Fundamentals

      So often athletes want to skip over the fundamentals and get right to the “good” stuff. They want to train like their favorite college or professional athlete does. The problem is this is like skipping kindergarten and going straight to the 12th grade. They only get to see them train as college or professional athletes, never really knowing how much time and effort was put into learning the fundamentals. We like to say in the sport performance training field that you have to earn your weight and the exercises you are permitted to do. You have to go through the process of learning how to move properly and then execute the exercises properly. Notice how I separated the two, movement and exercise. If you cannot perform the movement properly you should not be allowed to perform the exercise. So many times athletes want to attempt exercises that they do not yet possess the proper movement for. If an athlete wants to perform a loaded front squat, but cannot go through the movement unloaded first they will have to practice the movement and perform developmental exercises to assist them in grooving the pattern before they are allowed to do the exercise. We see this in many aspects of life nowadays, skipping over the process and going right to the product. We will not allow this to happen, training programs must be earned through dedication and consistently. We will not make exceptions to this rule. Fundamental comes first!

       There will be hard work to accomplish these tasks, do not think for a minute that it will be easy. Although we now look at first grade as learning the basics, it was not basic to the new minds learning these steps for the first time, neither is sport performance training.  If we adhere to following the process the product will speak for itself.

        So what are the basics of sport performance training? The basics involve learning how to perform bodyweight movements properly such as squats, split squats, hip hinges, jumps, skips, rows, chin ups, planks and push ups. Master the basics before you make progressions to more advanced movements. I do not remember seeing any first grades taking trigonometry for their math class; apply the same principles to sport performance training.