftentimes do more harm than good. This misconception needs to be addressed because when prescribed appropriately, exercise decreases stiffness, facilitates fluid exchange between discs to reduce swelling, and repairs muscle fibers that help support the back. While it’s important to avoid certain movements that can stress the area, delicate programming with
The Equation for Improving Sprint Speed
Many athletes enter the gym with the goal of getting faster. As strength and conditioning coaches, how can we make sure that happens? There are two variables that we can manipulate to help an athlete get faster. Speed is a simple function of the distance an individual covers with each step (stride length) and how quickly those steps happen (stride frequency) (1). If you improve either variable, your speed will increase. Stride length is often increased through developing power through the legs. Power development is a common theme in strength and
Engaging Youth Athletes with Games!
As we’ve written about before, getting young athletes involved in strength and conditioning has numerous benefits. That being said, one of the more difficult aspects of training young athletes is keeping them interested and excited to come to the gym to train. The best way to keep a young athlete coming back to the gym is to make it feel like play, while also improving their sport performance. Here are 5 drills to try with youth athletes to get them faster and stronger, while feeling like recess! Paloff ABCs Any paloff press
Stay Strong, Stay Fast
Delay Age-Related Decline with Speed Development Training Techniques for speed development can be employed by people of all ages, with minimal equipment, in order to boost overall physical health and delay age-related muscular changes. What is speed development? In simple terms, it is training to produce a maximal amount of force in a minimal amount of time. This type of training produces a different effect on the body compared to generating moderate force over a long-duration activity. As the human body ages, overall muscle mass declines, and fast-twitch muscle fiber declines more rapidly
5 Exercises for a Stronger Core and a Safer Swing
Unfortunately for the average golfer, back pain is likely something that they’ll deal with at some point in their golfing lifecycle. Back pain doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s painful to a debilitating degree, but it can difficult to deal with regardless. As we all know it doesn’t take much the throw off your swing. Just being a couple dimples off-center face contact can have a dramatic effect on where the ball travels. Some mild tightness, or worse, sharp shooting pain, can certainly affect the way you move enough to throw
Pull-ups
The pull-up is a challenging but beneficial vertical pulling exercise. Many people fall into the bad habit of trying to get as many done as they can without reaping the full benefits of the exercise because they allow their form to suffer. For a correct pull-up follow these tips: -Start just short of a dead hang, with the arms fully straight but not letting the shoulders shrug up toward the ears -Keep your core tight and avoid swinging as you pull up -Stick your chest out toward the bar and