Thursday, August 21, 2008

Welcome Back, Captain America!

Great to hear from you, Cam! Sounds as if you have lots going on in your new place! Do me a favor and send me an updated email address so I can keep you current!

Best -

Andrew

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Hello Everyone

Andrew, what an amazing tool you have built/provided for all those who were at AP together. Thank you. Boy, a lot has happened since last October and I can't believe it is already August '08. Our new Performance Center in Redmond, WA (eastside of Seattle) has been doing quite well. Mark Verstegen himself helped design our floor layout, which not surprisingly, looks quite similar to AP's Tempe facility. Or should I say, their old facility now that they will be building a new Tempe site in the near future. It is nice to read all of your discussions and I am anxious to take part myself.
We had Nick and Craig Friedman put on a condensed Mentorship I for our Coaching staff and have been implementing AP methodology since January. It is amazing to witness the transformation in peoples' abilities once a solid foundation is in place. I am a firm believer in the FMS and corrective exercises. I believe, since January, we have conducted over 1,000 Functional Movement Screens (prerequisite to Performance Training). There are still "lightbulbs" going off in my head as we continue to conduct daily FMS's.
I hope this finds everyone in good health and look forward to much, much more participation.
Cameron Hervol (Seattle)

Better Late Than Never

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Speed & Mechanics

Oooo! Great questions, Sean. So much to cover! Okay - speed work. Why bring the heel in at all? In acceleration and max velocity, there is no heel/roll, right? As we covered at API - even though the motion is taught as ''heel reaching over the knee," it's all dorsiflexion and piston-like drive of the legs during acceleration, then there's a transition to the 'float' phase once max speed has been attained. The only component that needs more attention is the importance of arm drive; remember that the arms drive the legs, and that the athlete should be cued to drive the elbows, carrying the arms the direction of the sprint, with the hands closed but relaxed.

In deceleration, while the quads can certainly be used to slow the athlete, I generally have my athletes switch to heel-toe, primarily to save the knees the full impact of reducing speed. Likewise with linear lunges - front or back. As you state, in the form that we teach them, lunges are not very applicable to speed training. I can't speak for others, but I teach heel landings during linear training because so many athletes are so quadriceps-dominant that they need to learn more motor control to absorb and redirect force.

In lateral training, however, more of my cues are focused on the proper angle of the lower leg at plant/pushoff during a directional change. If I'm teaching a lateral lunge, I am cueing to land nearly flat-footed, keeping in mind that the foot should be (say it with me) dorsiflexed when landing.

So here's a question for you, Sean; on the plyo box jumps, is it that we're teaching the athlete to land heel-toe, or is it that we're teaching the athlete to dorsiflex the ankle whenever the foot leaves the ground during an athletic movement? When I teach an athlete to land, they're in dorsiflexion, which creates a nearly flat-footed landing, followed by a deceleration through the hips.

Re directional change: the outside leg is going to plant, absorb, then redirect force in the new direction. What happens next depends quite bit on the new direction. If the angle of change is small (as in coming close to a full reversal of direction) the knee of the outside leg will drive up and over the inside leg, as the inside leg opens. If the angle of change is shallow, the knee of the plant leg will not need to drive over the inside leg, and the inside leg will open as it begins its step in the new direction.

I know you asked more, but I hope that this will be enough to get the discussion going! Stay warm!

Andrew

From The Major

Hey Guys,
It’s been a long time! I hope you are all well.
I thought I’d write to tell you about my latest API experience. I was so impressed with the overall product that API mentorship program provided that I arranged for them to come to my unit. As you may remember, I am an Army physical therapist. Generally, the fitness “culture” in the Army is run, push-ups and sit-ups. This is driven by the mandate to pass the semi-annual Army fitness test. Lately, there has been a lot interest in Gym Jones and Crossfit types of workouts. While this is admittedly better than the fitness test based workouts, it still is not a complete fitness program and leads to a lot of overuse type injuries. I personally believe the power-endurance training is critical for a warrior athlete; however, this is the top of the pyramid. APIs methodology must comprise the base of the pyramid.
So in attempt to start to change the fitness “culture” in my unit, we invited API out to do their first-ever off site mentorship program last February. It worked out super well. We ordered gym bundles (physioballs, valslides, mini-bands, Core Essentials book, etc) for all participants. Keiser and Power Plate provided demonstration equipment for us. My staff did ImETT VO2 analyzer testing and Functional Movement Screen testing on participants prior to the course. API brought out a primary instructor, an assistant instructor, a nutritionist, the military liaison, and for one day Paul Robbins (ESD guy who wrote the the workout protocols based on ImETT results). We did not have the facilities to do contrast bath during regen. So we improvised with 50 gallon trash cans! We placed them in the locker room shower and filled them with ice and water. Participants would sit the ice tub for 3 minutes and then take a hot shower for 3 minutes. It was humorous, but also effective. The cost worked out to $2,200 per participant and we had 20 people in the class. This was less expensive than sending our soldiers to an API facility. Our goal was to make these participants “trainers” for their perspective work section; thus, facilitating the change of culture.
Our initial class was so successful, that we invited them back again last week. This time Nick, Mr. Dorsiflex himself, was our primary instructor. By the way, he got engaged a couple of months ago! 
I realize that we all work in a variety of settings, but I thought you’d find this interesting. If nothing else then it will remind you to think outside of the box!
DORSIFLEX!
v/r, Nancy
Nancy Teich MPT, OCS, ATC
MAJ, SP
U.S. Army