I would like to thank the National Strength & Conditioning Association for putting on a great 2017 National Conference this year in Las Vegas. I attended a few lectures while in Vegas but spent most of my time meeting and networking with coaches, trainers, and researchers. There were many good take aways and wanted to give you a few notes from Loren Landow. I would like to give out some bulleted highlights I found insightful and want to also include a few pictures and videos to showcase some of the drills.
Pre Con Session with Loren Landow
“Multi Directional Blending the Skills for Movement Mastery”
This was a great session with lecture and hands on pieces that blended science and practical applications for athletes with different limb lengths, movement dysfunctions, etc. I find it refreshing that most of the take away from the session I am doing currently, (so I know I’m in good company lol) but learning is never complete. I had some great learning experiences from technique to cueing and I hope you can take away some great caveats too.
With movement mastery, you get less joint wear and tear if joints are in the right position
Landow Performance uses a system based performance when it comes to teaching movement skills (acceleration, deceleration, COD)
“Why teach your athlete calculus if you haven’t mastered addition & subtraction?”
Sound teaching of mechanics is the best injury prevention tactic
To be tolerant to a snake bite, we need to give doses of venom
Example: Our joints move in all directions, and a little knee valgus, when trained properly, will not blow out knee but helps give us the “software” needed to control that motion
Deceleration IS A SKILL and needs to be taught
“I don’t need my athletes to do extraordinary things, but I do need them to do ordinary things extraordinarily well” (Eccentric Control)
Greater degrees of motion increases the demand of stability
Pronation of the foot, if viewed as a plyometric, is the eccentric phase of SSC
Supination creates a great lever for propulsion
Supination of the foot, if viewed as a plyo, if the powerful concentric contraction of SSC
Leverage the lever about the COM i.e. where is base of support & where am I going next?
Teach and rehearse the fundamentals; this is a lost art in today’s athletic curriculum.
“We train animals, we teach athletes.” (Loren Seagrave)
Motor Skill Development (Great for more than just sprinting)
Unconscious Incompetence (athlete looks clueless and is unable to comprehend what coach wants)
Conscious Incompetence (athlete understands what coach wants but is unable to reproduce)
Conscious Competence (athlete is able to reproduce with needed concentration, but not in a series)
Unconscious Competence (athlete reproduces near perfection without a conscious thought)
“The Karate Kid went through this in the 80’s. If you have never seen the original, go and watch. Daniel blossomed into a Cobra Kai Killer!!”
“Do all the right things from the wrong positions”
Increasing your movement bandwidth
Some goals for being faster
- More force in less time (F = M*A)
- Recovery in proper ROM (Efficient set up for the force producing limb)
- Force application in the proper direction (drive relative to hips)
- Evaluation of Efficency
- Watch for weight distribution, edges of feet, spacing of feet relative to hips, loaded position of hips, primary action of re-acceleration post deceleration
4 P’s
- Posture
- Position
- Placement
- Patterning
Joint position dictates muscle function
When teaching mechanics, go with a part to whole system (motor learning); break it up into teachable pieces, then put them together for the sum of all their parts. We went through about 50 exercises. I will highlight a few. Also, progressions are from slow to fast, sagittal, to multi directional, everything is coached from acceleration, deceleration, COD, head placement, and arm action. Nothing is 100% Previous injury and individual joint variances can change the communication needed from one athlete to the next.
The 2 big points in hands on were: Weight distribution & Where am I going next?
WALL DRILL EXERCISE
Engage Core
Eyes down but chin is NOT tucked (neck stays neutral, not flexed)
Weight is in the balls of the foot, NOT THE TOES
We want to lengthen the posterior chain / load it like a spring for sprinting
When you go on your toes, it shortens the posterior chain and we lose the springing mechanism of the foot
Groove the pattern then you’re done!!
PARTNER MARCHING DRILLS
Take enough to keep the lean
Don’t break at the hips
DECELERATION DRILL
This is a skill and should be taught (IMO, this is a vital skill and is a part of a quality program)
Start sagittally, but can progress to multidirectional
Coach Landow coaches the athlete to “slap the leg” that is decelerating (main point on this is to allow time for the deceleration to occur and to let the tissues “feel” / get used to this). Can’t remember who I stole this from but Speed hides Need comes to mind…
LATERAL RESISTOR WALKS
Push inside leg and gather with outside leg
Full footed contact
shuffle vs a gallop
LATERAL SHUFFLE
Weight shouldn’t be solely on the inside leg but slightly biased
Check out where the center of mass is in the pic
trim.FC253D92-906A-4507-AEC8-6D2B489C7B71
TRANSVERSE PLANE CARIOCA
Get to midline and PUSH AWAY
Do not overreach
Look for in sync hips
Knee punch
SAGITTAL WITH ROTATIONAL TRANSITION TO SAGITTAL
This was an example of adding together different fundamental skills and combining them to better master real life sport movements and skills
Speed is a skill and can be coached. Coach Landow demonstrated that exceptionally well during his lecture and hands on portion. Work the basics, groove the patterns, don’t neglect the transitions (Deceleration) and go from having block to variable practices when it comes to motor skill acquisition we want to take the athletes from unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence. Again, thanks to Loren Landow and his expert staff for helping me and the other attendees access to their coaching philosophy.