Our Perspective
Our Opinion of Athletic Development
Our opinion on athletic development and training comes from over 10 years of experience as a player, coach, and trainer for over 200 athletes.
The training industry has evolved immensely in those 10 years and has changed athletes mindsets on what is important and how should we properly prepare for a sport?
The biggest transformation we have seen in training is the adoption of thinking of the body as a thinking, connective system; counter to the body builder approach that looks at muscles individually independent from one another. A pain in the hip may be from a weakness in the ankle. Pain in the knee may be from a weakness in the thoracic spine. This is an important discovery because we are finding that athletes are more susceptible to injury if they are building poor equilibrium of muscle tissue. More weight does not always equal more athletic success especially if an athlete is not working full range of motion. A lack of mobility can drastically hinder an athletes speed, agility, coordination, and even worse, cause season ending injuries.
If a sport puts an athlete in a position that his/her body is not mobile enough to control in that position, unless they are very talented and compensate , they will most likely get hurt. Even then, the best athletes compensating for poor movement leads to tightness, inability to articulate joints, mechanical dysfunctions, injuries, and long term pain after their careers.
Athletes must train to be strong, mobile, dynamic, aware, and resilient.
The word that describes this phenomenon of connective tissue all working together in one harmonious body is “tensegrity”. Think about tensegrity as a balance between tension and integrity. A body with great tensegrity has all the tension in the right places; in turn creating healthy flexion and mobility of joints. A body that is too tense in some areas and not tense enough in others has poor tensegrity and therefore poor mobility and inadequate joint function. Inadequate joint function leads to injuries. It is vital for athletes to be mobile and be able to move well just as much as it is to be powerful.
So; how do we separate real
training from snake oil?
1.
Great artists steal.
The Foundation does not reinvent the wheel. We use exercises that athletes have used for centuries that have been proven to increase speed, power, agility and overall athletic ability. Some of these include weightlifting, resistance bands, sprinting mechanics, plyometrics, sandball training, a wide array of calisthenics and bodyweight exercises, Pilates, and Mobility training (FRC- Functional Range Conditioning).
2.
Read the Old History.
We do the deep research to see what athletes and warriors have done for thousands of years before weights and equipment was manufactured. We implement steel mases, hanging, indian clubs, rope climbing, and club swinging for strong, mobile shoulders!
3.
Always have a white belt mentality and continue to learn.
Daniel is thrilled to learn new techniques every year and will be the first to admit he is a beginner in the world of training. The key to learning is knowing what is valuable and useful and what to throw out. Daniel is attending seminars, obtaining new certificates, and being trained by other prominent trainers across the country still every year to continue to raise the bar.
4.
Understand the intention of training.
Our goal is to increase athletic performance, functional movement, and build strong resilient athletes. With that being said, The Foundation does not coach Olympic weight lifting. Since Olympic weightlifting is its own sport and takes just as much practice and technique as any other competitive sport, we feel it is too steep of a learning curve and time consuming, and can be replaced with other exercises that still fulfill triple extension demands of sport while staying safe and building power. We are not against it, but feel strongly that it does not serve an athlete the best possible way unless of course it is an Olympic weightlifting competitive athlete.