This post addresses my continued concerns that teenage athletes are not being properly assessed and prepared for the physical, emotional, and mental, demands that take place with the training and conditioning for competitive sports.
Hence, the number of soft tissue injuries continues to increase at an alarming rate for high school athletes of all sports.
Then, sessions of physical therapy are started to resolve the issue. Unfortunately the rehab protocols are woefully lacking due to their ‘band-aid approach’ – just address the injury and all will be fine.
I can state categorically, this is a severely incomplete reductionist philosophy. Consider this, nothing operates separtely in the human body, everything is influenced and affected by – all the systems.
When the human structure is ‘loaded and not correctly aligned – imbalances begin to lay down in the fascial tissues – joint integrity and function become disorganized – compensation patterns become the norm when standing – walking – running – jumping – squating – every component of training, conditioning and function is compromised.
Unfortunately, the ‘coaching culture’ cultivates athlete performance by introducing a performance training that is based on loading the human body and the adaptations that lead to progressive overload.
This model is called ‘periodization’. Sadly and unfortunately this model is not sustainable.
Periodization consists of a series of 3 cycles:
1.) Microcycle – is the shortest training cycle, typically lasting a week, with the goal of facilitating a focused block of training.
2.) Mesocycle – represents a specific block of training within your season (i.e., macrocycle) that is designed to accomplish a particular goal.
3.) Macrocycle – (i.e., your entire season) is the longest of the three cycles and includes all four stages of a periodized training program (e.g., endurance, intensity, competition and recovery).
Structural assessment – and movement patterns – should be done before every session. As well as a complete and thourough intake of sleep patterns, food intake, hydration and stress levels.
There is no reason why injuries need to rise, in fact there needs to be a dramatic reduction so that young athletes have the opportunity to tap into their athletic excellence.
In sustainable excellence,
Coach Michael Holland