Drop-Stop- & Go

I recently just read an article about the ability to change direction. While the author stated many of the traditional things to be aware of such as strength, rate of force development, proper force application of the leg, and upper body sway. HOWEVER... possibly the most important component was not even mentioned!
Force production is definitely important but for field and court athletes the ability to absorb force is just as crucial if not even more important!


As to the authors example of upper body sway and a rise and fall of the hips producing unwanted vertical movement during change of direction, just focusing on those specific body parts for strength and stability is like putting a bandaid on the problem!

The following are a few concepts that I use with athletes when developing their ability to change direction:

• Stopping is bending- particularly I use the phrase 'Drop-Stop- & Go'

• Use the inside leg to help decelerate the body- proper mechanics of deceleration will help setup the body to efficiently change direction and therefore possibly even eliminate upper body sway and unwanted vertical motion of the hips. Why?
  
  By using the inside leg you are now placing up to 50% less stress on the outside leg and the body does not have to compensate for such high loads and g-forces on only one leg
• Force Aborption based Plyos- one of the first stages when implementing a plyometric program is to focus on an athlete's ability to land properly and then land efficiently. The next step is to be able to come to a complete stop in under one second. Why?
  
  Research shows that the average ground contact time for field sports is between .85- 2.0 seconds. Just by adding this parameter alone in an athlete's program you may begin to see improvement on the field

These are only three of the top five coaching points used with athletes. I will post the other two soon.