Skill execution, often referred to as technique, is the key to determining what the main exercises should be in your training program. This is why using a commonly employed strength training program or one that has been proven successful by other coaches is not effective. They fail to take into consideration the athlete’s skill execution and his or her technical and physical abilities.
Skill execution is the key to success in any and all sports. It is obvious that if you are unable to execute the skills of the game you would be unable to participate in the sport. When someone wants to play a particular sport they must develop the skills first. Skills should dominate the learning process.
When you analyze an athlete and his abilities you will invariably look at how well they execute the skills involved! This means the ability to throw an implement, hit a ball or person, run long and/or fast, kick a ball, jump high or long, and so on. All or only several of these skills may be involved in your sport.
When you analyze an athlete’s abilities, you must look at how well they execute the skills involved.
The better you can execute the skill, the better you can perform in the sport. Coaches have a tendency to take skill execution for granted and rely on physical conditioning as the main way to improve performance. But your physical qualities such as strength, flexibility, power, and explosiveness must all relate to how well you can execute the skills. Having great strength or power in movements or actions that are not specific to your sports skills will not make you a better player on the field!
To have the best skill execution you must have the best technique plus optimal development of the physical qualities that are specific to your technique. This is indisputable.
Skill Execution in the Early Years
When you consider what determines the enjoyment or satisfaction that a player gets from playing the sport it is not whether the team wins or loses. Instead, it comes from the player’s performance. Not being able to execute the basic game skills well prevents the player from receiving any enjoyment. If he does not experience good performances the player will develop a negative attitude which will prevent him from wanting to play more.
In the drive to achieve sports success, more parents and coaches are pushing youngsters to play the same sport year-round. Because of the enormous amount of playing, the youngsters do not have sufficient time to perfect their skill execution in regard to their physical abilities. The latter can be made up for after puberty, but improvement of technique after puberty becomes increasingly difficult with each passing year. In addition, after puberty, greater emphasis is placed on playing. How well you perform is critical to whether you will receive a scholarship or have a chance at the pros.
Of all the factors involved in the development of an athlete, the technique is probably the most important in the early ages. The greater the emphasis on technique at this time the better the athlete will perform in his/her playing and in learning the strength exercises that will be needed, especially after puberty. In pre-puberty, youngsters are not capable of achieving high levels of physical development mainly because of maturation. But by learning the technique of the exercises that they will use, they will see very rapid and great improvement in their physical abilities after puberty. This is when it is most important.
All too often the technique of the basic skills is taken for granted. Many coaches believe that the athlete is born with an innate ability to execute a good throw, hit, jump or kick and that technique should not be touched. This is where the expression, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” came from. But this is a myth. How you train is the key factor, not genetics! This is indisputable.
As technique changes, modifications or adjustments need to be made as the athlete develops strength or other physical qualities. The strength should be joined with the skill in what is known as dynamic correspondence. In other words, you develop strength in the same, neuromuscular pathway as used in the execution of the competitive skill.
The skills that most of us develop as we grow up are relatively simple. On the highest levels of performance, however, skills are very complex, built on previously learned simple executions. For example, in simple skill throwing, you step forward, rotate the hips and shoulders and then sling the arm simultaneously with the shoulder or trunk rotation.
When a throwing skill is refined, such as throwing a ball or javelin, it is possible to see separation between the hip and shoulder rotation. In addition, the shoulder rotation cocks the arm in a bent position with the forearm laid back. The arm cocking is followed by medial shoulder joint rotation and then wrist pronation and flexion. In some cases, there may also be elbow extension which usually produces a new point of release. In extreme cases, the medial rotation is minimized and elbow extension is maximized which often results in elbow and shoulder problems.
Throwers who have good throwing technique include even more body parts to produce additional force. In the javelin, it includes the run-up, ability to brake forward momentum with the lower body and to continue momentum with the upper body. Shot putters, regardless of whether they use the linear or rotational style of throwing, need more separation between hip and shoulder rotation. The sequence of including these actions however, is different in the hammer throw.
When you couple excellent technique with fully developed physical abilities, especially as they relate to the throwing technique, you have the ideal situation for throwing as hard and/or as far as possible. To this end, by doing specialized strength exercises created by me and others, you develop strength in the same neuromuscular pathway as seen in execution of the sports skill. In this way you improve skill execution as you become stronger in the same neuromuscular movement pattern as seen in execution of the sports skill.
The key factor is improving skill execution. Once you have well developed technique and then, (or simultaneously) improve the physical abilities that are specific to the technique, you see the greatest amount of improvement possible. This is the core of the Yessis System of Improving Performance.
Skill Execution and Injury
Skill execution is directly related to injury. The reason for this is that all non-contact injuries have a neuromuscular base. In other words, when there is a disturbance in the neuromuscular pathways during execution of the skill, an injury is quite likely. It means that there is a disruption in the coordination or timing of the various actions that produce the skill.
As a result, excessive forces are placed on the tissues to maintain joint integrity. If there is insufficient strength of the tissues a strain or tear is likely to result. Thus the key to prevention is to have effective skill execution so that excessive forces are not placed on any joint or accompanying tissues. This is done by improving skill execution and strengthening the muscles as they are involved in producing the action.
When this is not done, especially when it comes to injury rehabilitation and injury prevention, the chances of getting a recurring injury are very great. Injuries are most often caused because of poor coordination: rarely are they due to lack of strength.
When the skill execution is improved and the athlete experiences an injury they undergo rehabilitation until they are once again capable of playing. But this does not mean that they are now better equipped to handle the forces involved in execution of the skills. In many cases they may be even more prone to injury.
A classic example of this is in regard to hamstring injuries and running. Many players experience hamstring injuries which take weeks if not months, to rehabilitate. But with effective running technique and the development of the physical qualities specific to the joint actions involved in running, the chances of hamstring injuries are practically nonexistent.
Because of this it is rare, if it is even possible, for an athlete get a hamstring injury after developing good technique and the physical qualities specific to the technique. Because of this it can be concluded that common injuries to athletes are for the most part, preventable. But, for this to happen, you must think of skill execution.
I can think of two outstanding D2 football school programs that use the 1 x 20 strength training system and work on more effective technique execution. As a result, they experience 0–1-2 injuries a season. The same can happen to you or the program in which you are involved.
Strength Versus Skill Execution
Although this topic has been touched upon in the above discussions, it deserves additional attention. The reason for this is that in many, if not most strength training programs, technique is not given high priority. Coaches assume that greater strength, which is the main objective of these programs, will automatically make a better performing athlete on the field. But this assumption does not hold water and has never been proven.
Strength affects skill execution in a positive way or in a negative way. For example, if the muscles that are not directly involved in skill execution are strengthened greatly, they can negatively affect execution. If the muscles are strengthened in the same manner as they are used in execution of the skill they enhance skill execution. This is why specialized strength exercises were created and are now used to improve performance of the skills. They provide the transfer needed to improve the skill execution.
Specialized strength: exercises are executed when the athlete has a strong strength base which ideally should be established in the early years of training, especially in youth. One of the best programs for this is the 1 x 20 strength training program as it develops not only muscular endurance and strength but also other technical and physical qualities. It is also used by experienced athletes who do not have a strong strength base. This happens very often with collegiate athletes.
Skill Execution Analysis
Determining what are the aspects of skill execution that need improvement is often difficult. This happens if you do not understand what is involved in the skill execution or have difficulty in analyzing the skill execution. This appears to be getting easier since with every passing year it appears that there are more people involved in analyzing skill technique.
However, if you look closely at these “analyses” you will see that most of them do not fit the more practical definition of analysis. For example, coaches may do a game analysis or analysis of a player’s performance. The analysis consists of what should have done, where you should have been and what you could have done in different situations. Such analyses have nothing to do with your technique of running, throwing, jumping, then etc. It is assumed that you have the necessary skills can make the changes requested. They are done from a strategy and tactical approach rather than skill execution.
Very often the analysis is a comparison between your performance and that of a top level player. It is taken for granted that the top level player has effective skill execution and that his technique is what you should be using to better your performance. This is often not the case because you may not have the physical or technical attributes of the high-level player nor the mental ability to duplicate what they do in skill execution.
Other “analysts” merely describe what they see but do not analyze. A description is relatively simple as it entails knowing how to describe the different movements of the arms, legs, and trunk. Based on such descriptions any faults brought out in the analysis will often be corrected by telling you do something “different” to see how it works in comparison to what you are doing. It is based more on guess work even though some of it may be educated guess work rather than scientific or objective data.
In order to do an effective or productive analysis you must first have a very good understanding of what constitutes effective skill and how it is accomplished. Merely looking at an athlete perform a skill and coming up with suggestions on how it can be better without understanding what each change is going to do, can be more of a detriment than an asset.
Someone who does an effective analysis of a sports skill understands what every joint action does, how it can be improved upon, and how the total skill can be made more effective. Every joint action is understood, not only according to the physics of the movement, but also which muscles are involved and how they are involved. They understand cause and effect, i.e., if you change one thing they know what will then happen to another. In addition, the analyst is capable of looking at live videos of the player’s performance frame by frame and analyzing his/her performance.
Biomechanics specialists often do computer analyses which can provide some excellent quantitative data but not how the skill can be improved. For example, they may bring out that the speed of the arm or leg should be increased. How it should be increased is left unanswered. Usually the computer analysis takes the form of stick figures and the data is compared to other performer’s stick figures and the differences between them are measured in terms of positioning, angular displacement, force components and so on. Some of this can be revealing and of great benefit; it requires however, expensive and sophisticated equipment.
Skill Learning
All sports skills are learned acts. You are not born with the ability to throw, kick, jump, run, etc. Each of these is learned mainly through trial and error as you grow up and mature. And it usually took hundreds, if not thousands of repetitions before you mastered the ability to execute the skill. The more complex, the longer it took to master.
For example, learning a new skill, one that is relatively simple, may require a hundred or so repetitions before you develop a pattern that is recognizable as the skill. For perfecting the skill, it takes many more repetitions. As you mature or develop greater strength, flexibility, etc., your skill execution changes. Thus, modifications always have to be made to the technique in order to be commensurate with your physical abilities.
By ignoring skill execution or not putting it high on your list for improvement, you miss out on a great opportunity to improve your performance. You must remember that all skills are learned skills. This includes the basic ones such as running, jumping, throwing, kicking and hitting. You may be born with the rudiments of being able to do these skills but they are in very rough form. These skills must still be perfected in order to do the best that you are capable of.
When you work on skill execution (technique) especially if you use specialized strength exercises that duplicate what takes place in execution of the skill (or should take place when making changes in technique), you develop a muscular feel for the action. This feeling is incorporated into your neuromuscular system so that when you execute the modified or new technique it will feel natural to you.
Making changes in technique, especially if they are fairly significant changes, without developing a muscular feel for the joint action is extremely difficult. This is where making changes can become very frustrating and can often interrupt and interfere with your skill execution and ability to play the game. Also important is that you develop the physical qualities with the muscular feel for the movement pattern when making a change in technique.
Only improving technique or only improving your physical abilities will not give you as much improvement as when you work on both of these factors in an integrated manner. For example, to increase running speed you may wish to do the knee drive, one of the three main joint actions responsible for producing the force needed in running speed. The knee drive involves the hip joint flexor muscles (iliopsoas and rectus femoris).
These muscles can be strengthened by raising the knee in a standing position beginning with the thigh directly under the body. Or they can be strengthened beginning with the thigh behind the body as it is in running when the leg begins to drive forward. In this case you strengthen not only the hip flexors but also the lower abdominals as they contract to rotate the pelvis posteriorly.
In this way you improve running speed as you improve technique and the physical abilities specific to the action. Note that this exercise can be used to develop strength, speed or explosive power of the hip flexor muscles.
The most effective training regime at this time is the 1 x 20 strength training program. The main reason is that you do more repetitions of the exercise and the intensity of training is kept at a moderate level. These two factors are very important when learning or changing technique. The increase in repetitions is needed for strengthening the neuromuscular pathways while keeping the intensity at a more moderate level.
The greater the emphasis on technique in the early ages the better the athlete will perform in his playing, learning new skills and strength exercises that he will need in his sport. Pre-puberty youngsters are not capable of achieving high levels of physical development mainly because of maturation. But by learning technique of the skills and strength exercises that they will use, they will see very rapid and great improvement in their physical abilities after puberty. This is when it is most important.
Skill Execution and The Training Program
With this background it is now possible to more closely look at how skill execution determines your training program. In essence, you first determine what aspects of the skill execution (technique) should be corrected or improved to make it more effective. Then you select exercises that have the needed neuromuscular pathways involved in order to develop strength in the same neuromuscular pattern.
This is a new method of correcting/improving technique that I developed and which has proven to be very effective. It integrates technique and strength in the same pattern as used in the sports joint action(s). As a result, the exercise has an immediate effect on skill execution. With enough repetitions, the skill with additional strength quickly becomes automatic. At this time there’s no thinking involved when the athlete executes the skill.
The training program will vary in regard to the level of the athlete. In general, all the joint actions that need correction or improvement assume top priority. Keep in mind that improvement of skill execution together with strengthening of the muscles that are specific to the actions involved in the skill execution, makes a better athlete faster than any gains in strength by itself. After the athlete is doing the key skill execution exercises, supplementary exercises are selected to support these actions.
For example, in the knee drive exercise with Active Cords the athlete may also be given hip adduction as the adductor magnus longus is also involved at the beginning of the forward movement. The reverse sit up may also be used to strengthen the lower portion of the abdominals that are also involved to rotate the pelvis posteriorly. If the pelvis is found to be somewhat unstable during skill execution other hip joint exercises and/or abdominal and lower back muscles may also have to be strengthened.
After the specialized strength and supplementary exercises are prescribed, the next priority is to determine the other actions that need support or enhancement. For example, for a runner and to a certain extent jumper or thrower, the squat is needed to limit the amount of knee flexion during the support phase. In such cases the delay squat is recommended to enhance the isometric phase.
All of the prescribed exercises then become the main training program for the athlete. These are the exercises that they should do to improve performance. All other exercises may make the athlete stronger or improve actions that are not involved in the sport, but they will not make him a better performer on the field.
In conclusion, remember that skill execution is the key to success in any and all sports! Without the best skill execution and strengthening of the muscles as they are involved in the execution (same neuro-muscular pathways) the athlete will never be as good as they can be.
About Dr. Yessis
Michael Yessis is a teacher, sports performance trainer, biomechanist, and author. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. He has done work translating, adapting, and implementing sports training methodology from the former Soviet Union, including work by Yuri Verkhoshansky, Anatoliy Bondarchuk, and Vladimir Issurin, for over fifty years. Yessis has worked extensively with professional and amateur athletes, including Todd Marinovich, Evander Holyfield, Dianne DeNecochea, Jose Luiz Barbosa, and others in over 50 years of active work. Yessis worked with the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Raiders professional football teams, as well as Team USA Volleyball.
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