What if it had no brakes?
Those of us who value our lives would likely pass on the brakeless lambo, no matter how tempting. So what if your body was the lambo and you had no breaks? Your body's ability to decelerate or slow down and control motion IS your brakes. One could argue that the ability to accelerate, or produce force (create motion) is critical for sports performance while the ability to decelerate, or slow down (control) movement is equally critical for preventing injuries and dysfunction. That's not to say that either the ability to create or control motion does not carry over into the realm of the other. For instance; you have to be able to slow down a motion before you can create an opposing motion, equally as important for performance. The fact of the matter is this: When you combine the ability to do both effectively and efficiently, you are operating like a well oiled lamborghini.
So where do we accelerate or create motion in basketball? Let's take a look at a play by one of the most beastly physical specimens in the NBA right now; Blake "I dunk everything in sight" Griffin.
At about the 3 second mark Blake gathers the ball after it has been tipped to him and transitions into a running dribble, he is ACCELERATING. Not Derrick Rose fast, but he is accelerating nonetheless and doing a good job of keeping his big body in between the ball and the defender.
At the 4-5 second mark Blake plants his left foot. There is a whole series of things happening at this point. His left foot is likely going through a very short pronation phase, where his foot collapses, causing internal rotation of his tibia, and in turn internal rotation of his hip. All you need to know is that these actions are lengthening certain muscles which in turn recognize the need to SLOW DOWN and STOP these movements. Why do they need to stop? These lengthened muscles are now LOADED. They are storing elastic energy and ready to UNLOAD and propel Blake in an opposing motion. To create the motion he needs the opposite to happen, external rotation of hip and tibia, and supination at his foot creating a rigid propulsive flipper to push off of. This sends him spinning to his left where he plants again, recreating that loading and unloading cycle.
At the 6 second mark he reaches back with his right hand, lengthening or LOADING the front of his body. It's like pulling back on an elastic right before you flick it at someone. Again all of those muscles now lengthened need to put on the brakes and slow down that motion before snapping back, by shortening and allowing him to hammer dunk the ball aggressively, pumping up the crowd, making a statement and successfully evading the weak block attempt by the defender.
Acceleration and deceleration in basketball doesn't soley refer to the act of increasing speed in a sprint and then slowing down. Those are absolutely part of the equation and definitely trainable, but we must think beyond those definitions to examine how else we can train the body to be able to DECELERATE or LOAD and ACCELERATE or UNLOAD (EXPLODE) in basketball specific instances.
Landing mechanics for instance are a perfect example of the body's ability to decelerate motion. What happens when you jump in the air and land in a position where your body cannot properly decelerate the forces encountered? Watch below. Be forewarned this video is graphic!
Keep on the lookout for the NEXT BLOG POST with videos showing how we can train the body's ability to accelerate and decelerate.
Josh
josh@torontoathlete.com
416.894.3365
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