Brainstorming with Jonas Dodoo

I always enjoy the brainstorming that my colleague Jonas Dodoo and others stimulate. Here he is offering stimulus on COD, Reactive Agility, and many other things.

https://x.com/EatSleepTrain_/status/1786098941605331430

My responses included the following:

“What has gone before, determines what is yet to come.” My thoughts always go back to the journey that has seen the athlete arrive at this point in time. I always attempt to create a pathway of progression that continually reduces limitations that can be carried forward and might cause inefficiency and harm in later stages when the load is often cranked up. In this instance, the progression principle of ensuring that the exercise prescription includes adaptation in the ability to “produce, reduce and stabilise forces” would give some protection to a frequently occurring problem.

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The actions and postures seen in the braking and re-starting phases of the video that Jonas has presented demand answers in the ability to reduce and stabilise the forces in the context of making the COD efficient and consistent. Should the athlete not have the required tools (‘deficiencies in force production, reduction and stabilisation’) to brake and restart efficiently (multidirectional, eccentric, multi-plane puzzle solving) the body will self-organise and call upon ‘Plan B’ by altering shapes and timing to survive the puzzle. Often ‘Plan B’, if not changed in the long term, can lead to compensatory movements which can also lead to tissue overload.

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The answer lies in the manipulation of the various strategies available along the journey. As an example of this, the exercise toolbox should see each movement pattern being progressed along the ‘Efficiency - Consistency – Resilience’ journey within a ‘General – Related – Specific’ operation. It is with this judicious use of variety and variability that any ‘Plan B’ might be only a short-term occurrence.. Never forget that the learning journey will be littered with myriad ‘Plan Bs’ as the process of experimentation takes place within the learning cycle especially when the 'Can do, Can do, Can't do, Can do' process is experienced.

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Here is a small sample of this variety and variability (taken from the Lower Body syllabus) that a journey might include and that can also be exposed to differing speeds, landing forces, amplitudes, complexities, etc. The Landing and Jumping syllabuses also play their part. Such a movement vocabulary can arm the athlete with some resilience to the forces, actions and postures experienced in the video that Jonas has presented.