Seeing and Correcting PDF

SEEING - The ability to distinguish good from poor movement mechanics and identify both gross and subtle faults whether the athlete is in motion or static. A trainer who can e ectively assess the mechanical positions as sound or unsound throughout movement has capacity in seeing. Seeing is the nece...

SEEING - The ability to distinguish good from poor movement mechanics and identify both gross and subtle faults whether the athlete is in motion or static. A trainer who can e ectively assess the mechanical positions as sound or unsound throughout movement has capacity in seeing. Seeing is the necessary rst step for a trainer to bring about change in a client’s mechanics, but it rests on one’s teaching capacity (knowledge). Trainers must rst know positions of best mechanical leverage, as well as the e ect of varying anthropometrics on these positions. If a trainer does not know what to look for, he or she will not see correctable issues. Static faults The trainer must also use visual-recognition skills throughout the repetition, whether the athlete is static or dynamic. Static positions are the points at which the athlete is not moving, even brie y. Static positions usually occur near the end ranges of motion - either in the starting, receiving, or nishing positions - or when there is a brief pause or decreased speed, often due to a change of direction. Static positions include the setup position for a deadlift or the bottom of a squat, for example. Correctly identifying faults is easier in static positions because these positions give trainers more time for assessment. ff ff fl fi fi fi  Dynamic faults Dynamic positions nd the athlete moving between the static positions, often at high speed. Examples of faults seen in dynamic movements include not reaching full hip extension in the drive phase of a clean, pressing early in a push press, or initiating the squat with the knees. These dynamic faults are more di cult to identify because of the decreased time for assessment. The trainer must also know when and where to see faults during the movement. For example, a trainer needs to see that the athlete has the weight on the heels during the drive phase of a push jerk, but the trainer is also evaluating the trunk-to-femur relationship for hip extension, the bar path relative to the frontal plane, and a whole host of other relationships. Generally, a pro le view of the athlete (o set by about 45 degrees) is the most useful view to assess the athlete’s mechanics, but trainers should not be limited to using this view only. The di culty in seeing dynamic faults increases as: 1. the athlete moves more quickly, and 2. the faults become more subtle. Years of experience help a trainer e ectively coach any level of athlete. New trainers may use a few methods to develop their ability to see faults, particularly dynamic faults. One method is to study lm. Slow the movement down to a series of static frames. A trainer may choose to lm his or her own athletes or simply watch footage available on the internet. Replaying the footage in real time after observing the movement in a static series can help bridge the gap between seeing static and dynamic positions. Another strategy for newer trainers is to methodically survey athletes for only one fault at a time. For example, when teaching athletes the push jerk, the trainer may choose to watch only for hip extension during the rst several repetitions. Then, the trainer may choose to watch and see if the athletes drive through their heels. Over time, trainers can observe multiple faults simultaneously (e.g., lack of hip extension or not having the weight on the heels), but initially, trying to see everything often results in seeing nothing. Similarly, newer trainers generally nd more success by watching one athlete at a time per repetition instead of scanning multiple athletes with every repetition. ffi fi fi fi fi ff fi ffi fi ff  CORRECTING - The ability to facilitate better mechanics for an athlete using visual, verbal, and/or tactile cues. This includes the ability to triage (prioritise) faults in order of importance, which requires an understanding of how multiple faults are related. The ability of a trainer to facilitate improved mechanics is dependent on capacities in teaching and seeing. Teaching re ects a trainer’s knowledge of proper mechanics; seeing re ects a trainer’s ability to discern these positions in real time. If capacity is limited in either, it follows that the trainer’s capacity in correcting will also be weak. Correcting mechanics results in both increased performance gains and decreased risk of injury. A trainer can expect to correct an athlete’s mechanics forever; mechanics can be in nitely re ned to create ever more e cient positions as the athlete progresses. CrossFit trainers should strive for excellent mechanics in their clients and avoid settling for “OK” movement. This means a trainer must be able to correct both gross and subtle deviations in all levels of athletes. They must set a high standard for good movement and be relentless in the constant pursuit of improvement. Correcting hinges on the trainer’s ability to: 1. use successful cues, 2. know multiple corrections for each fault, 3. triage faulty movement, and 4. balance critique with praise. Cues Any cue that results in improved movement mechanics is successful and therefore a good cue. There are no speci c formulas, formats, or rules to follow for cues, and their value is based on the result. A cue’s primary function is to help the athlete execute perfect mechanics, not to perfectly describe the mechanics of the movement. For example, one may say “weight in heels” to help a person shift weight back and better achieve pressure across the foot (verses on the toes). Generally, making cues short, speci c, and actionable tends to result in a greater success rate. Short, speci c, and actionable cues are useful because the trainer gives a single task for the athlete to complete. An example of this type of cue is, “Push your knees out.” It is short (four words), speci c to a body part (knees), and also indicates action and/or direction (out). It is easy for the athlete to respond to a cue such as this, even when performing a complicated movement. It is possible for a trainer to confuse cueing with fault identi cation. For example, pointing out the fault that is present - “Your knees are caving in” - does not tell the athlete how to x it. An experienced athlete may be able to make the leap from hearing the identi cation of the fault to then xing it, but this translation from fault identi cation to speci c direction is ultimately the trainer’s responsibility. Trainers may also rely on more technical language in their cues (i.e., “You are losing your midline”), which assumes the athlete has a signi cant amount of tness-related knowledge. While such language may give the appearance of being more technical (and perhaps represents an attempt to sound more intelligent), it is at best a vague verbal cue. Cues should be kept to simple language that is easily understood by anyone. Non-speci c language is also best avoided in cues. Something such as, “Get tight!” or “Chest!” can be meaningless to the athlete, especially in the absence of instruction on how to “get tight” or where and how to move the chest. A basic three-step process for developing short, speci c, and actionable cues is: 1. identify the fault, 2. identify what is out of place (be speci c: name the body part), and 3. give direction to that body part. As stated before, “Push your knees out” is a short, speci c, and actionable cue. However, even with short, speci c, and actionable cues, there is no guarantee the fl fi fi fi fi fi fi fi fi fi fi fl fi fi ffi fi fi fi fi fi fi fi athlete’s movement will improve. The trainer needs to use multiple cues until the fault is resolved. There are cases in which a cue that is e ective for one athlete is ine ective for another, and in other cases, even a good cue may result in poor movement. “Get your weight on your heels” is a short, speci c, and actionable cue that often results in an athlete keeping his or her heels down. Nevertheless, some athletes interpret this cue to mean that the weight should be on their heels exclusively, and they fall backwards or lose their balance. That does not mean the cue was bad or the trainer was wrong; it means the trainer has to try an alternative cue. A trainer should not be limited to a certain set of cues for a speci c fault, and he or she should continue to use di erent cues until the movement improves. Over time, a trainer develops corrective strategies, building a bank of options for every fault. These corrective strategies should include verbal (i.e., speaking), visual (i.e. showing), and tactile (i.e. touching) cues, all of which may be employed to x the same fault but may be interpreted di erently among athletes. Verbal cues tell the athlete a speci c instruction, visual cues create contrasting images between current and preferred positioning, and tactile cues use physical targets to achieve proper mechanics. The greater the number of strategies a trainer can employ for any fault, the more likely it is that he or she will be successful in correcting the fault. Macro-Micro-Macro Technique The Macro-Micro-Macro coaching technique can e ectively guide athletes by presenting the big picture (Macro), zooming in on speci c details or corrections (Micro), and then returning to the big picture (Macro) to reinforce the importance of those details within the broader context of the workout. This approach enhances athlete understanding and performance by connecting individual corrections to overall goals. ff ff fi fi ff ff fi fi fi ff  Triaging faults Determining which single fault to correct can be a challenge, as multiple faults often occur together. Ideally, every fault would be addressed simultaneously, but this is unrealistic in practice. The trainer is best served by triaging faults. The term ‘triaging’ is most often used in medicine to assign urgency to those needing medical attention. Triaging when coaching movement means assigning urgency to the multiple faults present in order of the most to least important. Greater importance is assigned to faults that have the highest risk for injury (and, therefore, also the greatest potential to limit performance). In a loaded environment, there are many cases in which the fault to address rst would be loss of a neutral spine, usually in exion. However, a exed lumbar curve at depth in an air squat is less concerning than that same position in a loaded back squat. This athlete needs to continue to air squat to full depth, ghting for a neutral midline, all while maintaining the range of motion required by life. It is precisely the practice of the movement, even with less-than-ideal mechanics, that will eventually allow him or her to reclaim positions that can be loaded. In this example, completing the full range of motion was given more priority than midline stabilisation. The ordering is based on the severity of the deviation from the ideal and the athlete’s capacity relative to the task; there is no single ordering of faults that can be used across all athletes in all applications. Whichever fault the trainer decides to x rst should become the trainer’s focus. He or she has to selectively ignore the other faults present. Once that fault is xed or mitigated at least to the degree that it is no longer the most important, the trainer can move on to the next issue. After choosing which fault to address, the trainer needs to know how the various faults are related. A trainer may cue a di erent body part than the one he or she is trying to x due to the interrelatedness of movement mechanics. Suppose an athlete performs an air squat with the following faults: weight shifting forward, knees collapsing, and back rounding. The trainer needs to consider: Are the caving knees causing the back to round? Is the rounded back causing the weight to shift forward? Perhaps the trainer chooses to address the back position rst but actually tells the athlete, “Push the knees out.” There are cases in which allowing more room for the pelvis helps create a neutral spine position. Assess the cue’s e ectiveness and provide feedback After a trainer delivers a cue, he or she must stay with that athlete for at least another repetition to assess the result. Whatever the athlete’s response, the trainer needs to provide feedback. A trainer needs to let the athlete know if the movement was the same, better, or worse. If the movement improves, a trainer needs to acknowledge that, perhaps with, “That’s better” or, “Good correction.” This helps the athlete develop kinaesthetic awareness of proper positioning. In some cases, an athlete may improve movement but not to the desired degree. Encouraging these athletes simply to give more in that same direction is often a sound strategy (e.g. “That’s better, but even lower!”). If the movement has not changed, this could be addressed simply by saying, “Not there yet” or, “I’ll come back to you,” for example. An unsuccessful cue should not be repeated multiple times with a single athlete; instead, the trainer should nd a new cue. If the movement changes for the worse, the trainer also needs to immediately recognise this and stop or reverse it (e.g. “Other way”). Not staying to assess the e ectiveness of a cue and provide the athlete with feedback is almost the same as not giving a cue at all. If a trainer tells an athlete to do something and walks away before seeing the result, he or she may miss it when a cue results in no change or even change for the worse. The athlete has no idea if his or her e orts have resulted in improvement. All feedback, positive and negative, is tied to the athlete developing better kinaesthetic awareness. Precision of word choice is critical. The use of “good” or “better” needs to be reserved for actual sound or improved mechanics and not used as a ller. fi fi fi fi ff ff ff fi fi fl fi fi fl ff fi Throughout the cueing process, a trainer must also be aware when praise for hard work (regardless of change) is necessary. There are cases where no change or only a very slight change occurs in a session. Celebrating the e ort acknowledges the hard work put forth that day and helps a client remain willing to continue to work hard. A trainer just needs to be clear when the praise is for the e ort rather than a movement that still needs improvement. ff ff