Enhance Personal Training and Athletic Performance, Inc. © 2010
Youth Athletic Development
What you need to know before signing up your child
Have you ever asked yourself, "how did they do that?" Athletes are constantly thinking and reacting. Within all sports, an athlete has a split second to decide what to do and how to do it. One way of training that involves a lot of discipline, determination, and focus, is what I like to call neuromuscular conditioning. In order to perform a highly skilled movement accurately, motor units must fire in perfect sequence. If the brain is unfamiliar with the impulse, then the body is not prepared to execute the movement. To perform the movement accurately, the brain must transmit messages smoothly to allow consistent muscular contractions. The purpose of this training phase/technique is to recruit and educate contractile units to optimize the muscle-firing sequence.
Is neuromuscular conditioning in your child's athletic performance program? It should be! To many coaches and athletes want quick results, therefore overlooking the importance of this training technique. Athletes train to be efficient and effective and what they do best. Efficiency of movement, having sound mechanics, and coordination will effectively improve an athlete's performance and abiity. Having poor mechanics increases fatigue and chance of injury. Poor mechanics comes from the repetitive training that does not emphasis correct mechanics.
There are three stages in neuromuscular training:
- Cognitive Control – In this stage the athlete must think through the movement while heavily relying on auto auditory and visual input.
- Associated Control – In this stage the athlete becomes more comfortable with the movement and is less reliant on visual and auditory input. The athlete is more alert.
- Autonomous Control – In this stage the movement is now fluid and needs no conscious thought, it just happens automatically. This is the highest level of motor development.
Athletes - Need to be worrying more about proper mechanics and less about how much weight they can lift. Form and control before speed and weight. If you cannot control the weight, there is no reason to lift the weight.
Coaches - Need to inforce proper mechanics and not worry about how many sets or reps have been done in order to feel like the session was productive. Patience is a virtue.
Parents - Ask questions about the program that you will be signing your child up for. Is the empashis of the program on perfecting movement and increasing body awareness? Are the exercises and techniques functional to what your child needs to become a better athlete?
In Enhance's Youth Sport Performance Program, our goal is to get every youth athlete to the third stage of neuromusucalr training (Autonomous Control) and master body movement and coordination. Perfecting form is the key to gaining speed, strength, power, and quickness. Becoming a better and smarter athlete is just a couple of weeks away. Click the link below for more information on the Youth Sport Performance Program.
June 2010 Enhance Fitness Newsletter
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