Panjabi divided the motor control system for the spine into three distinct subsystems - passive, active and neural. I like applying this idea to the whole body, partly because I find it an interesting way to distinguish different strategies for movement and posture, based on preferential use of one subsystem over the others. The passive… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: sports performance
Extreme Performance or Optimal Health? Pick One!
Many of my clients will ask my opinion about whether a particular sport or activity promotes movement health. Yoga, running, swimming, weight training, ballet, soccer, gymnastics, crossfit. (People are especially interested in whether these activities will be healthy for their kids.) It’s an interesting question because almost any physical activity you can think of has… Continue Reading
The Incredible Visual Skills of Cristiano Ronaldo
I have previously written about the importance of visual processing for athletic performance. I just came across a video demonstrating the unbelievable (I mean that literally) visual skills of a world class athlete, via the excellent Axon Sports blog. In the video, sports scientists test the visual processing of Christiano Ronaldo, one of the worlds… Continue Reading
Interview with Rafe Kelley from Parkour Visions
Recently I had the pleasure of meeting Rafe Kelley, who owns and operates a parkour gym here in Seattle called Parkour Visions. Rafe is a very knowledgeable movement geek, so we had a great time chatting. (He’s also a real movement stud, see video below for evidence.) He shared so much interesting information that I… Continue Reading
Movement of the Week: Slow Motion Soccer Kick
It’s been a while since I posted a video in my Movement of the Week series. Perhaps I should call this the “Movement of Indeterminate Time Frame.” Anyway the featured movement in this post is a very cool slow motion video of a vicious soccer shot. I found this after Clifton Tarski commented on my “Best Athlete in the… Continue Reading
The World’s Best Athlete Part Three
Welcome to the third and final installment of my best athlete in the world series. In this post I will actually name the winner. But first a quick review of my existing ground rules, and the addition of two additional criteria that will narrow things down to our winner pretty quickly. As I discussed in… Continue Reading
The World’s Best Athlete, Part Two
Welcome to part two of my argument for who is the world’s greatest athlete. Here is a brief summary of part one. First, I concede there is no way to arrive at a truly objective answer here, because it necessarily calls into play subjective preferences. However, after starting with some admittedly arbitrary ground rules, I… Continue Reading
Who is the Best Athlete in The World?
I have heard many arguments about who is the world’s best athlete. To be honest, most of them are completely idiotic. But let’s face it, if you ask a stupid question you get a stupid answer. And that’s what I have done here, because I enjoy the occasional bar room debate. So I am putting… Continue Reading
Is “Efficient” Movement Unsafe?
I have made the claim several times on this blog that quality of movement is primarily determined by its efficiency. In fact, I have stated that “efficiency is the “essence of coordination” and that the best movement is always the most efficient movement. I defined efficiency as “the ratio of useful work performed to the… Continue Reading
Power at the End Range
In the previous post I discussed the idea that flexibility is generally overrated as a quality that promotes sports performance. In particular, I argued that: most sports do not involve extreme ranges of motion; most elite athletes in fact have only average flexibility; and quality of motion at a joint is usually far more important… Continue Reading