Sprinting is a motor skill used by many athletes to achieve goals in their particular sports. Soccer players sprint up and down a field chasing a soccer ball or opponent player and making breakaways. Baseball players sprint from base to base, and football players sprint to get the ball into the end zone or to make themselves available for a pass. Rugby, lacrosse, and basketball require running as well. These athletes must sprint quickly and efficiently to out-play opponents and sustain performance for the duration of a match. Motor program theories postulate the way our bodies learn and store knowledge about coordinated movements, such as sprinting. Two popular motor theories are the general motor and dynamic systems theories. General motor programs originate movement patterns in the central nervous system. These movements have specific invariant features and flexible parameters that help one adapt the movement to the environment. Dynamic systems propose that movement instructions arise from one’s environmental constraints. These patterns self-organize into stable states defined by order parameters, and they are dynamic within certain control parameters (Magill & Anderson, 2013). Understanding motor theories can help coaches develop athletes’ motor skills with the use of drills that vary appropriate variables to ensure the specific motor skill is being practiced.
Motor program theories postulate the way our bodies learn and store knowledge about coordinated movements, such as sprinting. Two popular motor theories are the general motor and dynamic systems theories. General motor programs originate movement patterns in the central nervous system. These movements have specific invariant features and flexible parameters that help one adapt the movement to the environment. Dynamic systems propose that movement instructions arise from one’s environmental constraints. These patterns self-organize into stable states defined by order parameters, and they are dynamic within certain control parameters (Magill & Anderson, 2013). Understanding motor theories can help coaches develop athletes’ motor skills with the use of drills that vary appropriate variables to ensure the specific motor skill is being practiced.
Two popular motor theories are the general motor and dynamic systems theories. General motor programs originate movement patterns in the central nervous system. These movements have specific invariant features and flexible parameters that help one adapt the movement to the environment. Dynamic systems propose that movement instructions arise from one’s environmental constraints. These patterns self-organize into stable states defined by order parameters, and they are dynamic within certain control parameters (Magill & Anderson, 2013). Understanding motor theories can help coaches develop athletes’ motor skills with the use of drills that vary appropriate variables to ensure the specific motor skill is being practiced.
Motor program theories postulate the way our bodies learn and store knowledge about coordinated movements, such as sprinting. Two popular motor theories are the general motor and dynamic systems theories. General motor programs originate movement patterns in the central nervous system. These movements have specific invariant features and flexible parameters that help one adapt the movement to the environment. Dynamic systems propose that movement instructions arise from one’s environmental constraints. These patterns self-organize into stable states defined by order parameters, and they are dynamic within certain control parameters (Magill & Anderson, 2013). Understanding motor theories can help coaches develop athletes’ motor skills with the use of drills that vary appropriate variables to ensure the specific motor skill is being practiced.
Motor program theories postulate the way our bodies learn and store knowledge about coordinated movements, such as sprinting. Two popular motor theories are the general motor and dynamic systems theories. General motor programs originate movement patterns in the central nervous system. These movements have specific invariant features and flexible parameters that help one adapt the movement to the environment. Dynamic systems propose that movement instructions arise from one’s environmental constraints. These patterns self-organize into stable states defined by order parameters, and they are dynamic within certain control parameters (Magill & Anderson, 2013). Understanding motor theories can help coaches develop athletes’ motor skills with the use of drills that vary appropriate variables to ensure the specific motor skill is being practiced. Successful sprinting relies on the reciprocal patterning of the arms and legs. The left arm moves in the opposite direction of the right arm and left leg. Similarly, the right arm moves opposite of the left arm and right leg. A kinematic analysis of arm movements in sprinting by Bhowmick and Bhattacharyya (1988) demonstrated that this arm movement creates angular momentum to counterbalance the angular momentum produced by hip rotation from the leg movement, and it helps elicit forceful leg drive to increase the overall velocity forward.
Successful sprinting relies on the reciprocal patterning of the arms and legs. The left arm moves in the opposite direction of the right arm and left leg. Similarly, the right arm moves opposite of the left arm and right leg. A kinematic analysis of arm movements in sprinting by Bhowmick and Bhattacharyya (1988) demonstrated that this arm movement creates angular momentum to counterbalance the angular momentum produced by hip rotation from the leg movement, and it helps elicit forceful leg drive to increase the overall velocity forward.
Utilizing the generalized motor program theory, I could improve an athlete’s running ability with drills that reinforce the reciprocal patterns of the arms and legs. Drills could initially start from the on floor, using Perry Nickelston’s (n. d.) Primal Gait exercise where, while lying prone, one presses his or her shoulder and the opposite thigh into the ground and extends the opposite shoulder and thigh away from the ground, then alternates to the reciprocal position. The next drill we can progress to is an arm and opposite leg raising from a quadruped position, followed by crawling in the quadruped position using the same reciprocal arm and leg motions. I could then progress my client to walking, or marching, upright with the reciprocal arm and leg patterning and implement another exercise such as a single leg step up with knee drive and reciprocal arm movement to increase strength, power, and stability in this pattern.
When searching the internet for the dynamic systems approach in relation to sprinting, the name Frans Bosch appears frequently. He is a well-known sprinting and jumping coach who consults for many European sports teams. It is a challenge to find original information from Frans Bosch on the internet that is free and in English, but available sources do indicate the value he places on using a dynamic systems approach to train athletes in a way that best transfers to their performance settings. Bosch uses unique coaching techniques and cues to elicit unconscious movement responses (West Ham United FC, 2014). Through drills, he aims to create conditions that optimize the self-organizing system’s chance of finding a satisfactory solution (Hargrove, 2016).
Frans Bosch’s ideas can be incorporated when using dynamic systems theory to develop sprinting. For example, the game of tag allows players to transition from standing still to walking to sprinting based on demands of the environment. This demonstrates the nonlinear behavior that is typical of dynamic systems as participants move through unsteady transition states to attractor ones. Further, the game of tag allows systems to self-organize into the best movement solution for given circumstance. Another possible exercise utilizing dynamic systems theory involves performing sprinting drills on varying terrain (i.e., sand, turf, dirt, grass, hills, winding path, straight path, etc.). This applies dynamic systems theory by altering the constraints of sprinting in order to develop robustness in the skill, another concept that Frans Bosch is a proponent of (West Ham United FC, 2014).
I think that both motor theories have a place in training a particular motor skill such as sprinting. As a coach, I apply both approaches, separately and together, to train my athletes. I progress players from generalized motor program-based drills for reciprocal patterning to dynamic systems drills that call for self-organization, environment-elicited behaviors, and nonlinear state transitions. My goal as a coach is to best prepare my athletes for sports performance and skill robustness to ensure success and reduce injury risk, and I believe that utilizing both systems is the best way to do that.
References
Bhowmick, S., & Bhattacharyya, A. (1988). Kinematic analysis of arm movements in sprint start [Abstract]. Journal of Sports Medicine & Physical Fitness, 28(4), 315-323.
Hargrove, T. (2016). Review of “Strength training and coordination: An integrative approach” by Frans Bosch. Better Movement by Todd Hargrove. Retrieved from http://www.bettermovement.org/blog/2016/review-of-strength-training-and-coordination-an-integrative-approach-by-frans-bosch
Magill, R. A., & Anderson, D. I. (2013). Motor learning and control: Concepts and applications (10th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Nickelston, P. (n. d). Moving beyond mobility manual 2.0. Retrieved from stopchasingpain.com
West Ham United FC. (2014). The team behind the team [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0nZsAHdDyQ
Strength Coach K8 