Saturday Weekly Tip- Shoulder Strength For Speed

Good Morning!

Hey, it is certainly basketball season but you have to be excited to watch the Superbowl. It should be a great game. Enjoy the game and don't eat too much during the game!

Weekly Tip- Shoulder Strength For Speed

We are such a push happy fitness society and don't do enough pulling. Pulling strengthens the upper back/shoulder region of the body and this helps speed. How?

When the athlete can pull the shoulders back and lock in the upper back the lower back can arch which allows the hips to get into a better position for the athletic stance. Try this; round your shoulder forward in bad posture. Now try to arch your low back as if you were getting into a good athletic stance. You can't do it.

What does this mean? When the shoulders are pulled back and the athlete is able to "Lock In" to a great stance. the rest of the body can get tight and be ready to explode in any direction. So once again- when the shoulders can pull back and allow the upper back to get tight the lower back can get in a good position which allow the pelvis to rotate and put stretch on the glutes and hamstrings. This in turn put the legs and the lower legs on a stretch and the athlete is loaded and ready to fire out.

Coaching point. When you see an athlete moving sluggishly and not changing directions well check out his or her posture. If the posture from the top down is poor start by getting the shoulder pulled back slightly. Don't exaggerate the shoulder being pulled back- just enough to lock in the posture.

Have the athlete practice these 3 things with great posture and see if it helps:
1. Lateral shuffles
2. Crossovers
3. Athletic stance to turn an run- like a baseball player stealing

Watch to see if the athlete can maintain great posture.

Keep in mind there are going to be plenty of times when the athlete will break posture to make a play in the sport. Volleyball players will round the back "cat back" to perform a pass in volleyball, fielding a ball requires the player to round in order to get the hands in front of the body more... The bottom line is start with good posture and make necessary adjustments.

Let me know if you have questions on this topic

Yours in Speed,

Lee

PS: The Speed Insiders Newsletter is a big hit. Check out www.SpeedInsiders.com so you can test drive the program and receive the NEW Source 4 Speed newsletter.