SPEED,
MECHANICS, &
HEALTH
WHY MECHANICS
MATTER
MECHANICS
MATTER
While everything we wrote in the
Need for Speed Course has been
done so through a ‘performance
lens’ – i.e. speed as a contributing
factor to performance – it is
important also to understand how
it affects health.
There is circular causality
between kinematics and kinetics.
That said, health and performance
are
distinct
each(inter)other;
theynot
exist
on a from
mutually
dependent continuum. Treating
them as separate entities – as we
have traditionally done – will not
maximize the development of
either.
Athletes who move with superior
mechanics
(their
movement
quality) produce the postures,
shapes, patterns, and rhythms that
will allow them to express
themselves
in
quantitatively
superior ways, and vice versa.
Just as poor
negatively
affect technique
the amountwill
of
weight an athlete can squat, so will
it negatively affect the speed at
which an athlete can sprint. This
is obvious to any coach with more
than a few years of experience
working with athletes — very
simply, mechanics matter.
But they don’t only affect an
athlete’s performance. Remember
– health and performance exist on
the same continuum.
An athlete with poor squatting
technique
is
not
only
compromising his performance,
but also his health.
"Why we think attention to
running mechanics is a waste
of clinical time and attention:
Similarly,
Currently,
his
poor
sprinting
technique will limit his sprint
speed – but also increase his
injury risk.
Again – this is intuitive to most of
us who have worked in sport for
any amount of time.
However, there has been some
push-back on this hypothesis
ypothesis from
some in the sport science
community.
For example, in an article written
by Rod Whiteley, and colleagues,
in the Aspetar Sports Medicine
Journal, the authors offered a
critical rebuke of the importance
of mechanics to health:
we
remain
unconvinced
of
the
usefulness
of
more
complicated attention to
individual gait analyses and
therefore
“biomechanical”
contributors. This stems
from several lines:
Firstly, we are unaware of
any
evidence
of
good
predictive association
association of any
any
“bench”
measures
(e.g.
posture, flexibility, strength,
movement patterns) with
actual
overground
high
speed running mechanics,
and we don’t yet know how to
measure high speed running
mechanics in someone who is
currently injured.
Secondly, we suggest that the
magnitude of any differences
is likely to be small in
comparison to the possibility
for overload through simple
changes in the volume and
intensity of running which
players regularly encounter
as part of normal training
and match variability.
We are unaware of any
evidence that physiotherapy
interventions
can
meaningfully change high
speed running mechanics and
therefore loads.
While we doubt that this view is
held by a majority of those
scientists actually working in
sprinting-based sports, as it is in
many instances, the practice here
is ahead of the science.
Finally, we suggest that a
fundamental aspect of training
principles is that individuals
adapt to (over)load. Provided
the changes in volume and
intensity are sensible, any
given individual is going to
adapt to their mechanics
whether they be “optimal” or
Following, Coach Dan Pfaff
expands upon this, and provides a
defense for the importance of
mechanics, and working towards
mechanical models.
not. For these reasons, other
than attempting to address any
obvious “limping”, little if any
attention is placed on an
individual’s
running
mechanics, and this aspect is
left to a qualified sprint coach,
if it is addressed at all.”
RETURN TO PLAY PROGRAMS
Rod Whiteley & Colleagues
THE USE OF MECHANICAL MODELS IN
SPORT SKILL DEVELOPMENT AND
“Here at ALTIS, we are blessed
to have ongoing discussions,
debates and program-sharing
with hundreds of practitioners
from around the world in a
diversity of sport disciplines
and environmental settings.
The practitioner pool is
composed primarily of sport
scientists, therapists, sport
medical
officers,
High
Performance Directors, S&C
coaches, and sport-specific
coaches.
A
common
topic
of
discussion
with
these
professionals is that of where
do mechanics come into play
for program construction,
monitoring,
metric
collection, and decisionmaking,
when
it
comes to especially
running gait
issues
and performance?
Numerous studies, metaanalyses, papers, and dozens
of leading sport institutes
have downplayed, or even
attacked the concept of
mechanical modeling.
this stance find no irony in
the fact that they have models
that they teach towards in
other
settings
of
performance,
use
this
modeling data for metric
collection,
and
often
implement models in therapy
procedures, weight room
exercises
and
various
development
and
rehabilitation schemes.
I think one of the issues at the
forefront is the limitations
we havealgorithms,
with technology,
current
and just
the logistics of scientific
studies. It is impossible to do
a double-blind, controlled
study with elite athletes in
elite athlete settings. These
studies are costly and not
practical in youth academy
(development)
settings
either.
I find it interesting that these
same individuals supporting
I am also reminded of the
concept of ‘absence of
evidence is not evidence of
absence’.
We can define the timing of
positional changes of key
limb movements. We can
define
fundamental
For decades, biomechanists
have collected data on gait
parameters in all sport
disciplines.
differences in contact times,
flight times, stride length,
stride frequency, rate of
change, attack angles and
other essential markers both
‘Absence of evidence is not
evidence of absence’.
There is data on all levels of
athletes and stages of
development.
in inter-athlete studies and
intra- athlete studies.
We
can
identify
key
landmark
positions
of
postures and limbs at various
And while there may be no
absolutely ‘perfect model’,
the common denominators of
these variables can be
phases of gait. We can map
movement pathways and
expressions.
defined,
and
variance
allowances (bandwidth) can
likewise be quantified.
To state that there is no
difference in gait dynamics,
or it is just random, does not
seem logical to me armed
with this type of information.
At the very least, the
differences seen in good
movers versus poor or
novice mover, is readily
evident in even the most
primary
analysis
when
utilizing
the
above
mentioned factors.
Perhaps we are on the verge of a
sea-change in the industry,
however.
In the last few years, there has
been a growing appreciation for
the importance of how we move in
the sport science community, as
more and more research groups
begin to find creative ways to
study the relationship between
mechanics,
health,
and
performance.
To state or endorse that
mechanics don’t matter to me
is a surrender of inquiry."
Thanks for reading this ebook. We
hope this brief introduction to the
topic has inspired you to dive
deeper.
Dan Pfaff
ALTIS Head Coach
Stu & the ALTIS Team.
THIS EBOOK IS BASED ON
CONTENT FROM THE
ACCLAIMED ALTIS NEED
FOR SPEED COURSE.
LEARN MORE
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