Unlike the past education sessions throughout this summer-long internship, this week’s education touched upon several different skills. All of which had the same underlying focus: stability and center of gravity (COG). The aforementioned skills included running posture and mechanics, athletic stance, and rotational rows.
For running posture and mechanics, we went through a series of wall drills. Needless to say, because completed them on a wall, all of these drills were based n linear running. The running motion was broken into five separate steps. The first, posture, was simply finding the most stable position of the body in order to ensure maximum running economy. Like a plank, we leaned against the wall with our arms out and extended. With our bodies slanted away from the wall, to mimic actual running, we pushed our hips toward the wall but avoided back extension. Lastly, we stood on the balls of our feet, not our toes. From these we proceeded through four more steps. Personally, what I noticed most once we completed these drills was how taxing it was to remain in this solid, stable posture while, essentially, attempting to run. This goes to show that core stability can not be over looked when teaching the specific techniques of running effectively and efficiently.
Athletic posture is a term that is thrown around very loosely, and often. However, true stable athletic position is more than meets the eye. To test this, I was told to get into an athletic position with my hands together (as if I were praying) and in front of me. Holding this position, Sarah began to hit and pul at my hands in order to get me to fall over. This was easier for her to do than I originally thought it would be. But, this drill helped me to find what muscles I needed to activate and where the majority of my weight needed to be distributed in order to stay stable.
Lastly, we were instructed on how to perform a rotational row on the Keiser pulley machine. This exercise forces the athlete to transfer weight from the inside on one foot, to the other. This movement can be compared to the action of the hips when performing a standing medicine ball side toss. The idea is to create rotational stability, along with proper weight transfer. As a former collegiate softball player, I found this exercise bit interesting and extremely useful, as it is the way every hitter should use their lower body to hit the ball. Also, because it is performed on the Keiser machine, it would be a great exercise to have athletes perform on both side in order to alleviate any strength or coordination asymmetries.