Building Physical Confidence- TRAINERS TIPS

As physically active individuals we all take mobility for granted when every day our mind commands our muscles and they easily comply with just the right type of movement and appropriate force production. At Twist Sport Conditioning this is called Smart Muscle®. With each repeated action, our mind to muscle communication pathways strengthen and like building muscle, each successful action that our mind commands, our physical confidence grows.

Physical confidence is the assurance that when your mind commands your body to move, your muscles comply. With physical confidence ice hockey players explosively battle on the boards knowing their opponent will never knock them off the puck or a snow boarder bravely jumps into a double black diamond run with exhilaration and speed knowing it’s fun not fear that makes their heart beat faster.

If an athlete trusts their body, and knows that it is compliant (does what it is told by the brain) they can move to a higher level of competitive drive and take more intelligent risks in sport. Confidence to try new strategies and tactics help elevate their game and definitely give them a competitive edge.

Physical confidence is not just for elite athletes. Kids, youth, young adults, adults and older adults all want a body they can trust and muscles they can depend on in an instant. Imagine slipping on ice and wondering if your core control will keep you in balance or are you smashing down hard with a fracture a great possibility. For the older adult, physical confidence means independent living, safety and mobility – all critical factors for everyday performance.

The question is – do you help your athletes build their physical confidence? Help them see that every type of physical success in every workout reinforces mind to muscle communication that fuels the ability to execute any movement desired – this empowers them! Building Smart Muscle® where the focus is not just on appearance gains, but on building a body that moves well and is responsive to the mind, gives your athletes the tools they need for success today and for all future activities. Life is a Sport – play hard!

Share your ideas or your athlete success stories related to building physical confidence.

- Janice Hutton-

Education Manager

Sport Conditioning for Women

Introduction

The focus for training athletes at Twist Conditioning is to be progressive, innovative and creative. With each new day we learn more about how best to train athletes to achieve the desired results, improve performance and push our knowledge further ahead. The complexity of the human body should never be underestimated and when it comes to developing effective conditioning programs attention to details produces greater results.

Many conditioning coaches do not modify their training programs when coaching female athletes, but the body chemistry of a female athlete is significantly different than a male athlete. Understanding gender differences from the obvious to the subtle and applying this knowledge can have a significant impact on training results. Women and men are different – right down to the cellular level.

Physical Differences

Men and women are anatomically unique. The axial skeleton is defined as the principle supportive structure of the body and in males it is comprised of the skull, vertebrae, sternum and ribs. In females the axial skeleton includes the skull, vertebrae and the pelvis. This redrawing of the female axial skeleton helps us understand the basic physics involved in movement for males compared to females. The adult male has a proportionately larger upper body along with a narrow pelvis resulting in a high center of gravity above the pelvis. The design of the male anatomy results in reduced overall stability and the development of a dominant upper body. The female skeleton is smoother and more delicate with a smaller and more rounded thoracic cage. The female pelvis tilts to the anterior (greater lumbar curve), is lower and wider than a male which creates a lower center of gravity (located inside the pelvis) and results in improved overall body stability. The articulation of the female hip joint on the pelvis (the acetabulum where the femur rotates) is at a more lateral and downward angle than a male creating greater rotation at the hip and the production of more 3 dimensional movement. These structural differences have a significant impact on female biomechanics influencing the distribution of weight, forces and stresses during movement. Greater hip width in women creates a less vertical and more angled femur resulting in valgus legs (knock knees) along with a collapse of the arch of the foot. Together these mechanics translate into a vulnerable knee joint that is prone to injury.

Physiological Differences

The majority of the gender differences between males and females begin to surface at puberty when circulating hormones appear. The average man has about twice the muscle mass than the average woman primarily due to testosterone levels. Women have more body fat (18 to 20%) than men (10 to 15%) to provide nourishment during pregnancy. This translates into a lower percentage of lean body mass in women. Female have higher levels of the hormones relaxin and elastin that affect connective tissue making them more flexible than males at all ages. The hormonal fluctuations that occur in females during the menstrual cycle affects every cell influencing overall well being, brain function and physical adaptation. From a cardiovascular perspective boys have a higher VO2 max than girls at all ages but by age 16 they have a 50% greater aerobic capacity that continues through adulthood.

Psycho-social Differences

From an early age (as young as 10) girls choose activities based on the opportunity to network socially when boys are motivated by competition and dominance. Women are very social - emotional creatures with 4 times more neurological connections between the right (creative / emotional) and left (logical / analytical) brain. The female athlete is hard wired differently making the concepts of socialization, learning, skill building and self awareness equally valuable with winning in the sport experience.

The Twist Team!

Training Age – Growth and Maturation

Children cannot be simply treated as miniature adults. Those of similar chronological age may vary significantly in their progress toward the mature adult form. Even within the same age group, kids are at different stages of readiness for training. To understand what can be trained when, training guidelines are linked to the phase of growth and maturation.

Pre-pubertal children are those that have not yet gone through their adolescent growth spurt, or their period of most rapid growth (peak height velocity). Pre-pubertal children are often less than 12 years of age in females, and less than 14 years of age in males.

Their peak neural maturation occurs from age 0-7 and continues at a rapid rate up to age 12 when the window begins to close. During this stage it is advantageous to draw from the secondary fitness characteristics, to create exploratory-based challenges for which the child must solve the puzzle of how to correctly coordinate the exercise. Children improve balance, coordination and body awareness from neurally complex exercises. Training adaptations include improved neural networks.

The power of neural improvement is evident following strength training programs when pre-pubertal participants enjoy significant strength improvement but do not experience any muscle hypertrophy. As such, young children are better served staying off of miniature weight machines that demand the lowest neural muscular input and rather strive to coordinate strength outputs in supine, prone and CKC positions using stability balls, BOSU’s and other accessories.

Most young children are fairly pliable, but some will also be hypermobile. Loose joints can lead to early osteoarthritis and osteophyte formations (bone spurs) in the body’s attempt to increase bony stability around joints. For these children, avoid further stretching and instead focus on building strength – through a full range of motion.

The heart organ of children this age is of course smaller and as such increases in cardiac output are reliant on elevated heart rates (since their stroke volume is smaller). It is common to elicit heart rates of 170 bpm at this age, compared to post-pubescent children who would train aerobically at 140 bpm. It is noteworthy that pre-pubescent bodies already have relatively high oxygen extraction capabilities so any given training only generates about 50% of the improvement one would expect in adults. Of course kids this age cannot focus on 60 minutes of continuous, repetitive exercise. Even 90% of adults won’t do this! But shorter 15 minutes bouts and integrating sustained effort within a game-like environment can do the trick, sustain their attention and allow them to have fun.

The pubertal phase of peak height velocity lasts from 12 – 18 months and brings with it several training considerations. General considerations for this period include reduced distal loading of the limbs, and reduced high intensity work to avoid over-training or inflammation of the bone-tendon connections. During this period the levers increase in length, while the muscles do not respond until later, so even basic locomotor skills may appear awkward during this phase. Additional balance and agility drills help them become accustomed to their new height, limb length and centre of gravity.

Many parents and coaches express dismay at the frequency of trauma and injury during this stage. As the skeletal system has matured without a concomitant increase in muscle girth and strength, pubertal children have less stable joints which are less reactive to lateral and deceleration forces. Attention to proficient movement skills and proper braking and loading through deceleration will allow them to continue to train through this stage and help prevent sport injuries.

However this can be exacerbated when longer levers allow for faster running speed from biomechanical efficiency. Higher speeds require more aggressive braking, which pubertal bodies are not suited to handle. Strength training is vital to help the muscles catch up. For pubertal kids, many fitness books discourage weight training and suggest strength training with their own body weight. However, I find that many kids in this phase cannot handle their own body mass and better execute exercises with light dumbbells and resistance tubing.

Post-pubertal children are those that have gone through their adolescent growth spurt, after peak height velocity but prior to full skeletal maturity. After peak height velocity, post-pubertal children will experience an accelerated increase in mass, with rapid gains in muscular development, along with further hormonal maturation. At this stage they have the circulating hormones to achieve gains in muscle girth as well as benefit from anaerobic conditioning.

In this phase trainers’ can begin to increase the weight training load, stimulating muscle hypertrophy by optimizing time under tension through slower eccentric contractions. This age group can also safely progress to more powerful lifts that feature higher tempos.

These and other critical growth and maturation moderators must be taken into consideration in the development of the training curriculum, and the subsequent exercises delivered so that the child is receptive and enthusiastic.

The Twist Team!

Sport Conditioning for Minor Hockey Players

Professional hockey players are serious about their sport and focus on the training and development of their “physical machines” year round. Sport conditioning has evolved into big business with the development of branded shoes, clothing, equipment, print and TV media that profiles the training programs of pro athletes. If the pro athletes train this way, shouldn’t every serious athlete do the same whether they are 8 or 18? Parents who are passionate about their children and their hockey are fueling a new segment of the sport conditioning industry focused on programming for children and youth. However, young athletes cannot just be treated like miniature adults. The training program must be age appropriate and follow documented growth and development strategies.

Through the first 20 years of life, a child evolves and grows into an adult. The changes that occur affect athlete physical, emotional, psychological and social development impacting every aspect of life and hockey. There are predictable phases of change that every child experiences, but the amount of time in each growth phase is diverse leading to a great deal of variability among children. Just observe a Peewee or Bantam hockey game and the size differences are obvious. The brain and nervous system is constantly changing and adapting based on experiences creating information pathways between the mind and the muscles. Peak changes in this system occur between birth and 8 yrs where children develop gross and fine motor patterns that become the foundation of hockey skills and other recreational activities.

Children grow gradually until age 10 where a major growth spurt creates a high velocity height change until age 14 as the long bones grow creating gangly arms and legs most characteristic of teenagers. During this time there are minimal changes in the muscular system creating a scenario of long levers without adequate muscle size to control them. This is a critical time for injury along with a disconnect between mind and body. Gradual change in the muscular system is evident until age 14 where circulating hormones directly linked to puberty are activated creating a surge of muscle growth from age 14 to 18 yrs. The volume of muscle growth is higher for males than females, but both sexes experience increases that help to provide strength and control for adult size bodies. By age 20 the major physical growth has reached a plateau.

The Twist Team!

Role of Sport Conditioning in Hockey Players Development

Hockey coaches focus on helping players develop hockey specific skills (skating, shooting, body contact) along with the individual and team strategies and tactics required for success. A sport conditioning coach focuses on the development of athleticism whereby they improve an athlete’s physical tools that support hockey skill execution. Enhancing athleticism comes from the development of the secondary characteristics of fitness including: balance, agility, speed, power, coordination, body awareness, reaction skills.

To have the greatest impact, sport conditioning for hockey should help players improve athleticism as their bodies grow and change. Skills and drills that are great for Midget players are not appropriate for Atom players because younger athletes lack the mind to muscle coordination required for executing complex movements at high tempos. Age and ability appropriate training can help players improve performance on and off the ice, so parents and coaches are encouraged to choose programs specifically designed for children and youth.

The Twist Team!

The Twist Education and Summit Team have just returned from a powerful weekend in Toronto, for our Sport Performance Summit. Twist Conditioning would like to thank our Summit Staff, Presenting Team, and all Delegates that made the weekend so memorable.

Thank you to all that came out for our 2nd Annual Sport Performance in Toronto, Ontario Oct 25th, 2009. The weekend started off to a great success with 6 high energy sport conditioning pre-summit workshops on the topics of Sport Conditioning for Soccer, Hockey, Youth, Athletes, and Adults. The workshops took place at our two Sport Conditioning Centres in Whitby, ON and Burlington, ON and were led by our Sport Conditioning Centre Directors- Jeff Roux and Scott Atkins.

The Summit doors opened at 8:15am on Sunday October 25th, 2009 and a flood of athletic, eager and high energy delegates entered. Each and every person we spoke to over the weekend, all had slightly different reasons for attending, as well came with a whole host of backgrounds and clientele, one similarity seen in each of them was the passion they had for their career. Thank you to all delegates who made the weekend so enjoyable for the Twist Team of presenters and staff.

The morning began with a keynote speech presented on "Developing Champion Athletes" by Peter Twist, followed by three entertaining and informative lectures on Deceptively Fast- by Scott Atkins, The Perfect Point of Balance- by Douglas Brooks, and Strong and Powerful- by Peter Twist. After a morning of lectures the delegates were ready to move- the afternoon had each delegate cycling through 3 practical sessions on Movement, Strength and Balance. The day ended with a cool down presented by Arielle Nash, with a question and answer period for our presenters.

We thank all that attended, as we value each and every face to face opportunity we can have with our advocates, to learn, get inspired and hear their stories of their individual and athletes successes. Each of you make us who we are, and value your opinion and your dedication to our team greatly.

We look forward to the next year!

If you want more- check out the Advanced Training Tools Workshop taking place on Nov 21st 9:45am-11:45am, 2009 at Ryerson University or our upcoming 2 Day Mentorship Program taking place out of our Twist Sport Conditioning Centre- Burlington on December 10th-11th

-The Twist Sport Performance Summit Team-

Dean Shiels from the Twist Presenting Team Travels to SPAIN!

After a 12 hour flight around the world and a 6 day tour of Italy we arrived in beautiful Barcelona, Spain. My wife, 1 year old daughter and I had never been to Europe before so we were in absolute awe everyone we went. Our trip included planes, trains, buses, ferries, taxis and multiple hotels in multiple cities so we were excited to land in Barcelona where we could get grounded for more than a day. The purpose of the trip was to present the Twist training methods and training tools to the Spain fitness market at the biggest fitness conference in Spain, Planeta Barcelona.

We arrived late on the Thursday with the conference beginning on Saturday morning. Our goal was to see as much of Barcelona as possible in 1 day. And that we did. I never realized how big of a city Barcelona is. In a our 1 day Barcelona adventure we jumped on the hop on hop off Bus tours and saw the Olympic Stadium, Gotti’s magnificent architectural sites, the Sangrila Familia, walked down the world famous La Rambla, had a sangria on one of the amazing beaches, and listened to Cold Play live outside the Olympic Stadium. Wow, what a beautiful city Barcelona is.

The conference began on Saturday morning. I walked down to the conference and was greeted and introduced to the team from Aerobic and Fitness who were hosting the conference. Maria, Pilar, Astrid and Ann were all very friendly and helped in ensuring I was comfortable in presenting to the Spanish audience as they new my Spanish vocabulary was extremely limited. They introduced me to my translator, Isaac, who was from the industry and spoke very good English.

Isaac walked me down to the conference room where I was presenting my first workshop on the Smart Gym. I must say I was a bit nervous presenting as I had never used a translator before and the fact that nobody had ever seen our training model before. How would my message come across in translation and how would they respond to a new training system were a few questions I had in my head. I began the session with an introduction in which I carried on for about 45 seconds until I realized I needed Isaac to translate. I looked over at him and said “that was a bit too long wasn’t it”, he laughed and pieced it together for me. From then on we got in a groove and had the group of Spanish trainers and coaches rocking with trialing a new training style, new training tools and many new drills.

Over the course of the 2 day conference I presented the Smart Gym, 1 on 1 and Partner Training Methods, Plyometric Progressions for Athletes and Everyday Clients and Neural Complexity. Each of the sessions were received with an enthusiastic response from the delegates. They were challenged by the drills but excited about this new style of training they had not seen before. What an amazing experience this trip was. To be able to experience a new culture, interact with great people, tour the beautiful city and to deliver our training system to a very receptive industry was fantastic. I look forward to returning next year.


Dean Shiels

View our photo gallery from the event! http://www.twistconditioning.com/community/media/ShowPhotos.aspx?gID=174