The Importance of Good Habits

So this fun video demonstrates how habits get ingrained into our subconscious, every day life.  Once the brain learns how to move, and recognizes it needs to remember a specific pattern, it creates neurological pathways to become more efficient.  Like riding a bike, for example.  Kids fall over again and again until their brain learns how to balance the bike, then it creates a neurological pathway to remember that pattern so each time the kid gets back on the bike, the body knows how to balance.  As the video shows, changing those ingrained patterns can be very difficult.  The man took over 8 months to learn how to ride the backwards bike, while his young son only took a couple weeks.  It's true kids brains are easier to mold, but even the young boy took a long time to change his movement pattern to adapt to this new bike.  This didn't happen in one day or only a few tries.  Even with the young, eager to learn brain, many attempts at defeating failure had to be done over and over again.  As we get older, it only takes longer and longer to break the old habit and learn a new one.

How does this relate to sports performance?  The body knows how to run and move, but it doesn't always know how to properly do everything it should.  For example, the motion of a squat can be accomplished in many ways, but few people or kids can do them correctly.  An improper squat pattern can mean you never reach for full strength potential, or worse, create injuries.  So we must break bad habits and ingrain new ones.  This takes time and many trials of repeated effort.  Supplemental sports performance training helps the body learn the best movement patterns and helps the brain build those correct neurological pathways.  This gives young athletes a huge advantage over their peers that are not doing anything to correct bad habits.  Those that are working to better their movement patterns will only learn skills faster, perform better in competition, and decrease their chance of injury.

10 Movement Skills Young Athletes Need to Master

The last post talked about 10 drills that every young athlete should be able to do.  They are based on strength and coordination.  Here's the follow up to that post that explains the 10 movement skills every young athlete should know how to complete with ease!

1.  Walking with balance
While taking big steps forward, the athlete should be able to step and pause with good balance on each step.  They should be able to step in control, keep their knee bent, and not step because they lose their balance.  Work this by taking big steps and having the athlete pause for 2-3 seconds before the next step.

2.  Shuffle with arm swing
A tall shuffle position with the arms swinging overhead in coordination with the shuffle will challenge the athlete to move sideways while integrating upper body rhythm.

3.  Low shuffle
Similar to the shuffle with arm swing, this drill has the athlete stay low in an athletic position with their knees bent and chest and eyes up.  The arms do not move and the athlete has to generate power and control while moving sideways.  The toes should not turn out.

4.  Carioca
Also known as the grapevine, this drill challenges the athlete to cross the midline of their body with rotation.  The upper body should not rotate, the lower body should rotate through the hips to step in front then behind the lead leg while moving sideways.  A common fault is the athlete doesn't turn the hips and has to hop to get the leg behind the body.

5.  Crawling
The athlete should have the strength and coordination to crawl without their knees touching the ground.  There should not be much rotation or wiggle as they crawl forward.  Simply work opposite arm and leg to push and reach and propel the body forward.  The toes should stay straight, a common fault is bringing the knees up too far and turning the toes out.

6.  Walking / Jogging backwards
A very important skill that is so commonly overlooked is the backward walking and running skills.  An athlete should be able to walk backwards while maintaining good body control.  They should be able to take large walking steps backwards without falling side to side.  When running backwards, they should be able to keep a forward lean and push backwards- most athletes lean backwards and quickly fall over.

7.  Jumping
This means pushing off two feet and landing on two feet.  It can be a vertical, horizontal, side to side, or rotating jump.  All jumping drills should be taught to land in a good athletic position.  This will teach the athlete to be strong and help prevent injuries.

8.  Hopping
This means starting on one foot and landing on the same one foot.  Like jumping, it can be vertical, horizontal, side to side, or rotating.  The athlete will not generate the same power as a two foot jump, but to understand the movement and have control is vital for athletes becoming strong, powerful, and safe during competition.

9.  Skipping
Usually a skill learned in elementary school, the basic skip is essential to being a good sprinter and strong athlete.  Maintaining good posture and coordinating opposite arm and leg action is key for a good skip.

10.  High knee running
The athlete should be able to maintain an upright posture when performing this drill.  A common fault is to round the back or lean back to appear that the knees are coming up.  This strengthens the leg muscles and ingrains good mechanics for top end speed running.  The athlete should be able to get their leg to 90 degrees and contact on the ball of their foot, not heels or toes.