Teaching Technique Sporting Excellence

Good technique in sports means using optimal movement to complete a task. A young athlete who runs technically well gets from A to B effectively.

In sports, technical competence is a key to success. Technically sound athletes are usually good. This reality extends beyond sport-specific skills to basic athletic development and general movement ability. Before creating a sporting technician or specialist, we must first construct the athlete by instilling basic and advanced movement abilities, including multi-directional movement skill and basic to advanced strength and power training activities.

Technical abilities can be categorized based on a sport’s rules or criteria.

Figure skating, gymnastics, and other sports where impressing the judge is important combine complicated motions. These sports have distinct techniques (and therefore can be judged for efficiency). They’re done in a fixed place without hindrance (i.e. no one is interfering with you). The athlete must develop technical proficiency to perform predetermined, practiced motions.

These strategies allow the athlete to get maximum winstrol depot and impartially evaluated results; there is no regard for how well the technical abilities were demonstrated, simply objective measurement for how successful they were (i.e. how fast did they run, how far did they throw the object, how much did they lift etc.). Track-and-field, swimming, and weightlifting are included. This group has no outside obstacles. In this collection of sports, motor ability define success; the fastest or strongest athlete wins.

This group’s techniques help defeat opponents. Combat, racquet, and team sports are included. This group combines technical aptitude with tactical insight and adaptability to changing situations. Technical competence trumps motor abilities (strength, speed, endurance, and flexibility). The quickest or strongest athlete in this group isn’t generally the most successful. Motor skills promote technical skill.

Several elements affect how efficiently an athlete learns a sport, strength training program, or movement.

Mature athletes understand complex skills better (although individual exceptions certainly apply). Relaxed, easygoing athletes acquire and duplicate new talents better than uptight, self-critical athletes.

Many parents, coaches, and trainers assume kids WANT to be at practice or training. This relates to my idea that good coaching involves knowing your athletes’ outside pressures. Unmotivated athletes will struggle to learn new talents.

Naturally talented athletes are better at acquiring and repeating new talents.

Note how the Coach/Trainer teaches new skills. With lax standards in youth sport coaching and the youth training business, it’s legitimate to question the quality of instruction.

Who’s the coach? In a 1999 study (Youth Athletes & Parents Prefer Different Coaching Styles), the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology found that adolescent athletes (ages 10 – 18) preferred coaching styles that cared about their well-being, had a positive group tone, and supported friendly interpersonal relationships.

Has the coach mastered the technique? This goes to the concern of improperly certified Trainers and Coaches – if you don’t know how to fix the problem, how will the athlete? Working with kids builds good or negative behaviors. You must ensure that each repetition builds a positive habit in the young athlete. This is only possible if the Trainer/Coach knows what they’re teaching and can correctly instruct the skill.
Perfecting sensory-motor habits is fundamental to technique development or learning. A sensory-motor habit is a “consciously practiced sensory and motor action” This creates a lasting conditional reflex connection that allows the same motor reactions to respond to the same stimuli. Sensory-motor habits emerge over time.

1. Cortical motor excitation.

Young athletes learning a new talent typically grow tense as they focus on completing it perfectly. This leads to extra motions and an inability to ‘zero-in’ on skill execution precision.

2. Motor center excitation.

Young athletes feel familiar with a new skill. Economical, fluid, and precise movements emerge. Young athletes focus on rhythm, speed, and technique details.

3. Complete nationalization

Movement control is effortless. The skill is used correctly and nationally.

“Open” or “closed” sensory-motor habits

Open habits respond to unforeseen changes.
Closed Habits are best for static movements.

Closed sensory-motor sports involve precise, preprogrammed motions. Athletes learn from their body and may notice slight deviations from appropriate execution that contribute to poor results. Elite figure skaters or track and field throwers know quickly if a leap or throw was their best based on the feedback their bodies tell them about what perfect execution feels like.

Once the essence of the method has been taught and perfected, young athletes should be placed in continually changing settings that require them to make quick reactive choices and execute the learned technique in varied conditions. Making open sensory-motor habits more pliable improves their aptness. Neurologically, this implies making these talents more adaptive.

Technique learning comprises three phases:

Slowly gain new skills. Coaches shouldn’t ‘drill’ a new technique at ‘normal time’ rates, especially with younger athletes. Simply showing or discussing an exercise or technique once or twice and then asking young athletes to duplicate it at ‘game speed’ is unhelpful to learning it optimally. When working with young athletes, QUALITY OF TECHNIQUE is more vital than drills. I compare growing a young athlete to moving through school levels; a teacher wouldn’t teach advanced calculus to a third grade class and expect them to understand it and answer issues. At a young age, students learn basic addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division. As they get older and smarter, they learn more advanced mathematical concepts. Young athletes should be developed similarly. Coaches and trainers should teach new techniques in a methodical manner, ensuring sure the athlete understands body mechanics and angle of force to increase movement economy.

Once the athlete knows the skill and can perform it at a faster tempo during isolated practices (NOT game settings), the Coach should introduce ‘opponents’ into the next level of skill/technique learning. This would involve regulated practices or scrimmages with another team or competitor. This phase of learning should also emphasize quality repetition over ‘drilling’ By drilling, I mean when a Coach or Trainer says “Do it again!” during practice. Phase two of learning a technique. The coach or trainer should help the athlete learn and perfect this skill.

The Coach has minimal control over this phase throughout the event/game. How well the player was coached will determine how they perform. After the game or at the next practice, give the athlete encouraging, constructive remarks.

Brian Grasso trains young athletes, youngsters with impairments, and those with weight issues.

His expertise in adolescent fitness and sports training was covered in Newsweek. Men’s Health magazine named him one of America’s Top 100 Trainers.