Speed & Movement Aptitude
Teaching Winning Strategies
Introduction
The ability to  move has long been considered an innate skill that athletes
either posses or don t. The notion that movement aptitude or ability can in
fact be taught, progressed and even perfected over time remains a constant
source of debate for many strength coaches.
More over, several sport coaches often design drills and maneuvers within
the context of a given practice that are intended to enhance the specific
speed or movement proficiency of an athlete as it relates to a particular
pattern of motion found within the respective sport. More often than not, the
drill or sequence is demonstrated once, discussed briefly and then executed
by the individual athletes on the team.
Phrases such as  Get there! and  FASTER! are yelled by the coach as he or
she laments at the lack of speed or proficiency with which the athletes are
performing the drill in question.
The issue however, resides not in the fact that the athletes are lacking
anything in particular as the reason why they can t seem to perfect the drill
to the level that the coach demands, rather it is the coach/trainer who is
lacking& Specifically, a well thought out and progressive system intended to
gradually increase the level of ability in each athlete allowing for adequate if
not perfect execution.
This remains one of several issues I feel are lost and missing on so many
coaches and trainers working with young athletes today  Strength, speed,
mobility, agility and even flexibility exercises are skills that must be taught,
reinforced and perfected through a progressive and systematic means.
I feel strongly that this is at least partially attributable to the notion that
many of the best athletes in a given sport seldom become quality coaches.
It is the ability to understand the individual elements that comprise a specific
technique, how to break them down to their finer parts and incorporate them
into a methodical instructive process that accounts for one s ability as a
coach. Very often, naturally talented athletes lack this ability, as their skills
were typically  unconscious .
Coaches and trainers who don t adopt an instructional system within their
training sessions are not allowing for optimal development of the skills
associated with the exercises they are prescribing and therefore not
reinforcing a lifetime adherence of ability to that drill.
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For example, Coach  A takes his soccer players out on to the field for a
training session and creates a cone drill intended to improve agility. Five to
ten minutes are spent explaining the drill and he demonstrates the
movement sequence once. He then instructs the athletes to go through the
drill as shown/discussed.
After everyone has gone through the drill, he bemoans that his team did not
execute the drill to the level that he had expected. But what  level is he
talking about? He only showed the drill once and discussed the complexities
of it for a few minutes. Is the level he was hoping to see one that he  saw in
his head? Very often coaches and trainers will know what a drill or exercise
should look like, but struggle with why their athletes aren t performing it as
such. In this example, Coach  A did not take the time to make his athletes
understand the finite characteristics of each motion within the movement
sequence, so adherence or demonstration of the drill is not going to look like
the image he created.
Same coach. Same team  two weeks later.
This time Coach  A asks his team to perform the exact same drill but is
shocked to see that, although still not at the level he wanted it to be, it is
being executed poorly for different reasons now.
Two weeks ago when he first prescribed the drill, the kids were going
through the exercise reasonably well, but the speed and tempo were far too
slow. This time, the speed and tempo are much better, but the actual
exeuction of each  cut and  change of direction looks very sloppy.
In the absence of a quality and orderly instructional method, young athletes
simply cannot adhere to a level of competency in performing a drill or
exercise because they do not have a grasp of the finite and fundamental
components of how to perform it.
Physical elements such as  cutting ,  changing direction ,  decelerating and
 accelerating are items that many coaches and trainers want their athletes to
be good at, but don t realize that they are not inborn skills we simply posses.
They can however be taught and systematically perfected if the coach in
question develops and executes a well thought out and progressive teaching
model.
Having said all that, there are three fundamental reasons coaches and
trainers should teach movement skills as part of their curriculum:
Injury Prevention
There are currently over 40 million young athletes in the United States alone
participating in organized sports annually. Over 3.5 million sport-related
injuries are reported every year as well. The interesting portion of that
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statistic is that 3.5 million injuries are reported. The number of  slight
hamstring pulls or  minor inversion sprains that are not reported and
dismissed, as  no big deal is innumerable.
How many of those slight pulls and minor sprains however, lead to more
serious injuries due to an alteration in normal gait or mechanics is an
impossible debate to wage, but I would suggest that the numbers would be
reasonably high.
The crux of the argument as it relates to movement aptitude instruction is
clear, however. Anterior cruciate ligament damage in the knee for example,
occurs most frequently in three sports  volleyball, basketball and soccer. In
separate studies, several factual considerations with respect to ACL injuries
have been shown:
1. Non-contact ACL injuries often occur with the knee at modest flexion
along with a valgus motion.
2. Quadriceps contraction applies an anterior shear force on the tibia,
which strains the ACL.
3. The above mentioned quadriceps contraction can cause an ACL injury
if the knee flexion angle is less than 30 degrees and the hamstring
musculature does not supply necessary posterior shear force (when
functioning well, the hamstrings provide a counter force which pulls
the tibia back from any translation forward).
The mechanisms of ACL injuries (non-contact varieties) are most commonly
found during the following motions:
Landing from a jump
 Cutting or decelerating to change direction
Landing from a jump and cutting are both skills however, that if taught well,
could decrease the injury rates experienced by young athletes. Either many
coaches are oblivious to that fact, or they simply lack the knowledge of how
to teach these elemental skills in a progressive manner.
Developmental Performance Enhancement
Who is the better athlete& the one who can get there quickest or the one
who can decelerate, change directions and accelerate most economically?
You better believe it s the latter!
Young athletes who learn skills and movement aptitude at a young age
blossom into capable and economical on-field performers who are resistant to
injury. You have taught them how to execute the finer points of a variety of
movement skills and progressed them over time, narrowing their focus and
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making them more sport specific in nature. We all marvel at the athletes
who demonstrate tremendous  body awareness and appear  deer-like in
their movement habits. There is no question that athletes who demonstrate
this type of ability are most typically far and away better than the average
athlete. The term I find most favorable fits this type of athlete is fluidity of
motion  they find themselves capable and biomechanically enabled to
execute all levels of movement-based stimulus regardless of the sport.
This is not to say that these performance markers are immediate necessarily.
Again, a tremendous limitation in the minds of many trainers and coaches 
immediate improvements for immediate on-field results. This shortsighted
approach to developing young athletes is simply not congruous with their
best interests and very often motivated by selfish, adult-based factors. The
eight-year-old  plastic trophy syndrome is unfortunately alive and well
worldwide when it comes to training young athletes:
6 Weeks to Speed Improvement!
Increase Your Vertical Jump in 4 Weeks!
These kinds of slogans geared towards the parents of young athletes are
commonplace in our industry and more often than not attributed to the
trainer and coach who themselves lack the insight of how to create and
implement a longer term approach to athletic development.
Cognitive Societal Change
The term  Kaizen is one that is vague and unfamiliar to most people. For
those of us who have heard of this term, it is generally applied to the
business world and recognized as being Japanese in origin.
Kaizen is typically defined as a  bettering or  improved change with the key
notion being one of  long-term ,  gradual or  consistent . A Kaizen-based
approach then in developing young athletes would be to create or induce
improvement on a gradual or long-term basis.
Later this year, I will be releasing my newest book,  Training Young Athletes
 The Kaizen Approach . Although of course I will be discussing training
methodology and prescription, the crux of the book will concentrate on the
philosophical mindset necessary to develop young athletes with a long-term,
continuous or visionary focus.
Where will the young 9 year old need to be in 3 years? What assessed
limitations of strength, movement aptitude or structure will prevent full
potential from occurring?
A Kaizen approach to this demographic of the industry would be one in which
enormous effort is spent on resisting the need to stimulate immediate
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gratification in the form of decreased 40 times, increased vertical jump ability
or improved strength. That is not to say that improvements in each of these
areas would not occur  and that is the major limitation of understanding so
many coaches and trainers have. Certainly, any new training stimulus
intended to develop improved technique in a given strength, movement or
flexibility-based exercises will cause positive change. Especially with
younger athletes, enhanced ability in any biomotor skill with have a
carryover effective on other biomotor skills.
In that, performance improvements are a symptom of a quality instruction-
based developmental program, rather than its goal.
The quicker that coaches, trainers, parents and media understand this point,
the better off our young athletes are going to be.
Teaching Strategies
Skill Sets
As mentioned previously, what is lacking with many coaches and trainers is a
systematic and vision-based method to teaching specific and general
movement habits.
Every movement-based ability can be broken down into fine elements,
taught separately/progressively, reconstructed back into a full sequence and
eventually perfected as a Skill Set.
I have been teaching skill sets to young athletes for years and feel 100%
that they are the single most crucial factor for teaching and eventually
perfecting movement aptitude. The key in creating an effective skill set is to
breakdown complex movement sequences into individual and less daunting
parts that athletes can learn separately.
Proper progressions include:
- Identifying and teaching each portion of the skill set individually
- Verbally naming or  cuing each individual portion of the skill set
to athletes frequently so they become comfortable with the
vernacular
- Having athletes be able to recite the name, sequence and
position of each individual portion of the skill set when asked
- Having the athletes be able to either critique an inappropriate
skill set when they see it, or decipher what was incorrect about
there own actions while performing a skill set (or its parts)
When creating a skill set for a particular movement ability, it is prudent to
think globally about various aspects related to retention and adherence. For
example, whenever possible, try to  link or connect skill sets of different
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abilities to have common language or similar steps. This promotes a
universal connection and understanding for your athletes and leads to better
observance - I will demonstrate that with my lateral and linear deceleration
skill sets in the next paragraph. Another key issue is to use
words/phrases/cues that are layman based and easily remembered by kids.
That may sound like a  no-brainer , but you would be surprised how often I
hear coaches and trainers using words like  eccentric load and  angular
position when teaching movement skills. That is not to say that phrases like
this should be avoided. ALL of my young athletes no what a  plyo-step is for
instance, but again, my work in youth development is very Kaizen-based.
We take time to teach and understand what our industry jargon means and
how it is defined and used. Even my 7-year-old athletes can tell you why a
plyo-step is important, why we use it, what the proper sequence of
movement is to perform one and what factors occur to make a plyo-step less
than optimal (i.e.  rearing up ). If however, you do not work in long-term
settings, than basic terminology is best.
Lateral & Linear Deceleration
I strive to split my skill sets into individual components of 4  there is
absolutely no scientific relevance there  it is just through years of trail and
error that has shown me 4 tends to be the most appropriate number!
Lateral Deceleration Skill Set:
1. Foot outside the  box
2. Drop your hips/bend your knees
3. Flat foot
4.  Breaking foot is pointed in
Let me qualify some of that for you (keeping in mind that those are the short
phrases I use and have my athlete s commit/recite  complete explanations
and qualifications of terms are always part of the teaching process. That
itself is a tremendously important point& while your skill set is comprised of
simple language that is easy to remember, the crux of proper application is
founded explanation and repetition of both verbal/practical cues).
1. Foot outside the  box 
The  box is an imaginary line that extends from the shoulder to the
ground. For a safe and efficient deceleration, the athlete s foot must
reside outside this box at the point of application.
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Foot is outside the  box
2. Drop your hips/bend your knees 
Many young athletes when learning this skill set, often are rigid and
robotic in their approach. In order to a) decelerate effectively b) be in a
position to re-accelerate a different direction and c) avoid injury to the
ankle and knee, this part of the skill set is a crucial one to reinforce.
Hips are back and knees are bent
3. Flat foot 
Simply put, being on the ball of your foot or toe is very unstable in this
dynamic position and could very easily lead to ankle or knee injury. Being
on a flat foot also offers a large surface area through which to push into
the ground and produce force to change directions.
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Flat foot position
4. Breaking foot is pointed in 
This point is explained very well  I do not mean to infer that the toe of
the breaking foot is pointed inward in so far as a pigeon-toed appearance.
That would be very unstable and prone to inversion. I am very clear
however, that if the toe of the breaking foot is pointed outward at all a) a
clean deceleration will not be realized b) you will have less surface area
available to push into the ground for change of direction c) the knee joint
will be compromised. It is best in general terms to speak of this toe angle
as perpendicular to the direction of movement.
Toe is in or perpendicular
As mentioned above, it is prudent to link your skill sets in order to promote
adherence and understanding. The skill set for a linear deceleration is
identical to the later model, with the inclusion of  hip rotation as stage
number 1.
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Forward movement Hip rotation into deceleration
While proceeding forward (first from a walk and the progressed to
jog/run/sprint) the athlete rotates their hips perpendicular to the direction of
movement. Following that, the same 4 steps seen in a lateral deceleration
apply.
Principals of Dynamic Organization
Principals of Dynamic Organization are the progressive sequence within
which you teach a skill set. They follow a systematized plan of development
that serves to take a skill set from a statically introduced concept into a
functionally applicable ability that becomes relevant on a sport specific level.
An interesting point here is the notion of sport specificity.
While I am certainly against any degree of sport specific lifestyles being
promoted to young athletes, I do not confuse that with the significance of
teaching skills on a specific level. I think one of the common concerns critics
of multilateral-based training have is that specific skill acquisition of the
elements pertaining to certain sports can take years to develop and that is
simply not possible from a multilateral perspective. Nothing could be father
from the truth.
Learning the specific sequences of a lateral deceleration within the context of
soccer for instance, is not a bad thing  even with young kids& including the
timing and dexterity necessary to learn this skill at increased velocities,
under the added stressors of having opponents and will the inclusion of a
soccer ball. I support the desire many coaches have to include these types
of drills into their practice schedules.
The confusion and inability of the coach however, is demonstrated when no
congruous plan exists on how to teach these skills; When athletes are just
shown a drill and expected to perform it well; When the soccer coach wants
to keep this athlete engrossed in soccer 12 months of the year and refuses to
accept the fact that participation in other sports will not only compliment the
young athletes soccer abilities but also reduce the risks of overuse injuries
and emotional burnout.
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Think for a second of how amazing it would be to have soccer, baseball,
football, basketball and volleyball coaches working together under a common
belief system within which proper skill sets were taught and applied to
specific situations within a given sport. The athletes progress in each sport
would be intensified, but not to an unhealthy level. Indeed, the notion of
Kaizen would exist and facilitated by each coach as they worked to reinforce
the goals, teaching styles and overall progressive techniques that the coach
from the other sports promoted.
The Principals of Dynamic Organization follow a particular sequence or flow.
Keep in mind that this sequence is one that I have settled on after years of
experiment 
1. Repeat Statically  Learn the movement from a  no motion
perspective
2. Repeat Dynamically  Add small, predictable motion into the
exercise leading up to the skill
3. Repeat Randomly  Add small, random motion into the exercise
leading up to the skill
4. Predictable Specificity  While this portion of the sequence does
not have to be in relation to a specific sport, I find it reinforces
adherence to allow a degree of specificity to enter the equation
at this point. The drill can comprise standard
movements/circumstances encountered in a single sport, but
then progressed to other movements/circumstances found in
other sports. In this phase, the coach or partner acts as an
 opponent by making a standard offensive move to which the
athlete must react. It is important to understand that the
 offensive move is discussed an revealed to the athlete
beforehand.
5. Random Specificity  Within this portion of the sequence, sport
specific maneuvers are offered by the coach or partner. The
athlete s job is merely to react.
Repeat Statically:
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Figure 1 Figure 2
In order to gain a full understanding of the skill set associated with a lateral
deceleration, the first stage within the Principals of Dynamic Organization are
to learn the sequence kinesthetically from a static position  this eliminates
any auxiliary movement that could serve as confusion and take attention
away from learning the skill wholly.
Repeat Dynamically:
Figure 3 Figure 4
Now that competency has been established in the deceleration skill set from
a static perspective, we can add elements of predictable motion. In this
case, the athlete performs 1 or 2 side shuffles and then hits his deceleration
position.
Repeat Randomly:
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Figure 5
As aptitude grows, you can now add elements of unpredictability into the
mix. Have the athlete stand in front of you and randomly point one direction
or the other (mix it up). The athlete s job is to react by side shuffling the
direction you pointed and then hitting a deceleration position.
Predictable Specificity:
Figure 6 Figure 7
Figure 8
In this phase of training, the specific application of your deceleration can
coincide with a particular sport (or sports). As noted in Figure 6, the partner
is standing at a 45-degree angle in front of the athlete. Once the partner
begins moving forward, the athlete shuffles towards a common meeting
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ground (Figure 7). Once the partner cuts, the athlete decelerates and moves
with the partner. Now you are involving opponents, added movements and
direction changes. Keep in mind however that the goal of this exercise is to
establish the direction of movements beforehand  do not look to add
elements of randomized reaction yet. This is a critical step within the
Principals and should not be overlooked or minimized.
Random Specificity:
Figure 9 Figure 10
Figure 11 Figure 12
Now the drill becomes complex with added movements on an unpredictable
level.
Figure 9  The athlete begins by shuffling back and forth between two points
Figure 10  The partner moves forward towards the athlete
Figure 11  The partner cuts one direction forcing the athlete to follow
Figure 12  The partner cuts back at a random interval
This entire drill is random and typically exposes the athlete s deficiencies
from a functional perspective. Keeping in line with a solid teaching model,
the Principals of Dynamic Organization have allowed you to educate, correct
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and reinforce habits along the way. At this point, it is not atypical for an
athlete to still demonstrate poor technical application  that is to be
expected.
What is crucial however is that the athlete can recognize the mistakes made
in the application of the skill and create a solution of how to fix it. This
problem solving ability is reward for following a constructive model of
teaching applied skill. Athletes who can recognize and correct positional
mistakes are great athletes. This ability can only be developed when a
sequential method of teaching is adopted into a long-term approach of
development.
If you look closely at Figure 12, you will see several positional errors with
respect to being able to follow the partner as he made his cut.
His decelerating foot is within the box
His decelerating foot is turned outward
His entire upper body position is leaning into the decelerating leg and
away from the motion he is looking to make (a cut back). While that
is not part of my skill set, it is a symptom of the above two points.
You will be able to see these issues more clearly from the opposite angle 
Figure 13
Look at the athletes toe angle and his foot placement in relation to the box.
It is clear that as his partner makes the hard cut, the athlete is not in a good
position to change direction with him.
At this point, your instructive ability as a coach is crucial. Ask your athlete
what went wrong. What about his position was poor? What needs to change
in order for him to be in better position?
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These are not  chastising-type questions. They are a give and take of
important information. Your athlete must feel empowered to understand that
he knows the answer. Always refer back to the skill set when looking for an
answer. Clearly in this example, had the athlete pushed outside the box and
aligned his decelerating foot perpendicularly, the problem would be solved.
When your skill set is clearly defined, your answers are clearly defined.
Figure 14
Figure 15
After talking it over, discussing options and coming to a conclusion, the drill
is replicated. This time, the angle of the foot in relation to the box and the
direction of foot placement are much improved.
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Key Issues in Teaching the Principals:
- Understand that the process through steps 1  5 could take
years. I have condensed it for the purpose of illustrating the
entire sequence, but your job is to coach the athlete(s) you
have in front of you. If that means staying on steps 1  3 for a
full year before progressing, so be it. Understanding and
adherence are the keys.
- Change the velocity at which the drills are performed to
progress/regress difficulty levels. Never go on to the next step
until the current step you are on can be performed with
competency at a high velocity (sport speed).
- Use your imagination! Never assume that any one of these
steps is fully complete. Challenge yourself and your athletes by
devising new ways of manipulating the variances/laws within
each step. Be creative with your exercise selection and program
design by making your warehouse of drills limitless. For
example, add foot dexterity or hand-eye coordination activities
in conjunction with drills at all levels. In the hands of a capable
and imaginative coach, the exercises that would serve to
reinforce these steps number in the millions& literally.
- Don t restrict these drills to young athletes only  I have had
great success teaching man-to-man defensive strategies to elite
high school football players incorporating the Principals as the
teaching tool, for example. The same holds true for elite, state
level soccer players.
- Have fun with these strategies and always look to  link your
exercises with other viable skills. Systems Linking as I call it, is
a means by which varying exercises are strung together in order
to promote greater understanding/adherence and keep things
fresh.
Figure 15 Figure 16
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Figure 17
In this example, the athlete runs forward towards a medicine ball (or sport
ball), bends to scoop the ball with proper squatting form and the proceeds on
for another few yards at which time he hits his linear decelerating position.
- Create fun games as a means of teaching the Principals. In the
example below, the athlete and partner are playing a simple
game of mirroring. They begin shuffling  once the partner
changes direction, the athlete mirrors him by decelerating well.
Figure 18
- The key to quality coaching and an adherence to a long-term
approach to training young athletes is preparation. Become
accustom to developing lesson plans and timeframes for your
athletes. Know how long you want to spend on particular tasks
and when you intend to progress. You must be flexible in your
preparation, however  sometimes the progression times take
longer or shorter than you had envisioned. But by not planning
your athlete s developmental route, you are setting them up for
failure and yourself up for frustration. This point is critical  I
have long urged coaches and trainers to utilize several means to
monitor and track the progress of their athletes. In North
America, it is common to use vertical jump, squat/bench press
poundage s and timed speed as the markers. But what about
technical proficiencies? I strongly recommend that you make
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written notes regarding your athletes technical adherence. How
well they are performing a task is every bit as critical as how
fast they are moving or how heavy their squat has become.
Teaching skill and aptitude in a variety of biomotor features is a necessary
part of working with young athletes. Again, strength exercises, speed
mechanics, movement sequences and mobility/flexibility routines are all
teachable skills that must be broken down and sequentially organized by you
as the coach. Never assume that your young athletes know how to squat,
sprint, decelerate or jump  once we realize collectively that success in both
sport (specifically) and life (functionally) is dependent on how competent we
are in the foundations of basic movement, the sooner we will start actually
developing great young athletes, rather than hoping young athletes
become great.
Austin Shadle is a high school football star in
Barrington, Illinois.
At 5 8 and 165 pounds, Austin earned league
Defensive Player of the Year honors and was named
to the prestigious All Area State Team.
Austin s tenacious attitude towards life and his
remarkable maturity make him someone I will miss
greatly next year when he moves on to college.
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