After experiencing a full work week as a NEU S&C intern, despite the impedance of the snow on Wednesday, I can say that my original expectations of claiming that the program had offered a lot to learn, just by judging on my first day, is still on its pace.
This week was about going through the protocol of the program, acquiring coaching techniques, and understanding the exercise techniques to help us direct the athletes. Also, we were brought through a series of testing to help keep track of the movement efficiency of the athletes on a monthly basis, and gauge the effectiveness of the program instilled to help improve athletic performance of the athletes.
The testing included a number of different measures to identify where the athletes were adequate, or deficient. From flexibility measurements, to core stability measures.
One of the tests was the ‘single-leg hop.’ The protocol of the test is for the athlete to issue a controlled jump on one-foot with the hands fixed on the hips. It has to be controlled because the athlete needs to be able to stick the landing without breaking any of the form that they were in prior to the jump. The goal is for the athlete to jump as far as possible while maintaining this control. The further the athlete executes the jump, the better they are at maintaining their body control while exerting an explosive motion of jumping.
After a week of preparation of what we will encounter in this environment, the tutorial of the program will now transition to the practicality of the program starting next week, with the hopes of being able to get the athletes to respond to our coaching.