It’s time for this month’s edition of “musings” on the sports performance training front. Here goes…

1. Professional athletes don’t need “special” exercises; they just adapt faster and need special progressions.

One of the most important lessons coaches can learn with professional athletes is that they don’t need crazy advanced exercises. Far too often, coaches will assume that because a client is a high-level athlete, he/she will automatically require some fancy, innovative drill. The truth is that they need the basics, just like everyone else. You’d be amazed at how poorly some of the most high-level athletes you’ll see actually move when you get them out of their sporting environments.

That said, they are unique in their ability to adapt to a given stimulus quicker than their “less athletic” counterparts. Movement quality will improve dramatically from one week to the next, and strength and power can increase much faster than you’d expect from “normal” folks. This is obviously a blessing, but can also be a burden, as it means programs may need more updating on-the-fly to continue challenging the athlete. Additionally, you have to be cognizant of the fact that their strength levels may actually increase faster than their motor control and connective tissues can safely handle. In other words, you have to be careful not to load bad patterns or degenerative tissue tendencies.

2. Don’t worry about the Absolute Strength to Absolute Speed Continuum if you’re untrained or detrained.

With over 55,000 views on YouTube, this is one of my most popular videos ever:

The lessons here have tremendous value to athletes of all ages and ability levels – except novice trainees, or athletes who have recently been detrained. In other words, if we’re talking about a 13-year-old kid who has zero resistance training experience, or an athlete who just finished a long, grueling season and has lost appreciable strength, then you need to build strength up first.

Effectively, treat these scenarios as if an athlete is all the way to the right (speed) end of the continuum. They need to build a foundation of strength up before they’ll benefit from any of the other modalities – or even be able to perform them safely. This is one reason why handing an aggressive weighted ball program to an untrained 13-year-old kid might be harmful, and why doing a ton of plyos with a volleyball player who just finished a long season is silly. Give them what they actually need, not just what you think is “sexy.”

3. Efficient rotation is efficient rotation – and consistent across multiple sports.

One thing I’m really excited about with respect to our new Jupiter, FL Cressey Sports Performance facility is working with a wider variety of rotational sport athletes beyond just baseball. My business partner, Shane Rye, is an accomplished lacrosse coach, and Jupiter also happens to be home to loads of golfers of all levels. I’ve also got a big tennis background, and am excited to explore opportunities on that front.

There are a load of commonalities among all rotational sports, and it’s going to be exciting to see how our training approaches impact these other sports. How can I be so sure?

Have you ever noticed how easily baseball and hockey players pick up golf? And, have you noticed how many athletes were drafted in multiple rotational sports? Think of Tom Brady in baseball and football, and Tom Glavine in hockey and baseball. These guys weren’t what you’d call “powerhouse” athletes; in other words, they weren’t freak athletes that played baseball and football. Rather, you could argue that they’re just guys who learned to use their bodies really efficiently in rotational patterns.

4. “Where do you feel it?” is as important a question as “How does it look?”

Every once in a while, you’ll observe an athlete with a movement that looks absolutely perfect, but might not be “felt” in the right place. Or, it might even actually cause pain. This is why it’s so important to always solicit feedback on where an athlete (especially a beginner) feels an exercise, as opposed just assuming it was fine just because it “looked good.” As an example, I commonly see athletes who “feel” all their shoulder exercise rotation drills in the front of their shoulder, which is the exact opposite of what we want.

Without getting too “geeky” on this front, many times, the reason we have discomfort or the “wrong” feeling with drills is that athletes are paying close attention to the osteokinematics – gross movements of internal/external rotation, flexion/extension, adduction/abduction – of the joint in question, but not paying attention to the arthrokinematics of that same joint. In other words, the rolling, rocking, and gliding taking place needs to be controlled within a tight window to ensure ideal movement.

In the external rotation variation, as we externally rotate the arm, the humeral head (ball) likes to glide forward on the glenoid fossa (socket). The glenohumeral ligaments (anterior shoulder capsule), rotator cuff, and biceps tendon are the only things that can hold it in the socket. In a throwing population, the capsule is usually a bit loose and the cuff is a bit weak, so the biceps tendon often has to pick up the slack – which is why some folks wind up feeling these in the front, thereby strengthening a bad pattern. There are also a bunch of nerves at the front of the shoulder that can get irritated, but that’s a blog for another day!

5. Making your room colder can be really helpful for sleep quality.

Everyone knows that turning off electronics before bed is important for sleep quality. Additionally, getting your room as dark as possible definitely makes for better sleeping. Very few people pay attention to the temperature of the room, though. I can definitely speak to its importance, though.

As many of you know, my wife and I moved to Florida in early September. As part of this transition, I made three trips back up to Boston over the course of September-November. On each of those trips, my sleep quality was insanely better than I have in Florida. The difference? Roughly 8-10°F in the temperature of my sleeping environment. With that in mind, we’re cranking up the air conditioning a bit more – and thanking our lucky stars that the Florida summer has wrapped up. If you’re having trouble sleeping, tinkering with the temperature in your sleeping environment might be a good place to start. Also, I’d encourage you to check out this great guest post I published a while back: Sleep:What the Research Actually Says.