The Movement Hierarchy by Coach Amer

Learning is the acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience, study, practice,
and/or observation.  Like learning different aspects of science, math, and language; the body learns how to move by doing rudimentary movements, skills, and patterns first before advancing to more demanding and complex movements.  Dr. Kelly Starrett expanded a great deal on the concept of Movement Hierarchy, and how this hierarchy plays different roles in the weight room versus in sports which demand different types of movement preparation. This blog aims to elaborate on how a strength and conditioning coach approaches the concept of the movement hierarchy in the weight room in accordance with Dr. Starrett, and how a strength and conditioning coach uses his/her understanding of the movement hierarchy to help the athlete relate to their sport and/or other activities outside the weight room.

Human movement can vary; it can be as simple as moving a finger saying up or down by using one muscle fiber and one nerve to control that muscle fiber, to a very complex movement like a squat snatch that requires the mobility, stability, flexibility, strength and power of the muscle fibers in multiple muscle groups. A strength and conditioning coach’s main objective is to teach and coach functional movement patterns that have a wide range of applications, movements that allow athletes and clients relate to simpler or more complex patterns of human movement. A strength coach’s experience and knowledge allow him/her to use a plan/program to recognize and fix weaknesses, dysfunctionalities, poor movement patterns, limited range of motion, instability, and other factors that kill basic human movements for day to day functions. A plan and program that can increase the best performance in potential for injury and/or limited optimal performance in athletic events. Dr. Starrett uses his Movement Hierarchy to categorize movement so that we have a model for:

1- Rehabbing an athlete after surgery or injury.
2- Layering movements and skill progressions.
3- Understanding movement complexity.
4- Illuminating movement errors.
5- Identifying mobility restrictions.

While all of these are close to what most strength and conditioning coaches want to achieve, a slightly different approach should be utilized; moreover, a strength and conditioning coach could be dealing with many different aspects of training versus a physical therapy approach Dr. Starrett is using. For example, training targets for movement hierarchy in a football linebacker who is a sophomore in college is completely different than a senior in high school who plays tennis. To explain, power-generating capacity should be a primary training outcome for a football athlete; making it the five focuses for a strength and conditioning coach look more like: 1- Teaching landing mechanics. 2- Optimizing body weight. 3- Designing the correct program to illuminate the correct form in doing a hang clean. The focus of a coach is to train an athlete to be explosive and use high level amounts of strength to differentiate between athletes and teams, so developing training that can both generate strength and power would be therefore needed at the top of the movement hierarchy. (Haff, 2015) Selecting a route to optimize the physiological and performance adaptations should trump any other aspect in the movement hierarchy. [1] When movement hierarchy is shifted from that concept the ability to express high levels of power are affected negatively.

Strength and conditioning coaches need to use their understanding of movement hierarchy to help the athlete relate to their sport and other activities outside the weight room; however, Dr. Starrett pointed out “You can do a pull-up in the gym, for example, but that doesn’t mean you can climb a tree.” Which is completely true, as he followed up with “If you understand what is going on when you do a pull-up, it’s easy to climb a tree because you already know how to create torque and trunk stability. So as long as you understand how the movement principles work and you develop reproducible motor-control patterns, you have a model for reconstituting organized, stable, and efficient positions in any environment.” On top of the overall health benefits of weight training or sport participation, any activity invites a chance of motor learning; however, the intensity levels may vary, and the overall results may not be what the sport coach and the strength coach are looking for. Therefore, sports and training diversification can be useful at an early stage but also may not translate to the end goal in mind. (Thomas Caruso, 2015) It is important to understand when to relate movements and their simplicity/complexity to technique, and to always address motor-control first. As coaches, we are using movement then addressing this movement to the athlete to understand how to correctly get into the right position without making a loading error (i.e., failing to brace or create torque). Then making sure the mobility of the athlete in a movement allows them to be stable in a position that are relevant to their sport (i.e squat jump for volleyball player).

As a conclusion, Dr. Starrett did a great job of relating movement hierarchy points to coaching, but it is the objective of a strength and conditioning coach to use this movement hierarchy to best benefit his/her athletes and clients. A strength and conditioning coach must make sure the easy and basic movements are mastered and are second nature, then impose demands that progress to more advanced levels of movement. This motor learning process of certain skills needs to fit within a spectrum to make sure the movement is relevant and fruitful for the athlete to best perform on and off the pitch.

Resources:

Haff, G. G. ( 2015, Dec).  Methods of Developing Power with Special reference to football players. Strength and Conditioning Journal, 37(6), 2-16.

Thomas Caruso, C. R. (2015). Early Sport Specialization versus diversification in Youth Athletes. NSCA

Amer Nahhas CSCS, NSCA-CPT, USAW-L1

“The views, opinions, and judgments expressed in this message are solely those of the authors and peer reviewers. The contents have been reviewed by a team of contributors but not approved by any other outside entity including the Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh.”