The “Great Eight” Reasons for Basketball Mobility Training

By: Eric Cressey

When it really comes down to it, regardless of the sport in question, the efficient athlete will always have the potential to be the best player on the court, field, ice, or track. Ultimately, knowledge of the game and technical prowess will help to separate the mediocre from the great, but that is not to say that physical abilities do not play a tremendously influential role on one’s success. Show me an athlete who moves efficiently, and I’ll guarantee that he or she has far more physical development “upside” than his or her non-efficient counterparts.

This “upside” can simply be referred to as “trainability;” I can more rapidly increase strength, speed, agility, and muscle mass in an athlete with everything in line than I can with an athlete who has some sort of imbalance. That’s not to say that the latter athlete cannot improve, though; it’s just to say that this athlete would be wise to prioritize eliminating the inefficiencies to prevent injury and make subsequent training more effective. Unfortunately, most athletes fall into the latter group. Fortunately, though, with appropriate corrective training, these inefficiencies can be corrected, and you can take your game to an all-new level. Mobility work is one example of the corrective training you’ll need to get the job done.

What’s the Difference Between Mobility and Flexibility?

This is an important differentiation to make; very few people understand the difference – and it is a big one. Flexibility merely refers to range of motion – and, more specifically, passive range of motion as achieved by static stretching. Don’t get me wrong; static stretching has its place, but it won’t take your athleticism to the next level like mobility training will.

The main problem with pure flexibility is that it does not imply stability nor readiness for dynamic tasks – basketball included. When we move, we need to have something called “mobile-stability.” This basically means that there’s really no use in being able to get to a given range of motion if you can’t stabilize yourself in that position. Believe it or not, excessive passive flexibility without mobility (or dynamic flexibility, as it’s been called) will actually increase the risk of injury! And, even more applicable to the discussion at hand, passive flexibility just doesn’t carry over well to dynamic tasks; just because you do well on the old sit-and-reach test doesn’t mean that you’ll be prepared to dynamically pick up a loose ball and sprint down-court for an easy lay-up. Lastly, extensive research has shown that static stretching before a practice or competition will actually make you slower and weaker; I’m not joking!

So what is mobility training? It’s a class of drills designed to take your joints through full ranges of motion in a controlled, yet dynamic context. It’s different from ballistic stretching (mini-bounces at the end of a range of motion), which is a riskier approach that is associated with muscle damage and shortening. In addition to improving efficiency of movement, mobility (dynamic flexibility) drills are a great way to warm-up for high-intensity exercise like basketball. Light jogging and then static stretching are things of the past!

My colleague Mike Robertson and I created a DVD known as Magnificent Mobility to address this pressing need among a wide variety of athletes – basketball players included. We’ve already received hundreds of emails from athletes and ordinary weekend warriors claiming improved performance, enhanced feeling of well-being, and resolution of chronic injuries after performing the drills outlined in the DVD. I think it’s safe to say that they like what we’re recommending! In case that feedback isn’t enough, here are seven reasons why basketball players need mobility.

Reason #1: Mobility training makes your resistance training sessions more productive by allowing you to train through a full range of motion.

We all know that lifting weights improves athletes’ performance and reduces their risk of injury. However, very few people realize the importance of being able to lift through a full range of motion. Training through a full range of motion will carry over to all partial ranges of motion, but training in a partial range of motion won’t carry over to full ranges of motion.

For example, let’s assume Athlete A does ¼ squats. He’ll only get stronger in the top ¼ of the movement, and his performance will really only be improved in that range of motion when he’s on the court.

Now, Athlete B steps up to the barbell and does squats through a full range of motion; his butt is all the way down by his ankles. Athlete B is going to get stronger through the entire range of motion – including the top portion, like Athlete A, but with a whole lot more. It goes without saying that Athlete B will be stronger than Athlete A when the time comes to “play low.”

Also worthy of note is that lifting weights through a full range of motion will stimulate more muscle fibers than partial repetitions, thus increasing your potential for muscle mass gains. If you’re a post-player who is looking to beef up, you’d be crazy to not do full reps – and mobility training will help you improve the range of motion on each rep.

Reason #2: Mobility training corrects posture and teaches your body to get range of motion in the right places.

If you watch some of the best shooters of all time, you’ll notice that they always seem to be in the perfect position to catch the ball as they come off a screen to get off a jump shot. Great modern examples of this optimal body alignment are Ray Allen and Reggie Miller; their shoulders are back, chest is out, eyes are up, and hands are ready. The catch and shot is one smooth, seemingly effortless movement.

By contrast, if you look at players with rounded shoulders, they lack the mobility to get to this ideal position as they pop off the screen. After they receive the ball, they need to reposition themselves with thoracic extension (“straightening up”) just so that they can get into their shooting position. This momentary lapse is huge at levels where the game is played at a rapid pace; it literally is the difference between getting a shot off and having to pass on the shot or, worse yet, having it swatted away by a defender. These athletes need more mobility in the upper body.

As another example, one problem we often see in our athletes is excessive range-of-motion at the lumbar spine to compensate for a lack of range of motion at the hips. Ideally, we want a stable spine and mobile hips to keep our lower backs healthy and let the more powerful hip-joint muscles do the work. If we can’t get that range of motion at our hips, our backs suffer the consequences. Believe it or not, I’ve actually heard estimates that as much as 60% of the players in the NBA have degenerative disc disease. While there are likely many reasons (unforgiving court surface, awkward lumbar hyperextension patterns when rebounding, etc.) for this exorbitant number, a lack of hip mobility is certainly one of them. Get mobility at your hips, and you’ll protect that lower back!

Reason #3: Mobility training reduces our risk of injury.

It’s not uncommon at all to see athletes get injured when they’re out of position and can’t manage to right themselves. If we get range of motion in the right spots, we’re less likely to be out of position, so we won’t have to hastily compensate with a movement that could lead to an ankle sprain or ACL tear.

As an interesting add-on, one study found that a softball team performing a dynamic flexibility routine before practices and competition had significantly fewer injuries than a team that did static stretching before its games (1).

Reason #4: Mobility training will increase range of motion without reducing your speed, agility, strength in the short-term.

Believe it or not, research has demonstrated that if you static stretch right before you exercise, it’ll actually make you weaker and slower. I know it flies in the face of conventional warm-up wisdom, but it’s the truth!

Fortunately, dynamic flexibility/mobility training has come to the rescue. Research has shown that compared with a static stretching program, these drills can improve your sprinting speed (2), agility (3), vertical jump (3-6), and dynamic range of motion (1) while reducing your risk of injury. Pretty cool stuff, huh?

Reason #5: Mobility training teaches you to “play low.”

All athletes want to know how to become more stable, but few understand how to do so. One needs to understand that our stability is always changing, as it’s subject to several environmental and physical factors. These factors include:

1. Body Mass – A heavier athlete will always be more stable. Sumo wrestling…need I say more?

2. Friction with the contact surface – The more friction we can generate (as with appropriate footwear) with the contact surface, the better our stability. Compare a basketball court (plenty of friction) to the ice in a hockey rink (very little friction), and you’ll see what I mean. This also explains why athletes wear cleats and track spikes.

3. Size of the base of support (BOS): In athletics, the BOS is generally the positioning of the feet. The wider the stance, the more stability we are. Again, think sumo wrestling.

4. The horizontal positioning of the center of gravity (COG) – For maximum stability, the COG should be on the edge of the BOS at which an external force is acting. In other words, if an opponent is about to push you at your right side, you’ll want to lean to the right in anticipation in order to maintain your stability after contact.

5. Vertical positioning of the COG: The lower the COG, the more stable the object. You’ll often hear sportscasters talk about Allen Iverson being unstoppable because of his “low center of gravity” or because he “plays low.”

From a training standpoint, we can’t do much for #1, #2, or #4. However, mobility training alone can dramatically impact how well an athlete handles #3 and #5. The better our mobility, the easier it is for us to get wider and get lower. The wider and lower we can get when we need to do so, the better we can maintain our center of gravity within our base of support. Neuromuscular factors – collecting providing for our balancing proficiency – such as muscular strength and kinesthetic awareness play into this as well, and the ultimate result is our stability (or lack thereof) in a given situation.

Reason #6: Mobility training can actually make you taller…Really!

I’ve worked with a lot of basketball players, and I can honestly say that not a single one of them has ever told me that he wants to be shorter. And, I can assure you that the coaches and scouts would take a guy who is 7-0 over a 6-11 prospect any day.

So what does that have to do with our mobility discussion? Well, imagine an athlete who is very tight in his flexors; his hips will actually be slightly flexed in the standing position, as the pelvis will be anteriorly tilted (top of the hip bone is tipping forward). Likewise, if an athlete has tightness in his lats (among other smaller muscles), he’ll be unable to fully reach overhead. These two limitations can literally make an athlete two inches shorter in a static overhead reach assessment.

Just as importantly, such an athlete is going to “play smaller,” too. He won’t jump as high because he can’t get full hip extension and won’t be able to optimally make use of the powerful gluteal muscles. And, his reach will be limited by his inability to get the arms up fully. Together, these factors could knock two inches off his vertical jump and prevent him from making a game-saving block. It really is a game of inches.

Need further proof? I’ve seen several athletes instantly add as much as two inches on their vertical jump just from stretching out the hip flexors and lats before they test. This is an acute change in muscle length, though; mobility training will enable you to attain these ranges of motion all the time.

Reason #7: Mobility and “activation” training teach certain “dormant” muscles to turn on.

In our daily lives and on the basketball court, it’s inevitable that we get stuck in certain repetitive movement patterns – things we do every day, several times a day. With these constant patterns, certain muscles will just “shut down” because they aren’t being used. Two good examples would be the glutes (your butt muscles) and the scapular retractors (the muscles that pull your shoulder blades together). As a result, these shutdowns lead to faulty hip positioning and rounded shoulders, respectively (and a host of other problems, but we won’t get into that).

To correct these problems, we need what is known as activation work. These drills teach dormant muscles to fire at the right times to complement the mobility drills and get you moving efficiently. Mike and I went to great lengths in Magnificent Mobility to not only outline mobility drills, but also activation movements and movements that incorporate components of both.

Reason #8: Having mobility feels good!

Think about it: what’s the first thing an athlete wants to do after a good stretching session? Go run and jump around! Now, just imagine having that more limber feeling all the time; that’s exactly what mobility training can do for you.

Knowledge of the game and technical prowess will take an athlete far in the game of basketball, but it takes an efficient body to build the physical qualities that will take that same athlete to greatness. Without adequate mobility, an athlete will never even reach the efficient stage – much less the next level.

For more information on mobility training, check out MagnificentMobility.com

References

2. Nelson AG, Kokkonen J, Arnall DA. Acute muscle stretching inhibits muscle strength endurance performance. J Strength Cond Res. 2005 May;19(2):338-43

3. Kurz, T. Science of Sports Training. Stadion, 2001.

4. Young WB, Behm DG. Effects of running, static stretching and practice jumps on explosive force production and jumping performance. J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2003 Mar;43(1):21-7.

5. Thompson, A, Kackley, T, Palumbo, M, Faigenbaum, A. Acute effects of different warm-up protocols on jumping performance in female athletes. 2004 New England ACSM Fall Conference. 10 Nov 2004.

6. Colleran, EG, McCarthy, RD, Milliken, LA. The effects of a dynamic warm-up vs. traditional warm-up on vertical jump and modified t-test performance. 2003 New England ACSM Fall Conference. 11 Nov 2003.

EricCressey.com Subscriber-only Q&A

To answer your question, if there is too much dorsiflexion at the ankles, it is generally a sign that you're not decelerating properly at the knees and hips, so the ankles are taking on an extra percentage of the load. I would suspect weakness of the knee and/or hip extensors.

Q: I have an imbalance - one leg vs. the other. Do you suggest doing 100% unilateral leg-work for a while to cure the imbalance?

*If you’re interested in learning more along these lines, I would highly recommend Muscles: Testing and Function with Posture and Pain (5th Ed.) by Kendall et al.  This is truly a classic text that every fitness professional should own.

Q:  I am a strongman competitor and am thinking about incorporating squat briefs into my training. I talked to a powerlifter buddy of mine and he said he would recommend briefs for max effort squats and deadlifts to keep the hips healthy. What do you think about this?

However, given the nature of the training you’ll be doing (powerlifting-influenced), I wouldn’t rule the briefs out right away.  It depends on whether you're regularly box squatting and/or squatting with a wide stance.  If you are, I'd say that they're a good investment, and you could use them 1-2 weeks out of the month.

Have a great week!

EC

Product Review: The Vertical Jump Development Bible by Kelly Baggett

It’s not often that I come across a product that really blows me away to the point of me not only saying “wow,” but also calling the author and complimenting him personally.  There aren’t many Kelly Baggetts in the world, though.

Kelly and I have both worked with a ton of high-level athletes, and I literally found myself nodding in approval with every paragraph I encountered in this book.  Simply put, Kelly is one of the few people in this industry who really “gets it;” he put into words so many things that go through my mind all the time.  This book won’t just teach you about improving an athlete’s vertical jump; it’ll teach you about improving an athlete period.  I’ve used the principles outlined in the book with athletes myself, and they’re tremendously effective and, just as importantly, related in a context that’s understandable for experienced coaches and novice lifters alike.  This book is more than just the “what;” it’s the why, how, when, and who as well.  If you work with athletes or are an athlete yourself, you need to pick up The Vertical Jump Development Bible.

If you need any further proof that Kelly has my highest endorsement, consider that he and I are actually co-authoring an e-book right now as well.  I’m about as picky as they come when it comes to joint ventures; I wouldn’t be pursuing this book if Kelly wasn’t the real deal.  Definitely check his stuff out.

Newsletter Subscriber-only Exclusive Q&A The Q&A I did in last week’s newsletter was very well received, so I’ll be doing this more frequently.  Last week, I received a great question from an accomplished golfer from whom I am an online consultant, and it sparked a good ol’ fashioned Cressey tangent with plenty of rambling.  Hopefully, there will be something for everyone. Q: Having been lucky enough to spend time around some of the world’s best golfers (both pros and amateurs) over the years, the one question that comes up about conditioning for golf is “What gives you the biggest carryover to improving your performance?”  Over the years, I have talked to and asked many strength and performance specialist coaches and have gotten very different answers to what gives maximum results.  One well-known “guru” who has written a book on golf conditioning insists that because golf is a rotational movement, the best way to improve is to bang out lots of rotational movements.  I followed this with a trainer I had until he went and spent time with another world-renowned coach who told him that through his research with hundreds of athletes from multiple sports that rotational movements don’t carry over to rotational events.  I emailed this coach to ask about this and also what part Olympic lifts had for golf and he told me the carryover was not too good and that strong lats and a well integrated shoulder unit is what is required.  But then, to put another slant on this, a prominent Olympic lifting coach told me to snatch and clean, which made me curious to keep finding answers. Now that I’m training with your programming, you have opened my eyes to a very complete way of training making sure to cure imbalances and develop all strength qualities as well as all factors of dynamic flexibility.  I am now convinced that this is the way to get max results when training for any sport and specializing is not the answer.  I hope you don’t mind me asking you about this, but what your opinions on so-called “sport-specific training?” A: Without going any further, the big answer will always be "biomechanically correct efficiency."  You can't have health and performance without it.  Teach the body to move efficiently, and you'll keep it healthy and performing at a high-level indefinitely.  My number one responsibility as a performance enhancement coach is to keep you healthy; you can’t perform if you’re injured.  If you’re inefficient, you’re asking for injury, so that needs to be addressed first and foremost. However, that’s not to say that corrective training has to follow the lines of the foo-foo garbage so many personal trainers are promoting nowadays.  In fact, I’m speaking on “hardcore corrective training” at the Syracuse Strength Spectacular, and Mike Robertson and I will touch on the subject in great detail at our Building the Efficient Athlete seminar on July 22-23 in New York City.  Just because someone is a little out of kilter doesn’t mean that you have to treat him like he’s a geriatric hip replacement patient.  Here’s a quick example: Let’s say that a right-handed golfer comes to me with an extension-rotation syndrome (very common) that’s giving him some left lower back pain.  I check him out and find that he’s got a super-tight right iliotibial band – tensor fascia latae complex, and his right rectus femoris is equally knotted up.  My knowledge of functional anatomy tells me that two of his hip flexors on that side are working crazy overtime, so there is a good chance that the psoas major (the only hip flexor active above 90-degrees of hip flexion – a range of motion that most people don’t encounter enough) might not be doing its job.  I test it, and there’s a deficit.  I know that the psoas major doesn’t just flex the femur; it also has the ability to rotate the lumbar spine.  If the right psoas is not firing, it’s not acting in rotation to counteract the rotational pull of the left psoas major.  Essentially, its stiffness relative to the opposite side is insufficient.  So, there’s my rotation. I also know that the psoas major can pull the lumbar vertebrae anteriorly, so that can contribute to my extension problem.  Likewise, when I factor in the tightness and adhesions in the rectus femoris and TFL, it’s pretty clear that the pelvis is going to be anteriorly tilted (and rotated, most likely) and the gluteus maximus isn’t going to be firing due to reciprocal inhibition.  As such, the individual isn’t going to be able to get full hip extension – so he’ll have to hyperextend his lumbar spine to compensate for a lack of hip extension range of motion.  Likewise, with the overactive TFL, I can guarantee that his gluteus medius on that side isn’t going to be doing its job, so the hip will likely slip into adduction (think of the hip fallout you see in a newbie squatting). This is really just a small piece of the puzzle in terms of what’s going on, as you’re going to have compensations up and down the entire the kinetic chain.  A knee could have gone first, or the individual might actually develop shoulder pain secondary to this lumbo-pelvis misalignment.  How do we treat it?  Well, definitely not with leg extensions, a little stationary cycling, and some unstable surface balancing!  Here’s what I’m going to do: 1. Really get after the TFL, rectus femoris, quadriceps, and adductors with a foam roller, “The Stick” and, if possible, Active Release®. 2. Static stretch the TFL and rectus femoris. 3. Do some activation work for the psoas major, gluteus medius, and gluteus maximus. 4. Progress to tightly supervised bodyweight-only mobility drills that don’t allow faulty compensation patterns. 5. Use a combination of bilateral and unilateral movements done CORRECTLY to teach proper initiation of the posterior chain.  In other words, I might do a rack pull or pull-through where I teach the individual to fire the glutes and pop the hips through at lockout instead of simply leaning back.  Controlled eccentrics and isometrics holds can be fantastic here. 6. We’re going to start with pure stabilization work for the lumbar spine, and over time, we’ll start to progress to rotational movements once I see that he can get the rotation in the right places. 7. I’ll discuss with the individual what can be done to avoid reinforcing this movement pattern in his daily life.  Maybe he’s always reaching to one side to answer the phone.  Or, more likely, he’s getting too much rotation at his spine with his golf swing because his hip rotators are too tight. All this said, without a doubt, the single-most important thing I’m going to do with this golfer is continue to treat him like an athlete.  I’ll give him challenges and test him just as I would a healthy athlete – just in a more controlled environment and with slightly modified exercises.  None of that sissy crap needed; it’s just going to make him so soft that training him once he’s healthy (if he ever does get healthy with that garbage) will be like pulling teeth. Anyway, the take-home message is that you have to understand functional anatomy first and foremost.  Otherwise, you have no place telling people that you’re using “functional training” – especially if you don’t even know the true origins of the term.  I’ll step off my soapbox and get to your questions now… I think the rotational idea has merit, but the fundamental problem with this is that most people get rotation in all the wrong places.  If you're getting lumbar rotation, you're on the fast track to lower back pain.  Get it at your hips, thoracic spine, and scapulae, though, and you'll be in a good position.  In this regard, one needs to learn to stabilize the lumbar spine (think “Super Stiffness,” as per Stuart McGill) and mobilize the hips, thoracic spine, and shoulder girdle.  That's what you've been doing, and it's paying dividends.  If I just send Average Joe out to train rotation all day, he'd be booking an appointment with his orthopedic back specialist in a matter of weeks (it's the same reason that so many golfers have back pain...remember extension-rotation syndrome secondary to tight hip lateral rotators and hip flexors?) Let’s just say that I would love to see the peer-reviewed journal in which that “extensive research” was published; lats are important, no doubt, but still somewhat of a stretch as “most” important.  My experience tells me that they're most valuable in sports where you're actually hitting the ground with your swing (e.g. hockey), but not as important as rotational power in the golfing motion.  The effective shoulder model is definitely important, though, so he’s on track in that regard.  You need a perfect balance of stability and mobility for optimal health and performance. As far as the snatch and clean recommendations are concerned, go to an Olympic lifter, and he's going to tell you to Olympic lift, you know?  Olympic lifting has merits, but two lifts aren't a magic bullet.  The reason this coach’s ideas are valuable is because he made you realize that the value of simplicity is highly overlooked.  However, if you've got imbalances like most golfers do, doing two compound lifts is just going to reinforce those imbalances. I'm a firm believer in what Vladimir Zatsiorsky termed delayed transmutation (of nonspecific motor potential into sport performance results); it's defined as "the time period needed to transform acquired motor potential into athletic performance."  Basically, this holds that you build an athletic up in a general sense, and then he takes those general qualities and adapts them to his specific sport.  You can think of the training as "generally specific.” With your program, I'm not tinkering with your golf swing directly, but I'm tinkering with your neuromuscular system, which governs that golf swing.  If it moves efficiently (via constant ingraining of those activation and mobility patterns), you're going to integrate that efficiency into your golf swing without even knowing it.  It's the same reason I can make someone run faster without actually making him run.  Would you believe that in biomechanics lab analysis, the best golfers swing 50% as hard as their poorly performing counterparts?  As long as they've got efficiency and ROM, they can get the job done without overswinging - which also throws things off because transfer of energy through the core is out of whack. We train mobility where we need that, and stability where we need that. We train power at all points along the speed-strength continuum for obvious reasons. We train maximal strength because it can have a ceiling effect on power, especially in naturally reactive individuals. We do rep work to iron out imbalances and attend to your "aside" goal of being more solid.  As long as you don't put on so much muscle mass that you lose ROM, we're golden. We do low-intensity recovery work to allow you to bounce back and training again sooner and at a higher level of strength and speed.  Plus, it helps to repeat mobility and activation work on a daily basis. What we will NEVER do is have you mimic the golf swing under loaded conditions or while standing on an unstable surface.  Crap like this is what makes so many modern "sport-specific" and "functional" training programs so useless.  From my thesis defense presentation: “Willardson (2004) observed that two problems arise when one attempts to mimic sports skills while on an unstable surface. 1) The individual may actually be mastering two separate motor patterns, as “the underlying neuromuscular recruitment patterns and proprioceptive feedback may be completely different” for the two exercises. 2) The incorporation of unfamiliar entities to a pre-existing neuromuscular recruitment pattern for a given activity may negatively impact performance of that skill.” So, basically, trying too hard to mimic the golf swing will screw up your golf swing, but enhance your performance in this new environment.  If you want to add ten pounds to your clubs or play in the middle of an earthquake, you’ll be more than prepared.  Otherwise, I’d stick to “general specificity.” Hopefully, all this makes sense.  I tend to ramble sometimes… That’s all for this week; stay tuned for some great announcements and new material very shortly.  Have a great week! EC