Coordination

Coordination: An overlooked factor in athletic performance





Strength, speed, and explosiveness are discussed in training circles on a daily basis, and they are important. Whether your are lifting heavy weights or forcing your opponent to tap-out, many things are involved besides those listed above.

Rarely do you see coordination listed as a factor in top performance. Coach Glassman, founder of CrossFit, is one of the few who stress its importance. If you really think about it, though, nothing happens without it. Human movement is seamlessly inter-woven with coordination. Effective use of the human body absolutely requires it.

We've all heard people say that a very accomplished athlete makes what they are doing “look easy”. Actually, they do make it look that way, but it is far from easy.

If you've ever watched Buddy Lee work with his jump rope, you might have thought how easy he makes it look. If you've done any work with a jump rope yourself, you know what I mean.

Pavel Tsatsouline talks about strength being a skill that is acquired through practice. His athletic abilities prove that point.

Practice improves many things related to performance, and coordination is one of them. If you watch Casey Burgener doing Olympic weightlifting, his power is fantastic.

His timing and coordination are as well. This is not a coincidence.

Great MMA fighters also have excellent coordination, the same goes for tennis players, and a myriad of others.

So how do you develop better coordination? Let's look at some things that can help. One of my favorite tools for enhancing coordination are kettlebells. They are extremely versatile, for example: swinging, flipping, throwing & catching, and all manner of arcing movements. They can be used individually or in pairs.

Watch Mike Mahler work with a couple of 90-100lb kettlebells sometime. He's got great coordination as well as strength. Look at Jeff Martone, Steve Cotter, Jason C. Brown, Zach Even-Esh and Budd Jeffries and you'll see coordination is vital to their performance.

Guys like Smitty & Jedd of the Diesel Crew are brutally strong, but very coordinated. Often they train with resistance bands, which are great fro improving coordination. Dave Schmitz is another incredible coach who uses them with excellent results.

Recently, I had the good fortune to learn from Jeff Martone and Jim Weddell at our CrossFit Kettlebell Instructor Certification; plus Strongman Budd Jeffries (also an RKC) stopped by, who is a good friend of Jeff's.

The skill and coordination demonstrated during this event was phenomenal!

Jeff did a kettlebell jugging demo, later Budd carried a person overhead with one arm as he walked across the room. Both demonstrations required exceptional coordination and dynamic balance.

Several MMA fighters were on hand for this event, in addition to Law Enforcement Officers, and Fire Fighters. Others just wanted to improve their athletic and coaching abilities; some were Chiropractors, soccer coaches, trainers, etc.

There's something about training with kettlebells that helps all those people improve their coordination. Some want success in the cage or ring, others just want to make it home alive after another day of chasing the bad guys.

So if you're not using kettlebells, jump ropes or other training tools to help your own self improve, why not get started?