The Functional Path is a path that had been traveled many times before but had fallen out of use in favor of smoother paved roads that promised faster and easier results. Seeking to follow and better define the functional path is a continuing journey, fortunately it is a journey that many have traveled before. Functional Path training is getting back to the basics of movement. It is learning to tune into the body and it’s inherent wisdom to produce rhythmic flowing movement.
I am working on an article for Training & Conditioning www.momentummedia.com on using unstable surfaces. I would like to get some ideas/feedback on how, why and if you are using unstable surfaces in your training or rehab. I am not going to comment on this one for awhile, except to say that my ideas have been reevaluated significantly in the last two years.
posted by Vern Gambetta @ 4/27/2006 10:28:00 AM
4 comments
Vern is currently is the Director of Gambetta Sports Training Systems. He has been the a conditioning coach for several teams in Major League Soccer as well as the conditioning consultant to the US Men’s World Cup Soccer team. Vern is the former Director of Conditioning for the Chicago White Sox and Director of Athletic Development for the New York Mets. Vern is recognized internationally as an expert in training and conditioning for sport having worked with world class athletes and teams in a wide variety of sports. He is a popular speaker and writer on conditioning topics having lectured and conducted clinics in Canada, Japan, Australia and Europe. Vern's coaching experience spans 36 years at all levels of competition. Vern has authored six books and over one hundred articles related to coaching and sport performance in a variety of sports. He received his BA from Fresno State University and his teaching credential with a coaching minor from University of California Santa Barbara. Vern obtained his MA in Education with an emphasis in physical education from Stanford University.
4 Comments:
For the most part, when you use an unstable surface you are creating an artifical environment because you are making the ground move underneath you.
Instability can be created without changing the surface. Using different size dumbbells, closing your eyes, wiggling your head, shifting the weights around in your weight vest can all create instability.
However, there are exceptions. I'm a scuba diver. Diving in the north atlantic can get hairy. Climbing up onto a boat or up a rocky, slimy jetty with 80+ pounds of unbalanced gear with 3 foot swells can get tricky. As dive season approaches, I will use tilt boards or dynadisks because it is similar to a rocking boat.
Vern,
Over the past several years I have come to feel that unstable surfaces decrease the training effect more than help. Athlete's must generate stability within all movements if they are done free standing / free in space. As a result, all activities are "stability" training.
Do we want athletes to be good at exercising on gizmo's or do we want athletes to be healthy and better performing? I think there are plenty of options to challenge stability in far more appropriate ways for athletes than using instability tools.
We (as a scientific community) continually try to label qualities of things. And these qualities may be quantifiable / real. BUT can we really teach them? The way human beings are structured and wired it is impossible to believe that we can "isolate" a quality any more than we can "isolate" a muscle. There can be emphasis - but then we must look at context/value and make sure a given emphasis is correct. Since all the movements that athletes do can elicit stability, the use of gizmos to emphasize that "quality" seems like taking training time away from activities that may provide greater total stimulus for growth in all areas - stabilization included.
Be well - and good luck with the talk tomorrow!
Will
Sorry if this double posts... it did not "take" the first try.
I seldom use them anymore, unless the person is very, very capable and there is a good reason. Boredom is not a good reason. Most of the young people or adults that are using these things would benefit more from mastering control of their bodies in a stable environment. In my experience, I have not seen many "master" stable environments first.
Just look at some of the pictures in the Power Systems and MF catalogues. The mechanics of the models in the pictures are not optimal in many cases. Sometimes they are outright BAD.
I'm more of a Vern person here: simple, gravity, total body. You can get high technical demand and engage the mind without toys--or stupid human tricks.
I have an idea--let's have a blog day of the most outrageous stupid guru unstable surface pics /tricks /tales we've seen or heard about. Anyone game?
As a CSCS at a HS, I rarely use unstable surfaces, except for the swiss ball to train abs will small groups. Most of my stability training comes from single leg exercises on the dot mats and agility ladder, spending most of my time coaching athletes to perform the drill with proper mechanics.
As an ATC, I will use an unstable environment for about 20% of my proprioceptive exercises for the ankle and knee. This mostly consists of stork stands and squats on discs. Most other exercises are single leg exercises with medi ball throws from various angles working on stability in several planes of movement.
Post a Comment
<< Home