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Slow Down if you want to speed up by Gray Cook
...................................................................................................................................................................... Quickness is an illusion. It's all about deceleration.Most field and court sports require cutting and turning. The way you use your legs, specifically, your lunge movement patterns, will determine your ability to lower your center of gravity and decelerate and accelerate.
I hope that you have recognized left-right asymmetries within the lunge and other movement patterns and have taken the necessary steps to resolve any strength or endurance deficits you found. If you have taken rope jumping seriously, the quick, reactive movements you have been training for in rope work will complement your cutting and turning. These quick movements, added to core stability and better body mechanics, should reveal improved body mechanics with greater stamina in competitive situations. It is advantageous to have a reserve of energy in the second half or quarter of any sporting event.
You can use intervals throughout cutting and turning to develop conditioning intervals that will reinforce your mechanics, improve your endurance, and maintain the quality of your movement throughout a competitive event. I particularly appreciate the wisdom of John Wooden's approach to conditioning. He said that his team would always prevail against an equally skilled opponent because his team would be better conditioned. He was confident in his team's conditioning because of how they trained and the emphasis he placed on quickness and execution throughout practices.
Certain movements -- squat, hurdle step, lunge, active straight leg raise, and seated rotation -- are all important for cutting and turning. Squats and lunges are fundamental to cutting and turning. Make sure these patterns are not limited, can be performed well, and do not demonstrate asymmetry.
The two fundamentals required for cutting and turning movements in athletics are a low center of gravity and control. The two work best together; however, control is needed even in situations in which a low center of gravity cannot be achieved, and a low center of gravity is safe and productive in situations in which control is not possible.
The illusion of quickness is a demonstration of both of these factors. Quickness on the field or court often looks like above-average acceleration, but most of the time acceleration is not the key. Deceleration is the key because it sets up the rest of the movement. When one athlete is able to lose, or break away from, another athlete, it often is done with a cutting or turning movement. This movement is the result of deceleration or direction change, followed by acceleration.
It is important for athletes to train deceleration movements, whether they play soccer, football, or basketball or use deceleration to execute better moves, such as fielding a baseball or hitting a tennis ball.
It is ironic that quickness is often thought of as the ability to start a movement in a short amount of time. Actual true quickness also includes the ability to stop a movement in a short amount of time. Quickness improves as deceleration develops because when an athlete is able to stop more efficiently and with better control, she has more time to set up, change direction, and accelerate in a new direction.
Deceleration places much greater stress on the joints and muscles than acceleration. When an athlete tries to change direction without properly decelerating, his momentum may take him off line and put him off balance. This can either slow him down or increase the risk of injury. Training deceleration ultimately will reduce the risk of injury from deceleration-type movements such as landing, stopping, or changing direction.
For specifics on how to improve your deceleration training, see my book, Athletic Body in Balance.
Gray Cook is a practicing physical therapist. He has created the Functional Movement Screen, one of the pillars of the Reebok Core Training System, which he developed in 2000. He is author of the book titled Athletic Body in Balance, from which this article is adapted, and which includes training programs to address issues raised in this article. You can reach Cook through the web site www.functionalmovement.com
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