In my career, there have been times when something comes along that raises the bar for fitness professionals like the basis for this next blogging series. You don’t want to miss this series, as it has the potential to enhance your movement perspective on athleticism through a proven method that Coach Clive Brewer has used to build the United Kingdom Long-Term Development model from the ground up. The United States is in need of such an example to get our coaches/trainers moving our students/clients ahead in the years to come.
In this blog, I’m going to introduce Coach Brewer’s new book Athletic Movement Skills according to my experience, highlight the problems of skill acquisition I see, and summarize what is stated in the first chapter on movement skill development.
The Morland STRENGTH blogging team is excited to introduce this series to the world over the next few months to the world of coaches and trainers. We want to attract readers and followers searching for a refresh perspective. This series will hopefully influence how you look at the quality of movement patterns. We invite you to read along book with us and comment on the blog as often as you’d like. We want to steer the series according to your feedback.
From my high school years of playing 3 sports to a coaching career of 15 years I’ve always believed that a better athlete will be better at their sport. Someone who performs the basic skills of running, jumping, and throwing is better prepared for the demands of any activity. Now Coach Clive Brewer (current strength coach for the Toronto Blue Jays) is providing the foundation for this idea in his new book that was published in January 2017. I’ve gotten to know Coach Brewer over the last 10 years attending the East Tennessee State University Coaches’ College. At these conferences, he’s presented to coaches and trainers a model that can work for coaches and provided the evidence to support his approach to the process.
The forward to this book is by legendary sprint coach Loren Seagrave who says, “This book will empower you to evaluate your current athletic development techniques and methods and consider how you can further personalize the design and delivery of your training sessions.” I agree that the first job of a coach or trainer is to be a movement coach, understanding the fields of: physics, biomechanics, sports movement, anatomy, and physiology and bridge them to skill development.
Some years ago, I saw a presentation by David Donatucci (then IPI Director) that showed me a sequence of skill development that really made sense. When someone begins learning a skill it:
- Starts out as unconscious incompetence (new skill looks foolish), and then,
- Moves into conscious incompetence (understand the skill but not very good at it)
- From there it is conscious competence (skilled with conscious effort)
- Finally it is unconscious competence (no thought to perfect the skill)
Herein lies the major problem with skill development with coaches and trainers. How many of us are patient enough to progress slowly toward the move advanced skills to give our students and clients time to go through each step? I admit, I struggle daily with this process, how about you? (comment and let me know) How can we adjust our skill progressions for different people, sports, and teams?
Each day in my strength and conditioning facility, I see inefficient movement patterns that need be corrected with coaching intervention and their are progression challenges that are working against progress. For example, the worst movement we have right now is the barbell push press. Getting my students and athletes to be patient enough to hip hinge, dip slow and controlled, and drive their heels through the floor, with their head through the middle is a coaching effort!
The first chapter of this book is focused on movement skill development. A great quote to start the conversation is on page 2 was from Verkoshansky (the Russian sport scientist) who said, “The fundamental phenomenon central to all sporting tasks is movement: sport is a problem-solving activity in which movements are used to produce the necessary solutions.” (from Siff, M.C. 2003 Supertraining 5th ed.)
Currently in my academic progression I’m taking a secondary reading course to encourage literacy in my students toward a science teachers’ certification. I’m learning a value of academic literacy that can be applied in this opening blog about movement skills literacy and becoming more proficient in progressions in the classroom and on the the field. My 9 year old son really enjoys reading and literally each night I have to convince him to put down his current book so he will go to bed! We need more students, athletes, and clients with this mindset toward their academic and athletic movement skills mindset!
Developing students and clients that are not “physically illiterate” should be of primary importance. Coach Brewer says: “the aim of this book is to restructure some of the language of science and medicine and build bridges….for practitioners, empowering this with tools for practical applications.” Each coaching and trainer should understand the training age for their client. In youth, the biological age is a central theme for an effective training system because youth do not develop at even rates (Brewer, 2017 page 5).
Long-term development plan approach to training
In summary, coaches and trainers who take this series seriously will experience a revitalization of the basics as they revisit biological age and athletic movement patterns. We in the coaching and training community must learn how to move efficiently again with a long-term development and with physical literacy in mind. This perspective will provide a successful progression toward competency and real mastery that builds throughout the years of training for the whole student or client.
I invite you to invite others to #JoinTheMovement toward better #AthleticMovementSkills! Our team including Coach Amer (Strength and Conditioning Coach at Lifetime), Coach Cowick (Trainer for Camp Gladiator), Coach Blaser, (Trainer and Physical Therapy Technician) Coach Byrd (Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach at Cardinal Gibbons High School), are ready for you to move with us in this series!
Chris Morland, MS, CSCS
Director of Strength and Conditioning/Teacher
Educator and Coach | Visionary in High School Strength and Conditioning
Would you like to follow Morland STRENGTH’s link here: new Instagram account?
#MorlandSTRENGTH #AthleticMovementSkills #JoinTheMovement
“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.”
“The fundamental phenomenon central to all sporting tasks is movement: sport is a problem-solving activity in which movements are used to produce the necessary solutions.”
When I read this, I thought, “I do this every time I see a lift, a jump or a sprint”. I am consistently thinking is this athlete moving effectively? Is he/she doing this exercise correctly? How can I make him/her better? I ask myself this every time I’m lifting or sprinting. I’m thinking of ways to improve my technique through movement, mind-body connections and mobility exercises. My goal is to make it second-nature.
I’m very excited to learn more about this topic and become a better trainer myself! I feel this book is going to be a must have for any Strength and Conditioning Coach!
I am so excited for this series! I remember Clive’s talk at the last ETSU Coaches’ College, and applaud his commitment to a developmental approach to coaching. Every athlete or client is at a different stage of understanding as to how their body works, and what it is capable of. Like the saying, “give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime;” a great trainer/coach doesn’t just assign workouts and get results. A great coach/trainer develops their athlete/client to become more proficient in how they move. Training is a learning process, and trainers who are good teachers are worth their weight (or more!) in gold.
I think a resource like this is excellent for any fitness professional. Trainers, strength coaches, and even physical therapists can benefit from a new perspective on how to develop movement skills. As I move forward into physical therapy, I plan to use this developmental approach to re-educate my future-patients on their movement patterns. No matter what their chronological age, biological age will be an excellent determinant to meet each individual where they are starting from. Can’t wait to read what’s to come!
“the aim of this book is to restructure some of the language of science and medicine and build bridges….for practitioners, empowering this with tools for practical applications.”
Rarely we see such bold statements, yet so backed by a lot of work. I believe the idea of developing physical literacy as you mentioned is new and challenging. Often we look at kids and never give a chance cause they are not physically fit/literate as with some other kids who got the chance and biology to achieve more. I believe using this book will help us reach to new heights of helping kids who take longer to learn, commit, and acquire skills mentally, chronologically, and biologically.