How We Learn

Somebody once asked Ben Hogan for a golf lesson. His reply, "You can't teach golf. You can only learn it." Hogan wasn't arrogant, just giving an honest opinion. To learn golf, you must practice until an efficient and effective motion is ingrained in the nervous system and the muscles they feed. Timing, control, balance, feel, rhythm - the muscles and nervous system must figure things out. It must be precise, specific, exactly the same - swing after swing - to reach the pinnacle. Things almost correct will likely retard the process, insert roadblocks, promote negative results.

Yet, this insertion is exactly the essence of sport-specific or performance training. Do something (an exercise or movement) that resembles a sport-movement pattern; then assume there is a positive transfer to the sport itself. Poor assumption. The motor learning principle of specificity is violated every time - something coaches and trainers don't get. They continue to train athletes under false assumptions and beliefs, then argue that they produce results. They have the studs in the barn to prove it. Doing something will produce a result, not the best result, a result.

Why do coaches and trainers not get it? Your guess is as good as mine, but one thing is certain. The alternative, old-school thought, is unattractive, not hip, not functional. Strengthen the muscles needed in the sport, independent of 'how' they are to be used. Then, take the new muscles out to the ball game. Let the nervous system piece the new structure and strength together in the only way possible - by practice of the sport itself, specifically, with no added weight or opinion. Practice the sport exactly as you would in competition.

Let's put the current sport-specific training approach where it belongs - the nearest trash can. The nervous system is capable of improvement with the proper signals - signals not confused by extra weights that trigger patterns similar to, but not exactly like, that encountered in the sport.

Strengthen muscles; practice the sport. Anything else is insanity, fraud or both.

Get it?

Golf Specific Exercise

Dear John,

Just saw a male golfer in our private country-club gym perform a series of torso rotational golf turns on a Bosu ball (flat side down). He placed a weighted bar across the front of his shoulders to measure the extent of his turn and tried to maintain balance during the movement. John's a good golfer (carries an eight handicap) and makes a consistent effort in our facility to improve his game. But he's wrong on this.

As John turns into a golf backswing position, he must shift weight toward the center of the ball to maintain his balance. In golf, it's called a reverse pivot. Ideal weight distribution during a backswing should leave the golfer with approximately 75% of his weight on the rear leg - loaded for action. The ideal distribution would send John into the adjacent flower garden, and quick.

As John turns into a golf follow-through position, he must again shift weight toward the center of the ball to maintain his balance, a reverse pivot Part II. Ideal weight distribution during a follow-through should leave the golfer with 90-100% of his weight on the front leg - fully unloaded. The ideal distribution here would send John into the adjacent flower garden even quicker.

The point is this: Skill training is specific, must be THE SAME AS THE MOVEMENT ITSELF to properly register with the nervous system. John's training will serve one purpose only - make him more proficient at standing on a Bosu ball as he twists. It will not help his golf ; in fact, will hurt it.

GB

Sport-Specific Exercise & Sports Performance Programs

Research related to skill training points to one thing - specificity. Training to improve skill (and ultimately performance) must be specific, that is, with the same equipment, the same motion performed with no deviation from the ideal path and no resistance other than the weight of the implement(s) used in the movement.

Research related to strength training points to another - maximum overload. Muscles must be challenged with heavy weights (for 8-12 repetitions) to stimulate the degree of change necessary to improve performance.

Skill training - no resistance: Strength training - maximum resistance. Simple enough.

Apparently not.

The flood of sport-specific exercise and performance programs around the country deny the apparent - they combine skill and strength training (train movement patterns in what is called "functional" training). The result? A compromise of both skill and strength - muscle groups that never reach their strength potential and movement patterns that are likely to interfere with the specificity required of skill training.

How should it be done? Separate the two. Strengthen the muscles involved in the movement independent of how they are to be used. Once they are as strong as they can be, plug them into the movement in the only way possible, by practice of the skill itself.

Anything else is insane, commercial or both.