S B Coaches College - Tip of the Month May 2004




		S B Coaches College Tip of the Month May 2004

Would you like to make your athletes run faster, and jump higher? Sure you would, that is the goal of every program. Many coaches perform a variety of lower body strength exercises such as; squats, lunges, plyometrics, and speed development exercises. One of the best ways to enhance the effect of these other exercises is to perform balance exercises. If you include single leg training into your programs you are already taking care of this component, but if you don't, it would be wise to start including simple balance drills into your design.

Balance drills and exercises are beneficial because they help to increase joint stability. The more stabile a joint is, the more efficient it becomes at transferring force through the kinetic chain. For example, if an athlete constantly sprains their ankle, their ability to stabilize that joint is severely hampered. It may be not only be the ankle itself that is causing the problem, but something else further up the chain. An unstable joint will leak force and energy that is traveling through that joint. There is a tremendous amount of force that is produced when your foot hits the ground when running or jumping and this force travels up through the entire chain. Now, if your ankle, knee or hip is constantly leaking energy you will not be able to use all of the energy that you are producing with the ground and will ultimately become less efficient. This is similar to a leaky pipe that is causing your water bill to go through the roof. That unstable point in the pipe can't hold the water in, which is causing it to drip through and lose water that you could have used.

The best way to alleviate this problem is to include a variety of balance drills or exercises that are performed on a single leg. Make sure that you can balance in all three planes of motion. One simple drill is a 3 way balance performed on 1 Leg:
Stand on your right leg in about a 1/4 squat position (this is to activate the proper musculature, that is involved in stabilization, primarily around the hip). The first position is with your left leg next to your right leg (sagittal plane), the second position is with your left leg directly out to the side (frontal plane), and the third position is with your left leg opened up as you try to turn away from your right leg (transverse plane). Begin by holding each position for 10 sec and work up to 30 sec ea position and for each leg. This is an example of a static balance drill. This should be progressed to dynamic balance, which includes movement of your limbs, and finally progressed to ballistic balance, which includes jumping activities that challenge your balance at high speeds. These drills can be incorporated into the warm-up or between sets of strength exercises. Once incorporated into your programs, the results will be immediate. Balance is dependent upon neuro-muscular control and can be learned within a few sessions. Start implementing balance drills into your programs to make your athletes more efficient.

SBCC's Ready to Use Warm-up's CD-ROM contains an 8 minute Balance Warm-up that is great for athletes of all ages.