Performance Principles Session 8

1. Performance PrinciplesSession 8 Scientific research has confirmed that the following principles, when utilized synergistically, will stimulate one’s ability to achieve peak athletic performance. Objectives: • The student will learn how to identify, define and apply the performance principles of exercise. • The student will be learning how to use 3-Dimensiaonal Movement Exercises and Functional Strength Training to enhance athletic performance and achieve one’s personal fitness goals. SOLs: 11/12.1, 11/12.2, 11/12.3, 11/12.4, 11/12.5

2. 3-Dimensional Movement • Sport skills involve movements in the three planes of space simultaneously: forward-backward, up-down, and side to side. Our strength and conditioning program improves functional strength and power with exercises and drills approximating these 3-dimensional skills. • In strength and power training, only free weights allow movement in three dimensions simultaneously. This makes the transfer of strength and power easier to merge with the development of sport skills. Machines limit the development of sport skills. • When we develop a running program, explosive footwork and agility drills, similar to specific sport movements are used. It is important for athletes to be quick and to possess breakaway speed, but they must be able to control their bodies and execute change of direction quickly on the field or court to be effective.

3. Functional Strength Training • Functional strength training involves performing work against resistance in such a manner that the improvements in strength directly enhance the performance of movements so that an individual's activities of daily living are easier to perform. • Simply stated, the primary goal of functional training is to transfer the improvements in strength achieved in one movement to enhancing the performance of another movement by affecting the entire neuromuscular system. • It is as critical to train the specific movement as it is to train the muscles involved in the movement. The brain, which controls muscular movement, thinks in terms of whole motions, not individual muscles. • Exercises that isolate joints and muscles are training muscles, not movements, which results in less functional improvement. For example, squats will have a greater "transfer effect" on improving an individual's ability to rise from a sofa than knee extensions.

4. Functional Strength Training • It is as critical to train the specific movement as it is to train the muscles involved in the movement. The brain, which controls muscular movement, thinks in terms of whole motions, not individual muscles. • Exercises that isolate joints and muscles are training muscles, not movements, which results in less functional improvement. For example, squats will have a greater "transfer effect" on improving an individual's ability to rise from a sofa than knee extensions.