Training Smart

Sam has been training in Explosion for almost 2 months. She is a high school freshman looking to improve her basketball abilities. 7 weeks ago if you asked her to do a push-up she would get on the ground, her mid-section and hips would go up in the air, her arms would go out beyond her head and she would bend her elbows slightly and reach her head towards the floor. It was not a push-up, more resembled a yoga pose.

Relying on the principles of "unloading" her muscles, her strength has improved significantly. A few weeks ago I watched her perform 1 perfect push-up. Yesterday she knocked out 6 in a row.

The secret- Improved core strength and stability as well as putting her in a position to succeed. On the path of continuing to perform countless poor pushups its unlikely that the result will be the ability to suddenly blast out some good ones.

At the beginning she wasn't strong enough, so we changed the angle to one where she was strong enough. As she finds success, we progress. Tougher, but still possible. Within a couple weeks shes progressed all the way back to the floor and can while its still not easy, she can do it.

As her Dad stated- "I brought you a yoga stretch, you gave me a pushup"