Tag: carson boddicker

Hockey Training Random Thoughts

It’s been a busy few weeks for us at Endeavor as almost all of our players are back at this point. It’s been a fun off-season already, as we’ve had a couple special situations of early arrivals, short-term training availability, combine prep, etc. I’ve been more stringent in re-assessing and tracking various qualities as time goes by so it’s been interesting to see how our players respond/progress through the various phases. A few random thoughts that have come up the last few weeks:

It’s been neat to see how some players resting heart rate and heart rate variability shift dramatically toward more ideal levels after a 3-4 week aerobic oriented phase, and how some players have gained ~15 degrees of rotation arc in their hips after 3-4 weeks, presumably because of the corrective work we’ve prescribed. I talked a little more about some of the other early results we’ve seen with some of our off-season programs in a previous post: Off-Season Hockey Training Programs
It’s always nice to have evidence that players are adapting in the direction you want, but it’s also valuable to learn when players are NOT adapting, which allows a deeper thought process as to what may be limiting the adaptation. For example, many of our players continue to have limited ankle mobility, despite putting a strong focus on improving dorsiflexion ROM across several weeks. For some players, it’s definitely a tracking issue and some targeted soft-tissue work and different mobilizations may do the trick. For others, I strongly believe they have a structural deviation of the ankle mortice that limits this ROM, similar to how FAI limits hip flexion ROM. For more information on ankle mobility, check out these two old (but still very current) articles from Carson Boddicker: Alleviating Ailing Ankles, Alleviating Ailing Ankles II
I got an email from a parent of a 9-year old wondering why his son plays with such an observable drive during practice, but seems much more timid in games. This is something I imagine many parents with young athletes in all sports wonder. The first thing that comes to mind is that the player is 9, and it really doesn’t matter, as long as he’s having fun. The second thing, which is very related, is that the player is likely performing at a higher level in practice because he feels free to play and try new things without the pressures of in-game consequence. If you try a new move and fail in practice, it doesn’t matter; no one is keeping score. In fact, that is the point of practice. In a game, especially in the win-at-most-costs culture we’ve created for our youth athletes, the stakes are much higher and the player is probably thinking (consciously or subconsciously) that it’s better to avoid making mistakes than the potential reward of succeeding at something more risky. This really highlights the importance of rewarding behavior, and not outcomes. Encourage kids to be creative AND to make mistakes. No one cares if you win when you’re 9.
Today alone, we had two examples of HRV values showing “red flags” that have allowed us to alter our programming to allow a player to recover better. One case was related to too much fun over the weekend; the other simply needed a longer recovery period from a previous phase. In both cases, the player completely understood why we needed to change things and values the fact that we’re individualizing things to allow for the most optimal adaptation. I’m working on ways to build HRV monitoring into the programs of all of our 4-day/week players, as I strongly believe that this simple measure provides a powerful indicator of the individual’s current adaptation capacity, and the state of their autonomic nervous system. If you’re unfamiliar with HRV, I’d encourage you to read this post: BioForce Heart Rate Variability
Because I’ve written a lot about Femoroacetabular Impingement (FAI) and have worked with number of athletes that were surgical candidates, were post-surgery, or are in an “at-risk” population, I get emails almost weekly from people suffering from FAI symptoms that are looking for advice. While I think it can be valuable to do some reading online to better understand what may be driving your dysfunction, it’s EXTREMELY difficult to self-treat injuries, especially those involving structural changes. It’s equally difficult to diagnose injuries over the internet. I can’t understate the importance/value of seeking out a quality health care professional for a thorough assessment. I work closely with a few guys in our area that we send athletes to regularly when I need another set of eyes or if they require manual/treatment skills that I don’t possess. If you’re a S&C professional, build a network of physical therapists, chiropractors, and functional medicine/osteopath/naturopath physicians in your area. Not only can they be a good source of referrals, but sending a client to the right professional at the right time is a great way to stimulate more word of mouth marketing. For everyone else, the same mentality is still valuable; build a healthcare team in your area. It’s the best way to manage your own health and performance.

I have a lot of other random thoughts floating around my head, but our afternoon groups are starting and I have a couple players to assess! Until next time…

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
UltimateHockeyTraining.com

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The Truth About Breathing Exercises

About a year ago I started incorporating more breathing exercises into the training programs of our athletes. One of the major goals of these exercises is to facilitate proper diaphragm function.

Chicks dig guys with proper diaphragm function.

Specific to breathing, the diaphragm allows for more complete lung expansion. If you look at the image above, you can see that the diaphragm moving downward and the chest expanding upward and outward both allow for lung expansion. If the diaphragm isn’t functioning correctly (insufficient magnitude or unideal timing of contraction, restricted length or poor positioning, etc.), you can imagine that the body would naturally attempt to compensate by elevating the ribs to a greater extent to allow more room for the lungs to expand and ultimately for oxygen to be inhaled. In this regard, restoring proper diaphragm function can take some stress off of these muscles, which become overworked/stressed as they’re under more constant tension to elevate the rib cage.

The theory is that activating the diaphragm in a controlled environment will translate to improved activation/performance of the muscle in more dynamic situations. This is similar to the concept of activating the glutes during isolated/controlled movements such as glute bridges or wall march holds with the intention of restoring proper firing patterns during more dynamic movements like doing sprints or deadlifts. While this transfer can be questioned, I don’t see how including these exercises (in either example) can hurt, and believe that teaching the body how to activate specific muscles in a conscious, isolated fashion will improve the likelihood that the muscle will function properly in more integrated situations.

Last week I had an opportunity to watch Sue Falsone’s presentation on the thoracic spine that’s available at Body By Boyle Online (click this link or the image below for more information on the site!).

Sue is the Director of Physical Therapy for Athletes Performance and was the first ever female physical therapist for a major league baseball team (Los Angelas Dodgers). In her presentation, she brought up a great point about the purpose and function of diaphragm breathing exercises.

Check out a sample breathing exercise from my friend Carson Boddicker:

As you know, if there is some limitation in a joint the surrounding muscles will necessarily be affected. Charlie Weingroff talks a lot about this. Joints must have mobility before they can have stability. To expand on that idea slightly, joints must have mobility before the surrounding muscles can function properly. In this regard, Sue mentioned that one of the major purposes of diaphragm breathing exercises is to improve the mobility of the lower ribs. If the lower ribs can’t expand laterally, it’s improbable that the diaphragm will function ideally. Viewed this way, diaphragm breathing is just another mobility exercise, ensuring proper range of motion and giving the surrounding muscles the best opportunity to function optimally.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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Athletic Development Stuff You Should Read

I’ve been on a huge continuing ed kick recently and have come across some great stuff I want to share with you.

New Study Finds 70 Percent of Able-Bodied Hockey Players have Abnormal Hip and Pelvis MRIs
This brief article was written in mid March so it isn’t “new” anymore, but it’s still worth the 2 minutes it’ll take you to read if you haven’t yet. For hockey players, this is huge. This study highlights the fact that a positive MRI finding (e.g. they find something wrong with you) doesn’t necessarily mean you need surgery. It’s just a piece of the puzzle. Almost identical information has come out regarding the shoulders of baseball pitchers. Forget the specificity of the joint (or population), the big take home here is a doctor telling you something came back as “wrong” doesn’t mean you should immediately sign up for surgery. Intelligent conservative treatment may be a more advantageous option!

Relationship Between the Kinetics and Kinematics of a Unilateral Horizontal Drop Jump to Sprint Performance

Turns out single-leg transitional power correlates to sprint performance. Could it be that single-leg training is important for athletes??

Counter-Intuitive Rehabilitation

Charlie Weingroff did an AWESOME interview for Super Human Radio that you can listen to for free at the link above. Charlie delves into a lot of the problems, or more politely “limitations” of most physical therapists and gives some great examples about how the body functions as a unit. Even if you aren’t a physical therapist, this is a great listen for every athlete and parent because it gives you an idea of what you should be looking for in a great physical therapist. Do your best to ignore the supplement promotions during the commercials.

Diaphragmatic Breathing Questions

Every time I visit Carson’s site, I learn something new. I’ve started incorporating breathing exercises and coaching cues into our programs at Endeavor a lot more over the last couple months, in large part because of what I’ve learned from Carson about the importance of proper breathing in athletic performance. Carson answers a handful of really well thought out questions in this post.

The Truth about the Trapezius

Nick Tumminello discusses some interesting research that questions our understanding of the role of the upper trapezius. Functional anatomy is probably my favorite area of study so this one really caught my attention.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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Developing Proper Breathing Patterns

A couple months ago I came across Carson Boddicker’s site and was blown away. He’s a really bright coach and has a lot of unique ideas about training athletes. I asked him to write something for you on the importance of developing proper breathing patterns, which is probably the most overlooked aspects of sports performance training and can have a huge impact on your health and performance.

Enter Carson:

Breathing is a critical piece of the movement equation and is one that has been almost ignored until recently. Many people simply breathe, and call it “good” if they do not suffocate, unfortunately this is far too simplistic as there is a “right” and a “wrong” way to breathe.

Unfortunately, we know that the majority of people fall toward the “wrong” way and incorrect breathing patterns lead to a gamut of movement dysfunctions. Improper breathing can lead to dysfunction as high as the TMJ (though some osteopathic physicians see proper breathing as having a mobilizing effect on the skull) and as low as the hips. In between, breathing plays a powerful role in cervical posture, carpal function, shoulder health, thoracic spine mobility, and lumbo-pelvic-hip stability via intra-abdominal pressure mechanisms. Better control at the pelvis, leads to more favorable mechanics of the joints above and below, making breathing a powerful ally in preventing lower extremity injury common in hockey players like sports hernia and athletic pubalgia. Restoration of proper breathing patterns can reduce tone in the majority of cervical muscles, aid in the reduction of forward head posture, and reduce tone of the hip flexors.

The biochemical effects of hyperventilation have powerful effects on fascial constriction and there are primary and/or accessory muscles in each and every fascial line presented by Thomas Myers. As we understand from the concept of tensegrity, it then stands to reason that breathing limitations alter all fascial lines, and ultimately lead to movement dysfunction. One could go as far as to say that due to the relationship between the obliques and intercostals of the lateral line, improper breathing can result in reduced function of the “anterior X” that controls and produces torque, and subsequently running, walking, and skating mechanics can be altered. An inability to check torques appropriately though the LPH complex is yet another risk factor for hockey related hip and groin dysfunction.

Proper breathing certainly provides great benefit to the athlete, is inimitable, and is of huge benefit to a vast array of movement dysfunction. Thus, there is little question that breathing must be a core competency. As the great neurologist Karel Lewit said, “If breathing is not normalized, no other movement pattern can be.”

So how does one go about normalizing breathing patterns as Dr. Lewit suggests?

First, before we go about correcting anything, we need to understand if something needs to be corrected at all.

Proper breathing involves the diaphragm contracting to compress the abdominal cavity, making more space for the lungs to expand. The best way to assess this is simply have the athlete in a seated position, palpate the lower ribs, the sides of the abdomen, and the iliac crest, and have him breath. Ideally, the athlete will expand his ribs into your hand with minimal elevation of the ribcage until late in the breathing cycle if at all. If he is unable to do so in seated, I suggest regression to supine positions (like in the first exercise below.

Once the player’s breathing proficiencies are identified, proper correction can commence.

I typically begin my athletes’ training at level where they first demonstrated poor patterns. If patterns look good in supine, but not prone, I will start them in prone. If they look fine in prone, but not seated, then training begins in seated positions, etc. Below are a few of my favorite breathing exercises.

Supine breathing is a great first step for many and can be progressed quickly. Ideally the bottom hand will rise vertically, and the top hand will demonstrate minimal movement.

Once the supine breathing is well patterned, I often progress to prone prayer position to work on facilitating posterior and lateral ribcage expansion. According to physical therapist Diane Lee, she finds posterio-lateral expansion to be most restricted in those with lumbo-pelvic-hip dysfunction like SIJ pain, groin strains, and sports hernia. It is one of the harder positions to master, so providing some feedback by springing on the posterior rib cage at the end of expiration and cuing the athlete to “breathe into my hands” often help solidify patterns.

While there are some exercises designed simply to focus upon breathing and breathing only, it is critical to be able to breathe effectively thorough an abdominal brace, so I challenge athletes in a number of positions and exercises that are traditionally seen as “rotational stability” and “anterior core” exercises. One of my current favorites is the breathing bench dog with hip flexion as it provides a great rotational stability demand, is lower level, and the contraction of the psoas develops a strong fixed point for diaphragmatic contraction.

Remember as with all we do as coaches, we should be constantly assessing and thinking about ways to help our athletes succeed. Understanding, coaching, and integrating breathing pattern work is no exception.

Best regards,
Carson Boddicker
www.BoddickerPerformance.com

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