The field of kinesiology can benefit greatly
from increasing neurogenesis. Currently researchers are relatively primitive in
the concept of neuron proliferation but I see a huge step being taken forward
by those who study the human body. The brain is the Center of the Human Body
and ultimately controls everything else. If we can learn how exactly the brain
really works and how to increase brain function in all humans imagine what that
will do. First of all people will live loner allowing lives to be more
productive and fulfilling. Secondly people will actually become smarter as
shown in the Cognitive learning section. The more knowledgeable humans are the
more we can learn and invent. There are many questions out there that humans
physically can’t understand or comprehend such as, “how did the universe come
into existence”. Resent research in the field of Astrophysics has started to
get a better understanding of how different dimension work. We currently are in
the 3rd dimension every day of our lives. We are unable to see higher
dimensions just like a “Flat Lander” (a person who lives in the second
dimension) cannot comprehend our world because we are in a dimension higher. I
believe that if the brain can be mapped and understood to a depth where human knowledge
can be created in a lab then we can one day discover and ultimately understand
the higher dimensions which will help us understand many questions such as “
why are we here?”. As kinesiology
researchers we can study the human brain and understand why certain people seem
to be “smarter” then other people. We can then recreate that brain and even
enhance it further. From reading the research I have presented it is very
evident that the idea of being more knowledgeable comes from the increased
proliferation of neuron cells. Depending on where the cells are proliferating
to the greatest amount, will determine that persons strengths and weaknesses.
Ideally one day kinesiologists will be able to recreate humans with specific
characteristics by playing with the human switch board, ie. the Gene Gnome
which will cause neuronal cell proliferation is specific areas. Olympic gold
medalists could be created to be the best instead of kinisiologists ultimately
not knowing that athlete’s athletic ceiling. Researchers can learn how to make
someone open minded, closed minded, obedient, relentless etc. These
possibilities are far down the road and may not even exist in our life time but
every great breakthrough in this world started from an idea that not many believed
in.
Saturday, 31 March 2012
Wednesday, 28 March 2012
FMS Potentially Pointless?
An FMS test is known as a Functional Movement Screen which is used to determine muscle imbalances. I have spoken with a few trainers of different national teams and all of them have told me the same thing. I explained to them about how we are learning about FMS in school and they all laughed. They explained to me that FMS is pointless and will be forgetten in a few years after the scientists realize how useless it is.
Generally FMS is used for high performance athletes. This is mainly because it is a waste of time for younger and lower level athletes who have not achieved anything in the sport yet. It takes time and effort from higher level trainers who quite frankly don't want to waste time with recreational athletes. For many sports, when you make national team you get tested and you udnergo the FMS. However all of these athletes have created imbalances based on their sport. For example a gymnast will normally have a rounded back which is called uppercrossed syndrome. This is good for gymnastics because it helps keep us tight when doing many skills as well as keeps our head in while flipping so the load does not travel to our back and hurt our spine. This syndrome scores very poorly in a FMS screen however. Another example would be for hockey. Hockey players tend to have externally rotated hips because of the way they have to skate. This again is scored poorly in an FMS. So why are athletes with compensations that help their sport, compared to a "ideal" athlete, which does not exist? If there was a separate FMS different for each sport that would make lots of sense. You can say that soccer players will have tight hip flexors and adductors compared to Abductors and that is ok. You can say that skeleton athletes have upper crossed syndrome as well and that is ok. What scientists in a lab have not figured out yet is that there is no " ideal" athlete so to compare all to one model and give a score based on how close that athlete is to that model seems pretty pointless. My teacher can tell me all day that I should work on strengthening the left trapezius because my right is bigger but that is not something I want to change. That is because I turn my head slightly when twisting which can not be helped if I want to be a good twister.
Every few years a great new peice of equipment comes out and then is forgotten about because it's true purpose contradicts it's self or it is not as effected as people once thought. First it was Exercise ball, then BOSU, then Kettle Bells, now FMS and something else will come out. I wonder how long that will last before something else comes out. With that being said I believe FMS does have it's place, with lower level atheltes and younger athletes. Strength and conditioning specialists need to determine what compensations are good for a sport by looking at the biomechanics then a special FMS needs to be created to match that sport. Start building the athletes from a young age to be great athletes mentally and physically.
Generally FMS is used for high performance athletes. This is mainly because it is a waste of time for younger and lower level athletes who have not achieved anything in the sport yet. It takes time and effort from higher level trainers who quite frankly don't want to waste time with recreational athletes. For many sports, when you make national team you get tested and you udnergo the FMS. However all of these athletes have created imbalances based on their sport. For example a gymnast will normally have a rounded back which is called uppercrossed syndrome. This is good for gymnastics because it helps keep us tight when doing many skills as well as keeps our head in while flipping so the load does not travel to our back and hurt our spine. This syndrome scores very poorly in a FMS screen however. Another example would be for hockey. Hockey players tend to have externally rotated hips because of the way they have to skate. This again is scored poorly in an FMS. So why are athletes with compensations that help their sport, compared to a "ideal" athlete, which does not exist? If there was a separate FMS different for each sport that would make lots of sense. You can say that soccer players will have tight hip flexors and adductors compared to Abductors and that is ok. You can say that skeleton athletes have upper crossed syndrome as well and that is ok. What scientists in a lab have not figured out yet is that there is no " ideal" athlete so to compare all to one model and give a score based on how close that athlete is to that model seems pretty pointless. My teacher can tell me all day that I should work on strengthening the left trapezius because my right is bigger but that is not something I want to change. That is because I turn my head slightly when twisting which can not be helped if I want to be a good twister.
Every few years a great new peice of equipment comes out and then is forgotten about because it's true purpose contradicts it's self or it is not as effected as people once thought. First it was Exercise ball, then BOSU, then Kettle Bells, now FMS and something else will come out. I wonder how long that will last before something else comes out. With that being said I believe FMS does have it's place, with lower level atheltes and younger athletes. Strength and conditioning specialists need to determine what compensations are good for a sport by looking at the biomechanics then a special FMS needs to be created to match that sport. Start building the athletes from a young age to be great athletes mentally and physically.
Potential Future for George Town
I have been informed that PanAM Games will be held in Halton
Hills in 2015 which gave me a great idea. I have had dreams of opening an all
purpose athletic facility one day and Halton Hills is planning on opening up a
giant center to welcome the Pan Am Games. I am going to try and bring a
strength and conditioning center to Halton Hills starting off at Halton Hills
Gymnastics Club. One day I am hoping to turn this club into a sporting facility
that is like nothing the Eastern Side of Toronto has seen. We will try to
appeal to a variety of different sports. Canadian Sports Center has told me
they plan on building a sports lab there and hopefully I can be in charge of
that lab once it is built and can help filter athletes through and put them
into appropriate sports based on results just like other countries do. My first
step would be to talk to the Manager of Halton Hills and open up a weight
Lifting program at the gymnastics Club. From there we have to advertise to
different sports across the area and hopefully we can get them to come train
with me at Halton Hills. Eventually we will be the only high performance,
strength and conditioning center in George Town. This is just a starting idea
and I will keep you all posted when I get more info.
Ottawa Woman's Hockey Testing
I have just gotten back from Ottawa where I was asked to
help test the potential members for Canada’s National women’s hockey team for
2012. I found it a great experience where I honed my skills with
anthropometrics (the science of measuring body parts). I was mainly in charge
of running the Bod POD which is the golden standard for muscle mass and body
fat composition. We took a BOD POD up in the back of the Canadian Sport Center
Van and tested all the athletes in the Westin hotel by Ottawa University. On
day one, we tested about 8 of the team members including the famous Hailey
Wickenheiser and Cherie Piper. We had Chris Dalcin doing the body measurements,
me on the BOD POD and an athletic therapist from Ottawa recording the
measurements. We flew through the measurements very quickly and got a good
night sleep because we had to be up at 9 am the next morning for more testing.
The next day we ran through the rest of the girls and I taught Bridgette, the
physiotherapist how to use Bod Pod. Unfortunately the computers which we were
recording the data were a little mess up and the last 5 or 6 girls were rushed
through and I was forced to record data, run Bod Pod and take height and weight
all at the same time. I got good at it quickly and before I knew it the last
girl was done and we were packing up. We
ended up having lots of people questioning us about the BOD POD because it was
something no one had ever seen before. Even some members of a famous band that
was in town were asking us questions as we tried to load the BOD POD into the
Van on our way out. Over all it was a great way to test my knowledge and
increase my experience. I have been asked by Hockey Canada to come and do some
testing next month in Quebec as well which I am looking forward to.
Thursday, 22 March 2012
Holding Lines At the End of Tricks
I have been asked to talk a bit about how to hold lines at the end of the tricks. Easy as it sounds, it actually is pretty difficult and not many trampolinists do it perfect or even as good as they could. Here is how I practice holding my lines.
I start off my doing all singles with keeping my arms down on all the landings. If you are not good at holding your lines this will prove to be more difficult then you think. You will find you over rotate a lot of skills that normally you wouldn't. This is because the arms are not coming up over the head, which lengthens the body, which slows the rotation at the last second. So put a little bit less rotation on all your singles and you will start to feel like you land perfectly up and down. Once you are comfortable with landing with arms tight by your sides then its time to start linking tricks. Do not worry about putting arms up yet. Keep them down the entire time. I do just sloppy back flips with arms down by the sides. You may find it hard to balance with the arms being immobile but if the back is in the right position and you land on the cross then you will be able to keep going.
Then you start playing with birani, back tucks and repeat as above. At this point you are probably asking how do I control my flips? Simply said, it's repetition. Start off low and gradually build height with time. Dave Ross told me about a Russian trampolinist that would be able to do back straights in a row perfectly every time holding his like right to the last second every time. So how did he do it? Well, it is all about the arms on the take off. If the arms drop quickly on a back straight then you simply have to hope for the best and see what happens. If you keep the arms up longer then you can get a better feel for when to drop them to be able to hold the perfect line. The longer the arms are up ( up to a specific point) then the easier it is to judge when to bring them in and hold the line of the back straight. If the arms come in before quarter of the flip is done then it is a big gamble but if the athlete waits until they are in the air and can get a idea of where they are then it is easier to tell when the arms should drop. If the rotation is heavy then the arms stay up longer before coming in to finish the lay out. If the rotation is small then the arms come in earlier to shorten the body to get the layout around. Either way the line is held until a split second before landing on the bed.
This concept can be applied to all singles. Unfortunately I do not believe this works for doubles or triples. The line holding dilemma in this case relies more on the timing of the kick out. I found that If i tried to kick out always at the same time, that that helped me be able to judge how long to hold the lines without over or under rotating. Unfortunately, again, this just takes time. If there is a secret to it, I have not been told it or discovered it.
If you hold lines almost into the bed Dave told me that it would enable me to do something else that not many athletes do. Dave told me that landing with arms up right over the head is not actually what you want, even though this is taught world wide. If hands over head is 12 oclock and hands at shoulder height is 3 oclock then you should aim to land with hands at 1:30. Landing in the bed with the hands at 1:30 allows you to keep pushing them up to 12 oclock which will actually give more height to the jump that is next to come.
(a)Try jumping on the ground with a arm sing from your knees.
(b) Now try jumping with arms above your head
Most people will find (b) is harder to jump high. So theoretically you want to jump with an entire arm swing before every skill. Yes this is true but in reality it does not work. It is too hard to swing the arms up this quick because of the G-force in the bottom of the bed. If you can try to add some sort of arm swing, ie. arms at 1:30 then you can get a bit of an extra bounce. When you actually do the "1:30" you do not actually stop then finish the push above the head. It should be smooth like a proper pre bounce with arm swing but instead of arms at 6:00 the are at 1:30. Then you hold the arms up, judge your flip, add twists then stay tight and hope you flipped the perfect amount so your arms can be back at 1:30 for the next skill.
Start of by playing with the concept. Do not make it your entire training program because like mentioned in last article, you will de-train yourself. This is nothing more then a ideal, even the best in the world do not do it all the time, if at all.
hope this helps :)
I start off my doing all singles with keeping my arms down on all the landings. If you are not good at holding your lines this will prove to be more difficult then you think. You will find you over rotate a lot of skills that normally you wouldn't. This is because the arms are not coming up over the head, which lengthens the body, which slows the rotation at the last second. So put a little bit less rotation on all your singles and you will start to feel like you land perfectly up and down. Once you are comfortable with landing with arms tight by your sides then its time to start linking tricks. Do not worry about putting arms up yet. Keep them down the entire time. I do just sloppy back flips with arms down by the sides. You may find it hard to balance with the arms being immobile but if the back is in the right position and you land on the cross then you will be able to keep going.
Then you start playing with birani, back tucks and repeat as above. At this point you are probably asking how do I control my flips? Simply said, it's repetition. Start off low and gradually build height with time. Dave Ross told me about a Russian trampolinist that would be able to do back straights in a row perfectly every time holding his like right to the last second every time. So how did he do it? Well, it is all about the arms on the take off. If the arms drop quickly on a back straight then you simply have to hope for the best and see what happens. If you keep the arms up longer then you can get a better feel for when to drop them to be able to hold the perfect line. The longer the arms are up ( up to a specific point) then the easier it is to judge when to bring them in and hold the line of the back straight. If the arms come in before quarter of the flip is done then it is a big gamble but if the athlete waits until they are in the air and can get a idea of where they are then it is easier to tell when the arms should drop. If the rotation is heavy then the arms stay up longer before coming in to finish the lay out. If the rotation is small then the arms come in earlier to shorten the body to get the layout around. Either way the line is held until a split second before landing on the bed.
This concept can be applied to all singles. Unfortunately I do not believe this works for doubles or triples. The line holding dilemma in this case relies more on the timing of the kick out. I found that If i tried to kick out always at the same time, that that helped me be able to judge how long to hold the lines without over or under rotating. Unfortunately, again, this just takes time. If there is a secret to it, I have not been told it or discovered it.
If you hold lines almost into the bed Dave told me that it would enable me to do something else that not many athletes do. Dave told me that landing with arms up right over the head is not actually what you want, even though this is taught world wide. If hands over head is 12 oclock and hands at shoulder height is 3 oclock then you should aim to land with hands at 1:30. Landing in the bed with the hands at 1:30 allows you to keep pushing them up to 12 oclock which will actually give more height to the jump that is next to come.
(a)Try jumping on the ground with a arm sing from your knees.
(b) Now try jumping with arms above your head
Most people will find (b) is harder to jump high. So theoretically you want to jump with an entire arm swing before every skill. Yes this is true but in reality it does not work. It is too hard to swing the arms up this quick because of the G-force in the bottom of the bed. If you can try to add some sort of arm swing, ie. arms at 1:30 then you can get a bit of an extra bounce. When you actually do the "1:30" you do not actually stop then finish the push above the head. It should be smooth like a proper pre bounce with arm swing but instead of arms at 6:00 the are at 1:30. Then you hold the arms up, judge your flip, add twists then stay tight and hope you flipped the perfect amount so your arms can be back at 1:30 for the next skill.
Start of by playing with the concept. Do not make it your entire training program because like mentioned in last article, you will de-train yourself. This is nothing more then a ideal, even the best in the world do not do it all the time, if at all.
hope this helps :)
Monday, 19 March 2012
Importance of "B.E.D.M.A.S.S" in trampoline
If you are reading this then most likely you have gone at least into high school and understand the basics of math. BEDMASS is a term used in math by teachers to help teach children an order to solving all problems. If certain mathematical mechanics are done out of order the entire question is wrong. For example when given:
3 x 7 + 8= ?
if you do the multiplication first you get
21+8 = 29
if you however do the wrong order and you add 7+8 then multiply by 3 then you get 45
Two completely different answers arise but only one will inevitably get you the check mark. I notice a lot of athletes from inter club to senior national forget the order of operations. So what is the order if there truly is one?
***again I must note that this is MY opinion and if you disagree feel free to message me.
When starting a flip there are 4 things to remember that need to be in a specific order or the skill will not work properly. Sure, you may land the skill but completion and perfection are different.
1) Jump: I know this sounds stupid but think how many times you or your athlete truly jump before starting a skill. a large part of the time athletes will " look around the corner", meaning they throw they head over their shoulder or straight backwards. This is because the athlete is scared, and for good reason, they have no idea where they are going. It takes a lot of repetitions to blindly jump into a flip. Never the less the athlete has to learn this. Matthew Turgeon told me that I should aim to wait until I am done a quarter of a flip before I do anything else. I have tried this and I believe it works very well. It forces the athlete to have to try and jump first looking forward rather then over the shoulder or behind themselves. Spend a bit of time every day focusing on long sets where the athlete is looking forward as long as possible. They will feel like they get lost in the air but that is normal. Give it some time and it will feel second nature.
2) Flip:
Flipping and twisting are the two main movements in trampoline. FLIPPING ALWAYS COMES BEFORE TWISTING!!!! No matter what skill you are doing the twist is tertiary to jumping then flipping. After you tell the body how much flip you want then you can do one of two things:
3) Choose a position: after you do a jump then add some flip you are free to tuck or pike as fast as you can. This will increase your speed so be careful.
4) Add Twist: Adding twists will be the last thing you do most of the time except for skills where piking or tucking is done mid-flip such as full-half pike. Normally the twist is done last and the only thing the athlete has to do is hold the line as best as they can until the bed.
If these things are all done in order then technically you are good to go. However practically this is harder to do then to say. Naturally, unless you jump a single bounce time of 4 seconds, you will have to cheat slightly and this is seen in even the best athletes across the world. This does not mean it isnt't possible. Do not change your entire training program either. It is good to work on new technical things every day but do not stop doing full routines to try and work on technical stuff because you will not see results. These technical suggestions are to be worked a bit everyday and slowly incorporated into routines by starting at one trick at a time. Maybe one day every skill you do will be perfect but do not strive for that during training. Fix one trick at a time. If the technique is good it will naturally start to snowball into everything you do.
3 x 7 + 8= ?
if you do the multiplication first you get
21+8 = 29
if you however do the wrong order and you add 7+8 then multiply by 3 then you get 45
Two completely different answers arise but only one will inevitably get you the check mark. I notice a lot of athletes from inter club to senior national forget the order of operations. So what is the order if there truly is one?
***again I must note that this is MY opinion and if you disagree feel free to message me.
When starting a flip there are 4 things to remember that need to be in a specific order or the skill will not work properly. Sure, you may land the skill but completion and perfection are different.
1) Jump: I know this sounds stupid but think how many times you or your athlete truly jump before starting a skill. a large part of the time athletes will " look around the corner", meaning they throw they head over their shoulder or straight backwards. This is because the athlete is scared, and for good reason, they have no idea where they are going. It takes a lot of repetitions to blindly jump into a flip. Never the less the athlete has to learn this. Matthew Turgeon told me that I should aim to wait until I am done a quarter of a flip before I do anything else. I have tried this and I believe it works very well. It forces the athlete to have to try and jump first looking forward rather then over the shoulder or behind themselves. Spend a bit of time every day focusing on long sets where the athlete is looking forward as long as possible. They will feel like they get lost in the air but that is normal. Give it some time and it will feel second nature.
2) Flip:
Flipping and twisting are the two main movements in trampoline. FLIPPING ALWAYS COMES BEFORE TWISTING!!!! No matter what skill you are doing the twist is tertiary to jumping then flipping. After you tell the body how much flip you want then you can do one of two things:
3) Choose a position: after you do a jump then add some flip you are free to tuck or pike as fast as you can. This will increase your speed so be careful.
4) Add Twist: Adding twists will be the last thing you do most of the time except for skills where piking or tucking is done mid-flip such as full-half pike. Normally the twist is done last and the only thing the athlete has to do is hold the line as best as they can until the bed.
If these things are all done in order then technically you are good to go. However practically this is harder to do then to say. Naturally, unless you jump a single bounce time of 4 seconds, you will have to cheat slightly and this is seen in even the best athletes across the world. This does not mean it isnt't possible. Do not change your entire training program either. It is good to work on new technical things every day but do not stop doing full routines to try and work on technical stuff because you will not see results. These technical suggestions are to be worked a bit everyday and slowly incorporated into routines by starting at one trick at a time. Maybe one day every skill you do will be perfect but do not strive for that during training. Fix one trick at a time. If the technique is good it will naturally start to snowball into everything you do.
Monday, 12 March 2012
School Reports
Hello all,
incase you were wondering why I have so many tabs that seems to make no sense. It is for a school project and after this course i will delete the tabs.
Sorry if it's an inconvenience
incase you were wondering why I have so many tabs that seems to make no sense. It is for a school project and after this course i will delete the tabs.
Sorry if it's an inconvenience
Counter Twisting: Re-Update
So I have been struggling with the new twisting. Can't lie, I am getting frustrated and seem to not be getting the entire concept. I have been asked to make a video and I am going to. I have downloaded the software and need to learn how to use it and then I can quickly make the video.
Today I was doing back layouts with a "D" motion. It caused me to quarter-twist my wrong way. This, instructed by Dave , is normal and means that I am doing it correctly. It may be a builder you want to try. I figure that if then I decide to do a back full on the first half of the flip then I repeat the drill with the foot swing and it should even me out into a nice lay out position. I have not tried a back full this way yet but I will and keep you posted.
Today I was doing back layouts with a "D" motion. It caused me to quarter-twist my wrong way. This, instructed by Dave , is normal and means that I am doing it correctly. It may be a builder you want to try. I figure that if then I decide to do a back full on the first half of the flip then I repeat the drill with the foot swing and it should even me out into a nice lay out position. I have not tried a back full this way yet but I will and keep you posted.
Warm Up for Younger Kids: is there a right or wrong way?
Hey everyone, I have been asked to write up an article about the proper procedure for a warm up. Simply, there is no right or wrong answer. It comes down to what works for that specific individual and what gets the best results long term.
Specifically lets talk about younger athletes and how warm up may or may not affect their performance. You will find that a lot of people, including professionals and non professionals believe that warm up is needed. Text books will say 10-15 minute warm up is crucial for a few reasons.
- increase core temperature
-increase blood flow
-mental visualization of up coming events
- joint mobility and flexibility
- etc
The list goes on and on depending who you ask, I find these are the ones that are well known to the majority. For high level athletes most warm up and cool down for at least 15 minutes to decrease soreness and increase training adaptations. For younger children say at a gymnastics club who are recreational and comes once a week, what good does a warm up do? Does it provide benefits? If so, what ones? If not, Why not? What is the extent of the benefit? is it worth it? All these questions arise when talking about younger individuals who do not even understand the concept of training due to the fact they have not been around the world of athletics long enough.
Lets take a 5 year old kid who is in a gymnastics program once a week for an hour at the local gym club. For the sake of the article lets say this is an average kid who won't be the next Usain Bolt. He will play sports recreationally and eventually be good at one enough to make the high school team but then get a desk job at microsoft after slaving a few years through post graduate education. Bleak as it may sound, this is an average because most people do not make sports a life long journey. Very few can do sport full time with a small job on the side but inevitably most of us have to work at a job. The parent of this child wants the child to learn coordination, balance, agility, social conventions, strength, flexibility, speed, etc. We must remember that the parent is paying the money for an hour of learning and fun incorporated into a fun environment. At five years old, it has to be as fun for the parent as it is for the child. Lets face it, if the parent does not believe the child is getting anything out of it, even if the child tells the parent he or she likes it the parent won't pay money. The child can have fun in a play ground for free; they come here to learn from someone who hopefully has a good handle on the concepts of gymnastics, both mental and physical.
Now lets look at the basic warm up and compare. If you have done gymnastics then you will be familiar with this and can skim through but if not then here is how it normally works.
-5 minutes of running/jogging/walking/walking in different positions/hopping etc in a circular motion around the floor apparatus
-10 minute stretch where kids start from head and stretch all major muscle groups to the toes ( if the stretch is done properly)
** this is done as a group usually of a few different sections with 2,3,4 + coaches all participating in the warm up. The norm is 2 or 3 coaches to about 20 kids.
After this 15 minute warm up the classes split up into their rightful sections and the coaches take their 5 or 6(+-2) athletes and go to separate events. If you ask any coach out there who has ever led a warm up how many kids actually follow what you are doing then you will hear the same thing usually. Most kids do not follow or not 100% at least. There are the special kids who follow instructions perfectly but unfortunately there is a huge factor that no one can control that prevents a proper warm up from taking place with almost every young kid. PAIN. If stretching is done correctly it will not feel good. It will feel like muscles are being pulled, joints are on "fire", burning, tearing etc. All these words have been used by different people I have trained from young kids to older national level athletes. as soon as a kid feels a slight sense of non-comfortability ( if that's a word) , they will stop immediately. Out of 20 kids who are 9 and under I will have one or two who actually hold the position despite the pain. Many will fight you when you come and GENTLY persuade them to do the stretch properly.
In a 1 hour class I do not have time to sit around and force kids into positions they don't want to be in. Yes arguably stretching is good but it does not matter if you know it, it matters if they know it. Sure you can tell the kid 100 times that it is suppose to feel weird and uncomfortable but most kids are primitive. If they don't see or feel an immediate benefit then they don't want to do it. sad to say but adults are the same way. Try to tell someone to do something that they don't understand. Wont work. Yes I could sit down for 20 minutes and tell the kids about exactly why stretching is good but that does not matter to the average kid. Kids are to hedonistic to care. They want what they want and they do not care about the long term effects. Not blaming them, just stating something I have noticed. Hypothetically a one on one situation with all the kids in the warm up would yield better results because the coach can focus entirely on that one individual. Good luck doing that to 20 kids in 30 seconds. (that's how long the average stretch is held by a rec coach, not saying it is the right or wrong amount of time). even with 3 other coaches you wont have the time to get to every kid in a concise manor where learning and understanding actually takes place. So after this 15 minute warm up where the kids who want to stretch do and the majority who hate it don't then what do you have? Absolutely nothing. The kids are not more flexible because you just had 10 seconds to show them the right mechanics before the other kid needed help. The kids are now bored. More hyper probably after sitting and standing in a single spot stretching and worst of all the parent is wondering what they are paying for. But wait it gets better. So let's say you are a coach and decide stretching is crucial for their development of the child. Now you take them aside and do not go on events because the kids do not know how to stretch and time needs to be given to that. So you spend another 15 minutes going through the basics of stretching. "What if you just pick one stretch a day and go through it?" Great idea, if the child saw you more then once a week and have nothing else to focus on. Many people who work with kids understand how hard it can be to teach a child even the simplest concepts. 5 minutes out of 10,080 minutes until the next class a week later is not going to teach them much. You also have to factor in retention ability and the want to learn. In my opinion and only my opinion, I believe that that time could be spent doing many other things. Gymnastics unfortunately, at the rec level is no more then the minimum does of physical activity for the day. Majority of the kids do not take away anything that is used in their lives later on. Social abilities come from school and home. Any school of thought will tell you that everyone needs more then 1 hour of physical activity a week so the child must be getting it from somewhere else mostly. Learning comes from school. Gymnastics is just a way for kids to taste something different. I don't know about everyone else but if I am at a new restaurant with foreign food, I don't want to consult the food guide to see what is my best option. I see something or smell something I want to try and I go for it. Why would gymnastics be any different. I guess the question I am asking is, " do the kids really gain enough in 1 hour of rec gymnastics in order to try and instil training techniques at such a young age?" My answer would be no. Gym is a play park to them. How many kids stretch before going on the swing ? Make FUN the majority of what they are doing and if the kid decides that one day they really want to take their gymnastics to a new level then start incorporating flexibility and all these other boring things. Let them be kids. It wont hurt them. The child is not going to rip a tendon doing a tuck jump. Stop wasting those precious 15 minutes and let the kid play a game to warm up for 5 minutes then take them on events for 55 minutes. Let the kid actually learn to like gymnastics before you hit them with the hard facts. Us as adults don't like brutal honesty, most people want to be lulled into an uncomfortable situation rather then just be thrown into it. Let the kid be a kid and not an olympic athlete.
Many do not agree with this and that is fine. I am just stating what I find works as I mentioned earlier. One man who disagrees with me goes by the name of Chris Dal Cin who is a physiologist at Canadian Sports Center in Toronto. He explained that he would try to teach kids stretching because it instils an athletic attitude in the child for later use in a specific sport, whatever that may be. I agree and preparation is one of the prerequisites for becoming a good athlete. But is 5-9 yrs to early? Many eastern block countries such as Japan do not let the children specialize until about 14 years old. This could be because it enables the child to get a good grip on the basic strength and conditioning principals before picking a sport to specialize. This allows an easier learning curve instead of information overload. Felicia, my co coach at Halton Hills explained this to me and I understand how that makes sense. Introducing so much to someone so quick usually results in a large percentage of the information to leak out. What the eastern countries do really coincides with what I am saying about not focusing on stretching so much. Allow the child to grow a bit have some fun and when that child a long with the parents decide it's time to move up, then introduce the harsh realities of the sport. Let the kids be kids for now.
:)
Specifically lets talk about younger athletes and how warm up may or may not affect their performance. You will find that a lot of people, including professionals and non professionals believe that warm up is needed. Text books will say 10-15 minute warm up is crucial for a few reasons.
- increase core temperature
-increase blood flow
-mental visualization of up coming events
- joint mobility and flexibility
- etc
The list goes on and on depending who you ask, I find these are the ones that are well known to the majority. For high level athletes most warm up and cool down for at least 15 minutes to decrease soreness and increase training adaptations. For younger children say at a gymnastics club who are recreational and comes once a week, what good does a warm up do? Does it provide benefits? If so, what ones? If not, Why not? What is the extent of the benefit? is it worth it? All these questions arise when talking about younger individuals who do not even understand the concept of training due to the fact they have not been around the world of athletics long enough.
Lets take a 5 year old kid who is in a gymnastics program once a week for an hour at the local gym club. For the sake of the article lets say this is an average kid who won't be the next Usain Bolt. He will play sports recreationally and eventually be good at one enough to make the high school team but then get a desk job at microsoft after slaving a few years through post graduate education. Bleak as it may sound, this is an average because most people do not make sports a life long journey. Very few can do sport full time with a small job on the side but inevitably most of us have to work at a job. The parent of this child wants the child to learn coordination, balance, agility, social conventions, strength, flexibility, speed, etc. We must remember that the parent is paying the money for an hour of learning and fun incorporated into a fun environment. At five years old, it has to be as fun for the parent as it is for the child. Lets face it, if the parent does not believe the child is getting anything out of it, even if the child tells the parent he or she likes it the parent won't pay money. The child can have fun in a play ground for free; they come here to learn from someone who hopefully has a good handle on the concepts of gymnastics, both mental and physical.
Now lets look at the basic warm up and compare. If you have done gymnastics then you will be familiar with this and can skim through but if not then here is how it normally works.
-5 minutes of running/jogging/walking/walking in different positions/hopping etc in a circular motion around the floor apparatus
-10 minute stretch where kids start from head and stretch all major muscle groups to the toes ( if the stretch is done properly)
** this is done as a group usually of a few different sections with 2,3,4 + coaches all participating in the warm up. The norm is 2 or 3 coaches to about 20 kids.
After this 15 minute warm up the classes split up into their rightful sections and the coaches take their 5 or 6(+-2) athletes and go to separate events. If you ask any coach out there who has ever led a warm up how many kids actually follow what you are doing then you will hear the same thing usually. Most kids do not follow or not 100% at least. There are the special kids who follow instructions perfectly but unfortunately there is a huge factor that no one can control that prevents a proper warm up from taking place with almost every young kid. PAIN. If stretching is done correctly it will not feel good. It will feel like muscles are being pulled, joints are on "fire", burning, tearing etc. All these words have been used by different people I have trained from young kids to older national level athletes. as soon as a kid feels a slight sense of non-comfortability ( if that's a word) , they will stop immediately. Out of 20 kids who are 9 and under I will have one or two who actually hold the position despite the pain. Many will fight you when you come and GENTLY persuade them to do the stretch properly.
In a 1 hour class I do not have time to sit around and force kids into positions they don't want to be in. Yes arguably stretching is good but it does not matter if you know it, it matters if they know it. Sure you can tell the kid 100 times that it is suppose to feel weird and uncomfortable but most kids are primitive. If they don't see or feel an immediate benefit then they don't want to do it. sad to say but adults are the same way. Try to tell someone to do something that they don't understand. Wont work. Yes I could sit down for 20 minutes and tell the kids about exactly why stretching is good but that does not matter to the average kid. Kids are to hedonistic to care. They want what they want and they do not care about the long term effects. Not blaming them, just stating something I have noticed. Hypothetically a one on one situation with all the kids in the warm up would yield better results because the coach can focus entirely on that one individual. Good luck doing that to 20 kids in 30 seconds. (that's how long the average stretch is held by a rec coach, not saying it is the right or wrong amount of time). even with 3 other coaches you wont have the time to get to every kid in a concise manor where learning and understanding actually takes place. So after this 15 minute warm up where the kids who want to stretch do and the majority who hate it don't then what do you have? Absolutely nothing. The kids are not more flexible because you just had 10 seconds to show them the right mechanics before the other kid needed help. The kids are now bored. More hyper probably after sitting and standing in a single spot stretching and worst of all the parent is wondering what they are paying for. But wait it gets better. So let's say you are a coach and decide stretching is crucial for their development of the child. Now you take them aside and do not go on events because the kids do not know how to stretch and time needs to be given to that. So you spend another 15 minutes going through the basics of stretching. "What if you just pick one stretch a day and go through it?" Great idea, if the child saw you more then once a week and have nothing else to focus on. Many people who work with kids understand how hard it can be to teach a child even the simplest concepts. 5 minutes out of 10,080 minutes until the next class a week later is not going to teach them much. You also have to factor in retention ability and the want to learn. In my opinion and only my opinion, I believe that that time could be spent doing many other things. Gymnastics unfortunately, at the rec level is no more then the minimum does of physical activity for the day. Majority of the kids do not take away anything that is used in their lives later on. Social abilities come from school and home. Any school of thought will tell you that everyone needs more then 1 hour of physical activity a week so the child must be getting it from somewhere else mostly. Learning comes from school. Gymnastics is just a way for kids to taste something different. I don't know about everyone else but if I am at a new restaurant with foreign food, I don't want to consult the food guide to see what is my best option. I see something or smell something I want to try and I go for it. Why would gymnastics be any different. I guess the question I am asking is, " do the kids really gain enough in 1 hour of rec gymnastics in order to try and instil training techniques at such a young age?" My answer would be no. Gym is a play park to them. How many kids stretch before going on the swing ? Make FUN the majority of what they are doing and if the kid decides that one day they really want to take their gymnastics to a new level then start incorporating flexibility and all these other boring things. Let them be kids. It wont hurt them. The child is not going to rip a tendon doing a tuck jump. Stop wasting those precious 15 minutes and let the kid play a game to warm up for 5 minutes then take them on events for 55 minutes. Let the kid actually learn to like gymnastics before you hit them with the hard facts. Us as adults don't like brutal honesty, most people want to be lulled into an uncomfortable situation rather then just be thrown into it. Let the kid be a kid and not an olympic athlete.
Many do not agree with this and that is fine. I am just stating what I find works as I mentioned earlier. One man who disagrees with me goes by the name of Chris Dal Cin who is a physiologist at Canadian Sports Center in Toronto. He explained that he would try to teach kids stretching because it instils an athletic attitude in the child for later use in a specific sport, whatever that may be. I agree and preparation is one of the prerequisites for becoming a good athlete. But is 5-9 yrs to early? Many eastern block countries such as Japan do not let the children specialize until about 14 years old. This could be because it enables the child to get a good grip on the basic strength and conditioning principals before picking a sport to specialize. This allows an easier learning curve instead of information overload. Felicia, my co coach at Halton Hills explained this to me and I understand how that makes sense. Introducing so much to someone so quick usually results in a large percentage of the information to leak out. What the eastern countries do really coincides with what I am saying about not focusing on stretching so much. Allow the child to grow a bit have some fun and when that child a long with the parents decide it's time to move up, then introduce the harsh realities of the sport. Let the kids be kids for now.
:)
Saturday, 10 March 2012
A crazy thought
Hey everyone, i was just fiddling around on youtube and found a video that was very interesting. It speaks about how everything we perceive is really just the connections we humans make in our brains. It is very interesting and raises thought experiments such as:
Humans call internal body as a distinct difference from the external world. But in reality the difference is the width of 1 cell. If that one cell is really the only difference and the human body is millions of cells wide, why is it crazy to believe that humans can not interact on a molecular level with what we call the external world? Its just once cell over.
BTW this video also illustrated the extent of my thesis to a realistic view.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbh5l0b2-0o - Athene's Theory of Everything
Check it out
Humans call internal body as a distinct difference from the external world. But in reality the difference is the width of 1 cell. If that one cell is really the only difference and the human body is millions of cells wide, why is it crazy to believe that humans can not interact on a molecular level with what we call the external world? Its just once cell over.
BTW this video also illustrated the extent of my thesis to a realistic view.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbh5l0b2-0o - Athene's Theory of Everything
Check it out
Attitude During Training : drop the soap
Hey Guys,
Lets face it, Sports are not easy, nothing in life worth getting is. I believe that attitude is the most important part of a persons sporting career. Any joe shmoe can land a trick a few times and feel invincible. How many can land on their head 10 times the exact same way with no idea how to fix it but yet still manage to muster up the courage to keep going especially with no discernible light at the end of the tunnel ? I find it takes a different type of athlete to do that and I hate to say it but the majority of athletes, within trampoline, I see are drama queens. Maybe its a sense of superiority. Many athletes I communicate with seem to have an air of accomplishment by just being able to say they train gymnastics. I have seen it become more of a competition to the outside world rather then a respectable show down of hard work of opposing athletes within the confines of a gymnastics club. I find this attitude tends to come from the athletes who have been given special standings compared to other athletes. Yes I am talking about "rising stars". How do you really expect much else if an entire sporting nation labels you as higher up on the latter then the regular stream , non- high performance, categories?. I have to be honest, attitudes of the majority of athletes is going down hill. Athletes are getting lazier, giving up to early, and use the sport as a way to increase their perceived self value in comparison to other athletes or non athletes.
It is understandable to many degrees. My coaches would tell me about times that they set up every piece of equipment before training and then having to tear down. We now do not have to go through this thankfully. gymnastics is also getting easier in a sense due to the constant changing of equipment for better spring and easier landings etc, trying to make the athletes job easier. I understand that injuries are very prone in gymnastics and any little difference may make the sport more enjoyable. Are we doing irreversible damage by catering to the athletes however? Other coaches have agreed with me in the idea that athletes back in the 80's and 90's trained much harder then the athletes of today.More was expected and the slow but steady decline in hard work is gradually increasing. I myself fall victim to its grasp and find that I could always put in more effort, but for some reason I would rather go out with some friends. What causes this laziness? Is it coaching styles? Do we need to start beating athletes again? Is it evolution and genetically humans are getting lazier? Who knows, but what I have done to try and combat this problem is one major thing. I treat the athlete like a co worker. You come in and are expected to do certain tasks before you leave. You do not go home until they are complete. I see too many coaches give in to the athletes whimpers of pain after getting tramp burn or crunching an ankle after a sloppy double back on floor. I tell you before you start what I expect, I wait for a nod or comment leading me to believe you agree with the set parameters and you go on your way. If you need help, spot, a matt, emotional guidance, fine, but I do not allow the athlete to move on until he or she gets done what needs to be done. I explain exactly why they are doing what they are doing and how to be able to accomplish what I have asked from them. If the athlete gets hurt by failing to follow instructions I simply reiterate the instructions. I dont allow for excuses or changes of the task. Finish what you start no matter what. I find I get resistance from the start but after a while and some compromising, the athlete soon learns what I am trying to teach. They can develop the hard working attitude if forced upon them but in a manor that both parties can understand. The athlete will not learn the attitude if they do not see a reason for it. Most athletes understand what the attitude needs to be like but the laziness factor over rides. If the athlete sees a way to get out of work then a lot of the time they will take it. If you as a coach are constantly thinking about how every little decision will change their perception of what it means to be an athlete then you are on the right track to creating a mentally sound athlete, which arguably is better then a talented, lazy athlete.
I have had athletes literally cry when I tell them to go get a beat board. I kicked that athlete out because she was too lazy to be a gymnast. I told her to go to recreational. She got upset, cried to her mommy and daddy but then what do you know, she ended up back at the front door of the gym looking sheepish asking to come back and promised to work hard. She told me that after a rec class she saw the attitude that I was trying to fix in her, that was evident in every kid in her class. Simply she finally understood that it is not skill that seperates recreational from professional, its attitude. Skills come after the attitude is in place.
With that being said, I have coached many athletes that have a great attitude and follow instructions, ask questions, are motivated by learning rather than parental influence and those athletes have excelled. The top 10% of athletes is my goal for all athletes. I find that many coaches admit that one kid just cant learn and they give up. Simply the coach will just wait it out till the athlete quits and then blame the athlete. It takes two to tango. Any physical or mental issue can be worked on and fixed, or at least improved. And lets face it , some athletes just do not have it in them to become the best but I believe if they want it enough they can learn that state of mind. If an athlete truly wants to learn then they will, one way or another. I find that incentive to train extra, give up sleep, to fix the issues and make your world revolve around a sport has deteriorated greatly. I blame the economy. Everyone is forced to believe that easier is better. Every new piece of electronic equipment or house hold utility is made to be easier to use every time a new model comes out. Great, we can get out stains that could not have been removed 20 years earlier. But now people think that there is always something that will do the hard work for them. There is no incentive to not spill because you know all you have to do it go downstairs and grab a super powerful soap and it will get rid of YOUR mess. Why can't people learn to not make a mess in the first place? Why cant athletes develop stronger bodies, rather then make the equipment easier? Why cant athletes see that there is no magic soap that will given them a gold medal at worlds? Well when people grow up with the soap in their face all day long its hard to not believe it. So coaches, please think about what you are doing. ask yourself questions like, " will this make them stronger long term or weaker long term?" . Everything is about a long term goal, not a short term goal. I find that coaches think the same way as the athlete and that also causes a lazy attitude.I fully admit to this as well and am trying to slow down and remember that accomplishments do not happen in a quick time span. I will make my training harder and my athletes training harder on purpose when there is a clear and obvious easier way of accomplishing the same thing. I will also make sure I scare the kids. I need to see that they do not hold back because of fear. I will put a hard beam in the middle of the trampoline and make the athlete do crash dives on the one half of the trampoline. That athlete better not travel or they are not going to feel good smoking their head on a beam. A lot of coaches probably don't like this idea but in 5 minutes she learned crash dove and has not shot forward since. If you give people the option to make mistakes then they will. Try to force the athlete to have to do it perfect every time so that it becomes instilled into their head. Coaches you are responsible for your athletes attitude. They learn from their surroundings, so please keep this in mind when you allow your athlete to go home because of a bump on the arm. Thanks ,
:)
Lets face it, Sports are not easy, nothing in life worth getting is. I believe that attitude is the most important part of a persons sporting career. Any joe shmoe can land a trick a few times and feel invincible. How many can land on their head 10 times the exact same way with no idea how to fix it but yet still manage to muster up the courage to keep going especially with no discernible light at the end of the tunnel ? I find it takes a different type of athlete to do that and I hate to say it but the majority of athletes, within trampoline, I see are drama queens. Maybe its a sense of superiority. Many athletes I communicate with seem to have an air of accomplishment by just being able to say they train gymnastics. I have seen it become more of a competition to the outside world rather then a respectable show down of hard work of opposing athletes within the confines of a gymnastics club. I find this attitude tends to come from the athletes who have been given special standings compared to other athletes. Yes I am talking about "rising stars". How do you really expect much else if an entire sporting nation labels you as higher up on the latter then the regular stream , non- high performance, categories?. I have to be honest, attitudes of the majority of athletes is going down hill. Athletes are getting lazier, giving up to early, and use the sport as a way to increase their perceived self value in comparison to other athletes or non athletes.
It is understandable to many degrees. My coaches would tell me about times that they set up every piece of equipment before training and then having to tear down. We now do not have to go through this thankfully. gymnastics is also getting easier in a sense due to the constant changing of equipment for better spring and easier landings etc, trying to make the athletes job easier. I understand that injuries are very prone in gymnastics and any little difference may make the sport more enjoyable. Are we doing irreversible damage by catering to the athletes however? Other coaches have agreed with me in the idea that athletes back in the 80's and 90's trained much harder then the athletes of today.More was expected and the slow but steady decline in hard work is gradually increasing. I myself fall victim to its grasp and find that I could always put in more effort, but for some reason I would rather go out with some friends. What causes this laziness? Is it coaching styles? Do we need to start beating athletes again? Is it evolution and genetically humans are getting lazier? Who knows, but what I have done to try and combat this problem is one major thing. I treat the athlete like a co worker. You come in and are expected to do certain tasks before you leave. You do not go home until they are complete. I see too many coaches give in to the athletes whimpers of pain after getting tramp burn or crunching an ankle after a sloppy double back on floor. I tell you before you start what I expect, I wait for a nod or comment leading me to believe you agree with the set parameters and you go on your way. If you need help, spot, a matt, emotional guidance, fine, but I do not allow the athlete to move on until he or she gets done what needs to be done. I explain exactly why they are doing what they are doing and how to be able to accomplish what I have asked from them. If the athlete gets hurt by failing to follow instructions I simply reiterate the instructions. I dont allow for excuses or changes of the task. Finish what you start no matter what. I find I get resistance from the start but after a while and some compromising, the athlete soon learns what I am trying to teach. They can develop the hard working attitude if forced upon them but in a manor that both parties can understand. The athlete will not learn the attitude if they do not see a reason for it. Most athletes understand what the attitude needs to be like but the laziness factor over rides. If the athlete sees a way to get out of work then a lot of the time they will take it. If you as a coach are constantly thinking about how every little decision will change their perception of what it means to be an athlete then you are on the right track to creating a mentally sound athlete, which arguably is better then a talented, lazy athlete.
I have had athletes literally cry when I tell them to go get a beat board. I kicked that athlete out because she was too lazy to be a gymnast. I told her to go to recreational. She got upset, cried to her mommy and daddy but then what do you know, she ended up back at the front door of the gym looking sheepish asking to come back and promised to work hard. She told me that after a rec class she saw the attitude that I was trying to fix in her, that was evident in every kid in her class. Simply she finally understood that it is not skill that seperates recreational from professional, its attitude. Skills come after the attitude is in place.
With that being said, I have coached many athletes that have a great attitude and follow instructions, ask questions, are motivated by learning rather than parental influence and those athletes have excelled. The top 10% of athletes is my goal for all athletes. I find that many coaches admit that one kid just cant learn and they give up. Simply the coach will just wait it out till the athlete quits and then blame the athlete. It takes two to tango. Any physical or mental issue can be worked on and fixed, or at least improved. And lets face it , some athletes just do not have it in them to become the best but I believe if they want it enough they can learn that state of mind. If an athlete truly wants to learn then they will, one way or another. I find that incentive to train extra, give up sleep, to fix the issues and make your world revolve around a sport has deteriorated greatly. I blame the economy. Everyone is forced to believe that easier is better. Every new piece of electronic equipment or house hold utility is made to be easier to use every time a new model comes out. Great, we can get out stains that could not have been removed 20 years earlier. But now people think that there is always something that will do the hard work for them. There is no incentive to not spill because you know all you have to do it go downstairs and grab a super powerful soap and it will get rid of YOUR mess. Why can't people learn to not make a mess in the first place? Why cant athletes develop stronger bodies, rather then make the equipment easier? Why cant athletes see that there is no magic soap that will given them a gold medal at worlds? Well when people grow up with the soap in their face all day long its hard to not believe it. So coaches, please think about what you are doing. ask yourself questions like, " will this make them stronger long term or weaker long term?" . Everything is about a long term goal, not a short term goal. I find that coaches think the same way as the athlete and that also causes a lazy attitude.I fully admit to this as well and am trying to slow down and remember that accomplishments do not happen in a quick time span. I will make my training harder and my athletes training harder on purpose when there is a clear and obvious easier way of accomplishing the same thing. I will also make sure I scare the kids. I need to see that they do not hold back because of fear. I will put a hard beam in the middle of the trampoline and make the athlete do crash dives on the one half of the trampoline. That athlete better not travel or they are not going to feel good smoking their head on a beam. A lot of coaches probably don't like this idea but in 5 minutes she learned crash dove and has not shot forward since. If you give people the option to make mistakes then they will. Try to force the athlete to have to do it perfect every time so that it becomes instilled into their head. Coaches you are responsible for your athletes attitude. They learn from their surroundings, so please keep this in mind when you allow your athlete to go home because of a bump on the arm. Thanks ,
:)
Thursday, 8 March 2012
Physiological Effects of Trampoline
Trampoline has gone through it's fair share of rumours pertaining the the safety and the perceived positive effects of bouncing up and down. The big one being obviously that everyone scared to land on their head. But are there other good things about trampoline besides the exhilaration of the experience that can potentially over ride a few small risks?
1) Weight loss/ Cardio: DUUHHHHHHHH!!! Most people forget that trampoline is exercise just like running or elliptical or any cardio based movement. Yes, you will not lose as much weight as you would when doing a 30 minute High Intensity Interval Training session ( HIIT). If you are interested in learning more about HIIT please leave a comment and I will write another article. Most would be very surprised to discover how hard trampoline can be once you bounce for 15 minutes straight. I have seen 240 lbs guys who can bench and squat double their body weight who have had to fly off and rest for 20 minutes because of a cramp they have gotten after 5 minutes of bouncing. They were only doing seat drops and back drops. To get a little more technical there is an increase in capillerization ( formation of new capillaries) that allows blood flow to reach muscles quicker by taking shorter paths. It would be an interesting study to see what means of training increases cardio the most. I may be inclined to believe that trampoline would be better for cardio then traditional methods due tot he fact all muscles need to be squeezed during trampoline so that you don't fold in half. This causes a higher recruitment of muscles which causes a higher demand for oxygen rather then the normal amount needed for walking or jogging. Not to say muscles are not activated during running but it is not to the same degree because there is a lot less flight time. ie, less gravity to fight against. The body will have to make up for this extra utilization of oxygen by increase heart rate initially. Then the body realizes that that is too hard to maintain so it brings down the heart rate by increasing the amount of blood actually pumped our per beat. That is when you get the lower resting HR because the more blood being pushed out causes more preload ( end diastolic volume) which causes an actual stretch reflex within the heart which increases the amount of blood being pushed out passively. The body thinks this is awesome because it wants to work less and less so it will keep trying to increase the amount of blood ( ie, oxygen carrying cells) pumped with less effort. This has been shown to go to rediculus levels. For example the average resting heart rate ( BPM) is 72. An average athlete is 50-60. That is where I fall under ( 56+- 3). Then you have the VO2 max records of about 80+ ml/kg/min who have a resting HR of under 35. Ie Lance Arm strong. Enzymes are also creased when cardio is increased. The body breaks down Carbs, Fats, and Protein. The main energy source for cardio is Fat followed by CHO then protein is the last choice. Protein is only used after all the other substrates are used up. This is seen when athletes " hit the wall". The body wants to use oxygen as a fuel source because it is the easiest way for the body to make ATP ( the bodies main source of energy). It can do it in other ways but the largest amount of energy can be made this way. Unfortunately it can not be maintained. It takes longer to make energy from fats because you have to move the fats out of the storage deposits in the body before they can be used. Simply the fats are broken down into specific parts and these parts mix with other molecules in the oxidative metabolism pathways and creates energy. The body uses mostly oxidative pathways jsut to bounce on a trampoline so these fats that are broken down need the be moved and attached to other molecules such as acetyl COA which si the precursor to the Kreb cycle. Don't worry Ill put links. All of this changing and transportation of fats uses other transporters and enzymes. These enzymes increase in numbers when the stress builds up. The more cardio you do the more enzymes get made to counteract the new stress. Your muscle fibers also change. Please read my article on muscle fibers if you have not already. It will explain in detail what happens with exercise.
2) Spatial Awareness: Spatial awareness come from three semi circular canals within the ear. These have fluid inside of them and based on the movement of the fluids that sends a signal to the brain saying that you are facing a certain way. If you are up side down the fluids go upside down. This causes a signal tot he brain saying "HEY im upside down, yippie" . If the signal builds up and the brain literally overloads on the signal then dizziness occurs, head aches, nausea sometimes vomiting. Then the person has to rest and gain control over the fluids before resuming. After a while of flipping and twisting the body learned to control this signal and it becomes weaker so more signals can be tolerated and therefore you can be upside down longer before you feel dizzy, you also recover faster.
3) Joint stability: A lot of people have lax joints and don't even know it. There is a degree of anatomical variability that goes with this but a large portion of people with lax joints only have them selves to blame. For example flat footed people are not different then anyone else, they just don't use their muscles on the medial side of their leg like the flexor digitorum longus or their arch muscles on the bottom of the foot that cause the arch. This could be for many different reasons but that is not the point of this article. People witch lax joints need to tighten up the joints and exercise is one of the main ways of doing this. If a person has hyper extended knees then they need to bounce with legs slightly bent. For a normal person they will look straight but the person bouncing will know that their legs feel bent because they are normally hyper extending. Just thinking about this while you bounce will start to tighten up the knees. I have worked with many people who have this problem and they have over come in by simply remembering to bend their knees while standing and jumping and you can see a difference in their posture now. trampoline will help tighten your joints as part of a negative feedback system in the body. "uhoh joints being stressed, lets tighten them up so this body does not get hurt" - your body.
4) Coordination: Goes with spatial awarness but being able to move your body in weird ways does have its benefits and until you are put in a situation where you can look back and say " wow I am glad I could do that", you wont understand what I mean. Most people can comprehend this idea however. The body has to be balanced in trampoline at all times which is a lot easier said then done. This is caused by signals in the brain turning on and off muscles at certain times to keep your center of gravity stable. This takes practice but can easily be applied to off trampoline situations. Many times I have felt like falling but remembered my training and either chose the best way to fall so I don;t get hurt or I can actually prevent the fall all together. Once the body is trained to send signals very quickly and in just the right amounts then balance can be achieved. Most of the population walk around with big uncontrolled movement and a acute muscle contractions are forgotten about because lets face it, when do you really need to balance in life? Not really often. walking is a fall/ break motion, not really balancing to a high degree. Sure balance is a part of every movement we do but trampoline will help increase the awareness of your balance and teach the body how to control every little movement to a higher degree.
5) Neurogenesis: MY thesis:) Neurons grow in the brain based on the stimulus from the external world. If we learn new things or at least try neurogenesis increases and causes us to learn. Trampoline is a new stimulus for the brain for those who have never tried. Some studies as discussed in my thesis show that people actually get smarter in other areas of their life when exercise is included in their daily routine. The same way muscles grow when stressed, the brain does the same thing to a certain degree.
6) Toughen up the mind: To many young children and even older adults are simply to scared to live life to the fullest extent. This is a whole philosophical debate but I wont talk about that now. However I will say that if you are scared to get hurt then their are few sports open to you. Trampoline and gymnastics are great at teaching people to fall and go again. I do not like to see a person say " its to hard, i cant do it, what if i get hurt" Trampoline is a sport where everyone lands on their head sometimes. If you can get hurt and say " I want to do this again until I get it" then you have the right state of mind for trampoline and gymnastics. Some don't believe me but this attitude will get you far out side of the gym. It is this determination that causes people to fail a task but to keep going and eventually succeed and become the best or one of the best at their goal. Cant quit in life, so if you quit in gym or trampoline I find it is a direct correlation to your personal strive for success in your career. I will make an article on this specially for the younger athletes because it is an issue.
7) Independence: When you are on a trampoline, no one else is there to help you. Yes a coach may spot or throw in a matt but ultimately if you screw up it is your fault. This idea teaches kids to take responsibility for their actions. They understand, that THEY are the ones who did not perform the skill correct and learn to not blame other influences. This as in (6) can be taken to the outside world as well.
All these benefits of trampoline sound great but of course there is the possibility of getting hurt. How ever this is only accomplished when the individual fails to do many things.
- proper set up of equipment including matts and and analysing surroundings
- being mentally ready for the skill
-being influenced to try something that they are not ready for just to look cool
- not be physically ready
- not be technically ready
- not being focused.
All these factors influence a possibility of an injury. If this check list is marked off then an injury should not occur. Sometimes coaches push to fast ad sometimes athletes push to fast. I will say that I have never seen an injury from someone who has not been doing one of the above fallacies. Keep it safe and trampoline can give you many rewards besides a gold medal.
Links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfgCcFXUZRk&list=PLED4A129E7F0F78D7&index=14&feature=plpp_video - Electron Transport Chain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juM2ROSLWfw&feature=relmfu kreb cycle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipolysis - how fats are broken down
1) Weight loss/ Cardio: DUUHHHHHHHH!!! Most people forget that trampoline is exercise just like running or elliptical or any cardio based movement. Yes, you will not lose as much weight as you would when doing a 30 minute High Intensity Interval Training session ( HIIT). If you are interested in learning more about HIIT please leave a comment and I will write another article. Most would be very surprised to discover how hard trampoline can be once you bounce for 15 minutes straight. I have seen 240 lbs guys who can bench and squat double their body weight who have had to fly off and rest for 20 minutes because of a cramp they have gotten after 5 minutes of bouncing. They were only doing seat drops and back drops. To get a little more technical there is an increase in capillerization ( formation of new capillaries) that allows blood flow to reach muscles quicker by taking shorter paths. It would be an interesting study to see what means of training increases cardio the most. I may be inclined to believe that trampoline would be better for cardio then traditional methods due tot he fact all muscles need to be squeezed during trampoline so that you don't fold in half. This causes a higher recruitment of muscles which causes a higher demand for oxygen rather then the normal amount needed for walking or jogging. Not to say muscles are not activated during running but it is not to the same degree because there is a lot less flight time. ie, less gravity to fight against. The body will have to make up for this extra utilization of oxygen by increase heart rate initially. Then the body realizes that that is too hard to maintain so it brings down the heart rate by increasing the amount of blood actually pumped our per beat. That is when you get the lower resting HR because the more blood being pushed out causes more preload ( end diastolic volume) which causes an actual stretch reflex within the heart which increases the amount of blood being pushed out passively. The body thinks this is awesome because it wants to work less and less so it will keep trying to increase the amount of blood ( ie, oxygen carrying cells) pumped with less effort. This has been shown to go to rediculus levels. For example the average resting heart rate ( BPM) is 72. An average athlete is 50-60. That is where I fall under ( 56+- 3). Then you have the VO2 max records of about 80+ ml/kg/min who have a resting HR of under 35. Ie Lance Arm strong. Enzymes are also creased when cardio is increased. The body breaks down Carbs, Fats, and Protein. The main energy source for cardio is Fat followed by CHO then protein is the last choice. Protein is only used after all the other substrates are used up. This is seen when athletes " hit the wall". The body wants to use oxygen as a fuel source because it is the easiest way for the body to make ATP ( the bodies main source of energy). It can do it in other ways but the largest amount of energy can be made this way. Unfortunately it can not be maintained. It takes longer to make energy from fats because you have to move the fats out of the storage deposits in the body before they can be used. Simply the fats are broken down into specific parts and these parts mix with other molecules in the oxidative metabolism pathways and creates energy. The body uses mostly oxidative pathways jsut to bounce on a trampoline so these fats that are broken down need the be moved and attached to other molecules such as acetyl COA which si the precursor to the Kreb cycle. Don't worry Ill put links. All of this changing and transportation of fats uses other transporters and enzymes. These enzymes increase in numbers when the stress builds up. The more cardio you do the more enzymes get made to counteract the new stress. Your muscle fibers also change. Please read my article on muscle fibers if you have not already. It will explain in detail what happens with exercise.
2) Spatial Awareness: Spatial awareness come from three semi circular canals within the ear. These have fluid inside of them and based on the movement of the fluids that sends a signal to the brain saying that you are facing a certain way. If you are up side down the fluids go upside down. This causes a signal tot he brain saying "HEY im upside down, yippie" . If the signal builds up and the brain literally overloads on the signal then dizziness occurs, head aches, nausea sometimes vomiting. Then the person has to rest and gain control over the fluids before resuming. After a while of flipping and twisting the body learned to control this signal and it becomes weaker so more signals can be tolerated and therefore you can be upside down longer before you feel dizzy, you also recover faster.
3) Joint stability: A lot of people have lax joints and don't even know it. There is a degree of anatomical variability that goes with this but a large portion of people with lax joints only have them selves to blame. For example flat footed people are not different then anyone else, they just don't use their muscles on the medial side of their leg like the flexor digitorum longus or their arch muscles on the bottom of the foot that cause the arch. This could be for many different reasons but that is not the point of this article. People witch lax joints need to tighten up the joints and exercise is one of the main ways of doing this. If a person has hyper extended knees then they need to bounce with legs slightly bent. For a normal person they will look straight but the person bouncing will know that their legs feel bent because they are normally hyper extending. Just thinking about this while you bounce will start to tighten up the knees. I have worked with many people who have this problem and they have over come in by simply remembering to bend their knees while standing and jumping and you can see a difference in their posture now. trampoline will help tighten your joints as part of a negative feedback system in the body. "uhoh joints being stressed, lets tighten them up so this body does not get hurt" - your body.
4) Coordination: Goes with spatial awarness but being able to move your body in weird ways does have its benefits and until you are put in a situation where you can look back and say " wow I am glad I could do that", you wont understand what I mean. Most people can comprehend this idea however. The body has to be balanced in trampoline at all times which is a lot easier said then done. This is caused by signals in the brain turning on and off muscles at certain times to keep your center of gravity stable. This takes practice but can easily be applied to off trampoline situations. Many times I have felt like falling but remembered my training and either chose the best way to fall so I don;t get hurt or I can actually prevent the fall all together. Once the body is trained to send signals very quickly and in just the right amounts then balance can be achieved. Most of the population walk around with big uncontrolled movement and a acute muscle contractions are forgotten about because lets face it, when do you really need to balance in life? Not really often. walking is a fall/ break motion, not really balancing to a high degree. Sure balance is a part of every movement we do but trampoline will help increase the awareness of your balance and teach the body how to control every little movement to a higher degree.
5) Neurogenesis: MY thesis:) Neurons grow in the brain based on the stimulus from the external world. If we learn new things or at least try neurogenesis increases and causes us to learn. Trampoline is a new stimulus for the brain for those who have never tried. Some studies as discussed in my thesis show that people actually get smarter in other areas of their life when exercise is included in their daily routine. The same way muscles grow when stressed, the brain does the same thing to a certain degree.
6) Toughen up the mind: To many young children and even older adults are simply to scared to live life to the fullest extent. This is a whole philosophical debate but I wont talk about that now. However I will say that if you are scared to get hurt then their are few sports open to you. Trampoline and gymnastics are great at teaching people to fall and go again. I do not like to see a person say " its to hard, i cant do it, what if i get hurt" Trampoline is a sport where everyone lands on their head sometimes. If you can get hurt and say " I want to do this again until I get it" then you have the right state of mind for trampoline and gymnastics. Some don't believe me but this attitude will get you far out side of the gym. It is this determination that causes people to fail a task but to keep going and eventually succeed and become the best or one of the best at their goal. Cant quit in life, so if you quit in gym or trampoline I find it is a direct correlation to your personal strive for success in your career. I will make an article on this specially for the younger athletes because it is an issue.
7) Independence: When you are on a trampoline, no one else is there to help you. Yes a coach may spot or throw in a matt but ultimately if you screw up it is your fault. This idea teaches kids to take responsibility for their actions. They understand, that THEY are the ones who did not perform the skill correct and learn to not blame other influences. This as in (6) can be taken to the outside world as well.
All these benefits of trampoline sound great but of course there is the possibility of getting hurt. How ever this is only accomplished when the individual fails to do many things.
- proper set up of equipment including matts and and analysing surroundings
- being mentally ready for the skill
-being influenced to try something that they are not ready for just to look cool
- not be physically ready
- not be technically ready
- not being focused.
All these factors influence a possibility of an injury. If this check list is marked off then an injury should not occur. Sometimes coaches push to fast ad sometimes athletes push to fast. I will say that I have never seen an injury from someone who has not been doing one of the above fallacies. Keep it safe and trampoline can give you many rewards besides a gold medal.
Links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfgCcFXUZRk&list=PLED4A129E7F0F78D7&index=14&feature=plpp_video - Electron Transport Chain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juM2ROSLWfw&feature=relmfu kreb cycle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipolysis - how fats are broken down
Counter Twisting: an Update
Hey guys, for those who are interested I have been working on the "D" and have gotten closer to understanding how it works. The "D" has to go from a straight body to an arch at the end of the skill rather then pike to an arch because It will look like a floppy fish in the air if too much movement is noticed. Dave Ross also said that you can not do a contact twist into a skill that is going to use the "D". Two different types of twisting that can not be overlapped. So if you are trying back full and you really dont seem to get it try twisting later into the full after a quarter flip int he layout position with no twist.
I do find that It helps on Biranis now and have gotten comfortable with them. I feel like its a quick jerk in the air then the "D" then i float as if I did a back layout from the start of the skill. Back full is improving and I understand it more but I need a lot more practice. I have come to understand the actual technique so that is a huge step in the right direction. Rudy still elude me but I figure with time that will come and if I can get up to randy's and triple fulls with no arm flail then that means I have truly gotten the hang of it. It can be very fustrating doing biranis and back fulls for an hour but A few people around the gym have commented on the look of the skill with the "D". I must be on the right track if anything.
:)
I do find that It helps on Biranis now and have gotten comfortable with them. I feel like its a quick jerk in the air then the "D" then i float as if I did a back layout from the start of the skill. Back full is improving and I understand it more but I need a lot more practice. I have come to understand the actual technique so that is a huge step in the right direction. Rudy still elude me but I figure with time that will come and if I can get up to randy's and triple fulls with no arm flail then that means I have truly gotten the hang of it. It can be very fustrating doing biranis and back fulls for an hour but A few people around the gym have commented on the look of the skill with the "D". I must be on the right track if anything.
:)
Tuesday, 6 March 2012
Trampoline: Essential of the Basics
Hey everyone,
I have been getting upset over certain coaching I have seen that simply does not make sense. Before I continue I should note that these are my opinions based on my own experiences and not to be taken as an insult if these opinions do not coincide with your coaching philosophies. I just want to bring up some points to think about.
First of all I wrote an article about the importance of conditioning with all athletes ( Preventing Injuries in Sports). As mentioned in that article I force my athletes to condition half an hour a day. Once they are at a level of conditioning that makes me feel that they are not being held back by it in their sport specific side ( ie. trampoline) then i relax on conditioning and focus on other areas of development. It is a variable periodization technique that is determined by the athletes success, not the schedule of their competition season. I have had a few athletes now work hard and improve their flexibility and instead of having to take 10-15 minutes out of training every day to improve it I allow them to work on specific trampoline skills which they love. I believe this is a good way to motivate athletes to get the right work done instead of blindly telling them to stretch. I remember in my gymnastics days we sat in splits every training for 1 minute per stretch times three sets. ( pancake, pike, middles, right leg, left leg x 1 minute each x 3= 15 minutes of stretching a day. I had full splits and found it a huge waste of time. Maintain strengths but focus more on improving weaknesses. The kids will understand if you tell them " if you get your pike flat then I will allow you more trampoline time". That athlete will learn pike so quick that you will think he took muscle laxatives.
I notice that the chronological order of improvement sometimes makes no sense. ie, athletes who can do a back full and rudy but are unable to do a crash dive. And I mean, literally can not do a crash dive. I understand how fun it must be to teach a new skill but too many coaches are pushing the athlete to fast in hopes that either (1) other coaches will see the big skill you taught the athlete or (2) you want the athlete to grow fast to show the parents you know what you are talking about. Wrong way to go if this describes you. Any high level coach will tell you the same thing. Make sure basics are solid before anything. Sure the athlete can do a back full and thats good that without basics he can do it, it means that his spacial awarness and shear guts are enough to get him through the skill. But down the road when that 10 year old becomes a national athlete and needs to do a 16.5 to compete with the big boys then whats he going to do? Most would agree that you can not chuck skills all the way to the top. Assuming that is true then when does that 10 year old learn technique? In his head he learned a back full with no technique. So why would he need it for rudy, double back, triffis, quintuffis? He would get the idea that all skills can be learned by simply playing around. Eventually you grow an athlete who is unteachable because he learned many skills by what he thinks is his own methods because you as a coach weren't instructing him on the various critical physics related techniques. So 5 year later when he truly needs the technical support he's going to think he knows it all.
That is not for all athletes however and I agree that some can learn like that and then later improve the technique. This can work in an absolute way but why make so much more work for the athlete and yourself. Having to always back track and improve skills that were just learned a year ago and should be a piece of cake by now? The easiest way is to improve slowly but make the base as wide as you can. Ie. teach them everything you know about the skill before the skill is even attempted. If it is done correctly then the athlete will learn the skill properly in a short period of time. For example I have my athletes working on a full twisting crash dive. When are they ever going to use that? not until a full in half out is needed which is not for a long time. But the essentials of the full twisting crash dive apply to other skills. ex.
this drill improves:
using the feet to initiate rotation right before leaving the bed rather then piking or hunching. cant do the skill by piking. forces the athlete to keep stretched and separate the twist and the flip, a problem almost every athlete has from interclub beginner to everyone on canada's senior team ( albeit that they do it better then interclubs). If the athlete can learn at a young age to set then twist rather then all at the same time it will be a lot easier to teach many skills.
Another example would be the wall. The wall is a cirque technique used to liven up the trampoline performance. It has been incorporated in many different shows around the world. Here is a link to Julian Roberge, a Senior level trampolinist from Quebec.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj_zn2N4qWk
I have had many coaches ask me why I teach interclubs and provincial athletes the wall. Its very simple. If you do the wall properly then when you take the wall away it becomes a very nice needle. Which can be incorporated into 1/3 of all possible skills in trampoline. The child will learn to not be confident in landing on their back. Then porpises and back pull overs and cat twists can be learned on the wall then taken to the middle of the trampoline. All skills that are possible need to be broken down to their basic components. A lot of coaches forget how even seat drops lead to a big picture later in the athletes career.
I notice a lot of athlete take training as work and not fun. The coaches job is not to have the child come in and do the exact same thing. If I ask a coach to their face if they change up the program and keep it exciting I will always get the same answer; " of course i always do". Unfortunately I find that this is not the case. I am not pointing fingers, simply reminding. I take my athletes sometimes and we play a half hour of soccer instead of conditioning sometimes. We have certain fun days where its all constructive games, etc etc. The athlete should not always know what is happening.
I could find a thousand different issues that many coaches , including myself forget to prevent all the time, the key to being a good coach in my opinion is trying to always put the athlete first no amtter how hard our own individual lives may be. It is easy to havea hard day and sit on a cheese block and just yell out instructions across the gym. It takes an excellent coach to put their "outside of the gym" issues aside and focus on the athlete no matter how we feel.
I find to many coaches also put their reputation on the line. I believe that coaches who are only out to look good for themselves will always produce less athletes in the long run because the athlete knows that it is for you not him. It is always for the athlete. Please do not push your athlete too fast to try and impress other coaches. Not good for anyone and it is evident of what you are doing. I fully admit to breaking that fallacy but when I feel myself doing it I think about why I need their approval. I truly don't. Being that selfish is a problem I think too many coaches have. I have met some who are not like that and I have met some that make their own reputation the be all and end all of the athletes training. If you are a good coach, be patient, other coaches will notice later and if they are so close minded that they don't understand you are taking your time then they are even a worse coach then you and in that case you should not care what they think. Set an example.
This may be a controversial article and many may think im making a personal attack on coaches. Im really not. We all have things to work on and I think a simple little reminder is always a good idea. Just like athletes coaches sometimes need to be reminded of their mistakes. Its easy to think you know everything because you are the coach but remember there are always ways to improve your coaching from a technical and psychological aspect.
I hope this serves a nice reminder to keep doing what you are doing as a coach or gives you an idea of things you may want to improve on.
I have been getting upset over certain coaching I have seen that simply does not make sense. Before I continue I should note that these are my opinions based on my own experiences and not to be taken as an insult if these opinions do not coincide with your coaching philosophies. I just want to bring up some points to think about.
First of all I wrote an article about the importance of conditioning with all athletes ( Preventing Injuries in Sports). As mentioned in that article I force my athletes to condition half an hour a day. Once they are at a level of conditioning that makes me feel that they are not being held back by it in their sport specific side ( ie. trampoline) then i relax on conditioning and focus on other areas of development. It is a variable periodization technique that is determined by the athletes success, not the schedule of their competition season. I have had a few athletes now work hard and improve their flexibility and instead of having to take 10-15 minutes out of training every day to improve it I allow them to work on specific trampoline skills which they love. I believe this is a good way to motivate athletes to get the right work done instead of blindly telling them to stretch. I remember in my gymnastics days we sat in splits every training for 1 minute per stretch times three sets. ( pancake, pike, middles, right leg, left leg x 1 minute each x 3= 15 minutes of stretching a day. I had full splits and found it a huge waste of time. Maintain strengths but focus more on improving weaknesses. The kids will understand if you tell them " if you get your pike flat then I will allow you more trampoline time". That athlete will learn pike so quick that you will think he took muscle laxatives.
I notice that the chronological order of improvement sometimes makes no sense. ie, athletes who can do a back full and rudy but are unable to do a crash dive. And I mean, literally can not do a crash dive. I understand how fun it must be to teach a new skill but too many coaches are pushing the athlete to fast in hopes that either (1) other coaches will see the big skill you taught the athlete or (2) you want the athlete to grow fast to show the parents you know what you are talking about. Wrong way to go if this describes you. Any high level coach will tell you the same thing. Make sure basics are solid before anything. Sure the athlete can do a back full and thats good that without basics he can do it, it means that his spacial awarness and shear guts are enough to get him through the skill. But down the road when that 10 year old becomes a national athlete and needs to do a 16.5 to compete with the big boys then whats he going to do? Most would agree that you can not chuck skills all the way to the top. Assuming that is true then when does that 10 year old learn technique? In his head he learned a back full with no technique. So why would he need it for rudy, double back, triffis, quintuffis? He would get the idea that all skills can be learned by simply playing around. Eventually you grow an athlete who is unteachable because he learned many skills by what he thinks is his own methods because you as a coach weren't instructing him on the various critical physics related techniques. So 5 year later when he truly needs the technical support he's going to think he knows it all.
That is not for all athletes however and I agree that some can learn like that and then later improve the technique. This can work in an absolute way but why make so much more work for the athlete and yourself. Having to always back track and improve skills that were just learned a year ago and should be a piece of cake by now? The easiest way is to improve slowly but make the base as wide as you can. Ie. teach them everything you know about the skill before the skill is even attempted. If it is done correctly then the athlete will learn the skill properly in a short period of time. For example I have my athletes working on a full twisting crash dive. When are they ever going to use that? not until a full in half out is needed which is not for a long time. But the essentials of the full twisting crash dive apply to other skills. ex.
this drill improves:
using the feet to initiate rotation right before leaving the bed rather then piking or hunching. cant do the skill by piking. forces the athlete to keep stretched and separate the twist and the flip, a problem almost every athlete has from interclub beginner to everyone on canada's senior team ( albeit that they do it better then interclubs). If the athlete can learn at a young age to set then twist rather then all at the same time it will be a lot easier to teach many skills.
Another example would be the wall. The wall is a cirque technique used to liven up the trampoline performance. It has been incorporated in many different shows around the world. Here is a link to Julian Roberge, a Senior level trampolinist from Quebec.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj_zn2N4qWk
I have had many coaches ask me why I teach interclubs and provincial athletes the wall. Its very simple. If you do the wall properly then when you take the wall away it becomes a very nice needle. Which can be incorporated into 1/3 of all possible skills in trampoline. The child will learn to not be confident in landing on their back. Then porpises and back pull overs and cat twists can be learned on the wall then taken to the middle of the trampoline. All skills that are possible need to be broken down to their basic components. A lot of coaches forget how even seat drops lead to a big picture later in the athletes career.
I notice a lot of athlete take training as work and not fun. The coaches job is not to have the child come in and do the exact same thing. If I ask a coach to their face if they change up the program and keep it exciting I will always get the same answer; " of course i always do". Unfortunately I find that this is not the case. I am not pointing fingers, simply reminding. I take my athletes sometimes and we play a half hour of soccer instead of conditioning sometimes. We have certain fun days where its all constructive games, etc etc. The athlete should not always know what is happening.
I could find a thousand different issues that many coaches , including myself forget to prevent all the time, the key to being a good coach in my opinion is trying to always put the athlete first no amtter how hard our own individual lives may be. It is easy to havea hard day and sit on a cheese block and just yell out instructions across the gym. It takes an excellent coach to put their "outside of the gym" issues aside and focus on the athlete no matter how we feel.
I find to many coaches also put their reputation on the line. I believe that coaches who are only out to look good for themselves will always produce less athletes in the long run because the athlete knows that it is for you not him. It is always for the athlete. Please do not push your athlete too fast to try and impress other coaches. Not good for anyone and it is evident of what you are doing. I fully admit to breaking that fallacy but when I feel myself doing it I think about why I need their approval. I truly don't. Being that selfish is a problem I think too many coaches have. I have met some who are not like that and I have met some that make their own reputation the be all and end all of the athletes training. If you are a good coach, be patient, other coaches will notice later and if they are so close minded that they don't understand you are taking your time then they are even a worse coach then you and in that case you should not care what they think. Set an example.
This may be a controversial article and many may think im making a personal attack on coaches. Im really not. We all have things to work on and I think a simple little reminder is always a good idea. Just like athletes coaches sometimes need to be reminded of their mistakes. Its easy to think you know everything because you are the coach but remember there are always ways to improve your coaching from a technical and psychological aspect.
I hope this serves a nice reminder to keep doing what you are doing as a coach or gives you an idea of things you may want to improve on.
Monday, 5 March 2012
Counter twisting the end of tricks: A Tutorial
Hey everyone,
With Dave I have been working on a way to hold the line of my trick right tot he bed where a split second before I land, i set for the next trick instead of having arms up to early, where marks are lost and tightness is lost. There are two things to think about when holding the line of the trick.
1) over or under rotation is key in determining if the shoulder joint is going to have to prematurely flex to slow down rotation. If this happens it means that the trick is over rotated.
2) arm flail to stop twisting (arm abduction). If the arms come out to the sides of the body then that means the athlete has over twisted the skill.
NORMAL TWISTING
theoretically the athlete should land each trick so that no arm flexion or abduction is present. Any trampolinist will tell you how crazy that is to be expected. So Dave, being the physics expert showed me a technique to over come this issue. This technique would enable me to eliminate the problem of (2) ( arm flail). He called it counter twisting. Dave said to me that to twist the way you normally do, you bounce up and down and based on the way you prefer to twist, you make a small "D" with your feet as if you are drawing the letter on the trampoline as you are in the air. If you are a right twister like myself, you would make the curve of the "D" go to the left. It is like jumping in the air and making a 'D" with your feet from a slight pike to an arch. Your feet start in front of you with a slight pike and end behind you in a slight arch after making the curve around the lateral aspect of your body. I was told that the pike at the start makes the body twist more. I interpret it like this: If you do a trifis and go from a tight ball to a huge laid out position the rotation seems to change more drastically rather then going from a pike to a straight. The pike at the start makes it easier to start the twist. Remember this is NOT counter twisting yet, this is the mechanics of how to twist with your feet rather then arms or head or contact twisting in the direction you normally go to.
COUNTER TWISTING:
If you understand the mechanics of the feet twist then you can understand the mechanics of the counter feet twist. Essentially it is the same exact motion in the opposite direction. For me my twist is initiated by throwing my feet to the left for the "D" so to counter my twisting I need to go to the right. The "D" you see right here on this page is the same potion my feet do when seeing from a birds eye view.
Drills:
To get a good understanding of this try the "D" with the feet in both directions. You will very quickly find out how hard it is to stay upright if you do the "D" big enough with the feet. The bigger the curve the more it will counter rotate you. Once that is understood and you actually feel the effect of your feet then you go to cradle with it. Do not twist off the bed at first. Go to stomach almost with a late half turn. but the turn is caused by the "D" of the feet to the normal twisting direction. So you cause yourself to twist your normal way. Then you do a contact twist with the arms and do the "D" in the opposing direction to feel the effects of the counter twist.
If you do it right you will know. You will feel that you went up twisted, stopped twisting and then came down like a normal back drop without the feeling of having to use your arms to stop the twist. You will be able to do a cradle with arms tucked into your sweater or pants pockets. Easy way to test the method if you are doing it right or cheating.
Once that is easy then its time to add int he flips. This is where it can get tricky because now you are doing the "D" upside down. I found it difficult to figure out what way to do the "D" when I added in a flip. Start with a Birani. Like the cradle the Birani should go up straight, twist and come down like a back flayout with no arm flail. Most people can do a birani with no arm flail because its easy to determine the exact amount of twist needed. You will feel how to do it though. Dave told me that it when you are done half of the birani and you are facing sideways then you do the counter twist with the legs that you did on the cradle to stop twisting. I recommend you start with a last "D" to make sure you are going in right direction. Then as you do 100, 200, 300 birani's you start going earlier and earlier until you actually feel the abrupt stop in twist and the arms are by the sides.
Now it is time for back full and rudy. These are more difficult and I myself still can not do it great. A back full si the same concept but you wait until you have done the half crash dive portion of the back full. Once all you see is a Birani ending then you repeat as above. I understand that reading this may be weird and ambiguous. Trust me that you will feel what I am talking about and that even watching it on a TVO still does not help in anyway. The leg movement is so small that it is impossible to see while flipping. For Rudy, you do a front full and ont eh birani portion you do the "D". If you can get up to the rudy and you can do it with arms in your pocket and come down straight into a back lay out then you have the concept and it is time to apply it to all your tricks.
The idea of this concept is to make the ending look like a back layout rather then twisting into the bed and possibly messing up the next skill or having to flail the arms out to stop which is a deduction. China is famous for having the arm flail. If you watch this video that I have linked then you will see what I am talking about. This is Canada's ticket to beating China!!!!!
http://www.dartfish.tv/Presenter.aspx?CR=p12651c33933m841911
If you see every one of the endings, you will notice the arm flail. This technique will eliminate this problem so the athlete looks like a stick going into the bed. The you just have to make sure you stay tight for the next trick.
Hope this helps,
:)
With Dave I have been working on a way to hold the line of my trick right tot he bed where a split second before I land, i set for the next trick instead of having arms up to early, where marks are lost and tightness is lost. There are two things to think about when holding the line of the trick.
1) over or under rotation is key in determining if the shoulder joint is going to have to prematurely flex to slow down rotation. If this happens it means that the trick is over rotated.
2) arm flail to stop twisting (arm abduction). If the arms come out to the sides of the body then that means the athlete has over twisted the skill.
NORMAL TWISTING
theoretically the athlete should land each trick so that no arm flexion or abduction is present. Any trampolinist will tell you how crazy that is to be expected. So Dave, being the physics expert showed me a technique to over come this issue. This technique would enable me to eliminate the problem of (2) ( arm flail). He called it counter twisting. Dave said to me that to twist the way you normally do, you bounce up and down and based on the way you prefer to twist, you make a small "D" with your feet as if you are drawing the letter on the trampoline as you are in the air. If you are a right twister like myself, you would make the curve of the "D" go to the left. It is like jumping in the air and making a 'D" with your feet from a slight pike to an arch. Your feet start in front of you with a slight pike and end behind you in a slight arch after making the curve around the lateral aspect of your body. I was told that the pike at the start makes the body twist more. I interpret it like this: If you do a trifis and go from a tight ball to a huge laid out position the rotation seems to change more drastically rather then going from a pike to a straight. The pike at the start makes it easier to start the twist. Remember this is NOT counter twisting yet, this is the mechanics of how to twist with your feet rather then arms or head or contact twisting in the direction you normally go to.
COUNTER TWISTING:
If you understand the mechanics of the feet twist then you can understand the mechanics of the counter feet twist. Essentially it is the same exact motion in the opposite direction. For me my twist is initiated by throwing my feet to the left for the "D" so to counter my twisting I need to go to the right. The "D" you see right here on this page is the same potion my feet do when seeing from a birds eye view.
Drills:
To get a good understanding of this try the "D" with the feet in both directions. You will very quickly find out how hard it is to stay upright if you do the "D" big enough with the feet. The bigger the curve the more it will counter rotate you. Once that is understood and you actually feel the effect of your feet then you go to cradle with it. Do not twist off the bed at first. Go to stomach almost with a late half turn. but the turn is caused by the "D" of the feet to the normal twisting direction. So you cause yourself to twist your normal way. Then you do a contact twist with the arms and do the "D" in the opposing direction to feel the effects of the counter twist.
If you do it right you will know. You will feel that you went up twisted, stopped twisting and then came down like a normal back drop without the feeling of having to use your arms to stop the twist. You will be able to do a cradle with arms tucked into your sweater or pants pockets. Easy way to test the method if you are doing it right or cheating.
Once that is easy then its time to add int he flips. This is where it can get tricky because now you are doing the "D" upside down. I found it difficult to figure out what way to do the "D" when I added in a flip. Start with a Birani. Like the cradle the Birani should go up straight, twist and come down like a back flayout with no arm flail. Most people can do a birani with no arm flail because its easy to determine the exact amount of twist needed. You will feel how to do it though. Dave told me that it when you are done half of the birani and you are facing sideways then you do the counter twist with the legs that you did on the cradle to stop twisting. I recommend you start with a last "D" to make sure you are going in right direction. Then as you do 100, 200, 300 birani's you start going earlier and earlier until you actually feel the abrupt stop in twist and the arms are by the sides.
Now it is time for back full and rudy. These are more difficult and I myself still can not do it great. A back full si the same concept but you wait until you have done the half crash dive portion of the back full. Once all you see is a Birani ending then you repeat as above. I understand that reading this may be weird and ambiguous. Trust me that you will feel what I am talking about and that even watching it on a TVO still does not help in anyway. The leg movement is so small that it is impossible to see while flipping. For Rudy, you do a front full and ont eh birani portion you do the "D". If you can get up to the rudy and you can do it with arms in your pocket and come down straight into a back lay out then you have the concept and it is time to apply it to all your tricks.
The idea of this concept is to make the ending look like a back layout rather then twisting into the bed and possibly messing up the next skill or having to flail the arms out to stop which is a deduction. China is famous for having the arm flail. If you watch this video that I have linked then you will see what I am talking about. This is Canada's ticket to beating China!!!!!
http://www.dartfish.tv/Presenter.aspx?CR=p12651c33933m841911
If you see every one of the endings, you will notice the arm flail. This technique will eliminate this problem so the athlete looks like a stick going into the bed. The you just have to make sure you stay tight for the next trick.
Hope this helps,
:)
Saturday, 3 March 2012
Trampoline and Tumbling Summer Camp at Halton Hills
Hello everyone, Felicia, my co-worker and I, are starting up a Halton Hills Trampoline and Tumbling Summer Camp. WE are in the planning processes and are trying to spread the word. I will update you when more information is known.
http://www.haltonhillsgymnastics.com/ - halton hills website
thanks:)
http://www.haltonhillsgymnastics.com/ - halton hills website
thanks:)
Friday, 2 March 2012
My thesis
Running
Head: Neurogenesis
Neurogenesis:
A Practical Application to Humans
Thesis Paper
Kinesiology
Guelph Humber University
April 4, 2012
Gregory Roe
Neurogenesis: An Overview of Research
For
many years humans believed that the earth was square and then we decided that
the earth was round. Humans also initially believed that earth was the center
of the universe and after much deliberation we all finally agree that the earth
rotates around the Sun, which is the center of our solar system. Constantly
science has made new discoveries that have changed the outlook of our very
existence. Once again science is making a new discovery which was once believed
to be impossible; the rebuilding of damaged neurons. The concept of progenitor
cells, cells that have no distinct function, being turned into neurons is
called neurogenesis and it was believed for a long time that this phenomenon
could not occur in the brains of mammals. Through extensive research it has
been discovered that neurogenesis does occur in the brain of certain mammals,
rats being the most popular test subject.
A study done in 1965 was one of the first to
show that neurogenesis does occur in the rat brain. A Thymidine-H tracer was
given to the rats and using this tracer the proliferation of new neural cells
could be observed. This was a scientific breakthrough because it showed that
neurons can indeed be created post-natally. This opened up an entirely new
field of research into neuroscience that one day hopes to find cures for brain
illnesses. After watching the migration of cells in this study it was evident
that undifferentiated cells migrate from the lateral ventricles of the brain to
the hippocampus and more specifically the Dentate Gyrus of the brain. This
study showed that there was a 6 times increase in neurons that migrated to the
Dentate Gyrus after 3 months from birth. The study also demonstrated that there
was a higher increase in neurogenesis with rats that were given testosterone. This
study hypothesizes that hippocampal cells may act as receptors for gonadal
hormones such as testosterone. However this study did not test other hormones,
sexual and non-sexually related, which leaves other studies room to elaborate
on the subject₅. Another study done on birds showed that testosterone increased
neurogenesis as well. This
study was the first ever to show the results of testosterone on a European male
songbird. This study simply showed that there was an increase in neurogenesis
in the ventricular zone and the auditory zone of the European Sterling. This
neurogenesis was further increased with the incorporation of testosterone. This
study also showed that there was a
decline in the production of testosterone and therefore, neurogenesis with age.
This study went a little further than the previous testosterone study by
showing that testosterone increases the amount of progenitor cells that
actually become neurons in the hippocampus rather than increasing the number of
progenitor cells in total. An age related decline in proliferation of cells was
shown in this study as well. This increases the evidence of age related
decrease in neurogenesis. Why exactly this decrease occurs was not discovered
by this study. An interesting note near the end of the study shows that there
may be a correlation with the singing activity to the amount of neurogenesis. It
raises the speculation that there may be a connection between the amount of
singing or the type of singing that is done by the song birds and the amount of
neurogenesis₆.
Many different research groups have shown that
rats have neurogenic properties post natally however researchers are looking
for evidence of neurogenesis in humans. Researchers started studying the guinea
pig because the guinea pig has been shown to have a brain more closely related
to a human brain rather than a rat or mouse. This study followed the same tracing protocol as the
previous studies that have been discussed and used a Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU)
tracer. This tracer was followed in the guinea pig and similar results were
shown compared to other neurogenic studies. There was a large increase in
neurogenesis within the first month after birth followed by a steady decline
until death of the specimen. This study decided to test the affect of glutamate
receptors on neurogenesis. The results show that there was an increase in
neurogenesis compared to the non- glutamate receptor group. This is interesting
because it seems every study is finding a new chemical that increases the
proliferation of neurons within the brain₇.
The concept of
neurogenesis in human subjects has eluded scientists for some time and due to
advancements in the scientific community an entirely new branch of human study
has opened up. Peter Eriksson was the
first person to conduct a study that showed adult neurogenesis in the human
brain. Before this study, only rodents and monkeys had shown neurogenesis in
the brain. It is believed that the
body’s inability to reproduce progenitor cells in the brain is a direct cause
of brain diseases and malfunctions. Eriksson performed research on patients who
had recently died of cancer and a BrdU radioactive tracer was used. This tracer
was followed through each of the patients and the proliferation of cancer cells
was monitored. This tracer showed that there are three distinct areas of
neurogenesis within the human brain. The Subgranular Zone (SGZ) of the Dentate Gyrus
shows the largest amount of neurogenesis. The Granular Zone shows less neurogenesis
than the SGZ but there is more neuron apoptosis in the Subgranular Zone
compared to the Granular Zone. The Hilus of the Dentate Gyrus shows the least
amount of proliferating cells however it has the least amount of cell death as
well. This also shows that progenitor
cells seem to be greatly located in the Subventricular Zone of the brain and
that these cells migrate to other parts of the brain to become different cells
based on their individual roles within the brain. Furthermore, injury and
external environmental stimulation seems to influence the rate of neurogenesis.
Unfortunately this study was unable to prove that the progenitor cells within
the Subventricular Zone (SVZ) had any function₁. Eriksson shows a graph of the
three distinct areas of proliferation and their neurogenic correlations.(See
appendix, figure 1 for graph).
California researchers
were able to show the path of the progenitor cells once they left the
Subventricular Zone. This study also used the BrdU marker to follow the cell
proliferation within the body. This
study showed that progenitor cells reside at the border of the Hilus and the
Granule Cell Layer (GCL) and travel into the Granule Cell Layer (see appendix,
figure 2). In the GCL these cells have been shown to express NeuN and
Calbindin, which are neural proliferation markers. Along with other scientist
these researchers showed that neurogenesis decreases with age in the adult
rodent. When the researchers compared the amount of neurogenesis within a 27
month old rat to that of a 6 month old rat the younger rat showed much more
cell proliferation. Along with the decrease in neurogenesis the older rats
showed an inability to react with the Polysialylated Neural Cell Adhesion
Molecule. This molecule is crucial for the migration and axon elongation of new
cells. This study shows that a decrease in neurogenesis is caused by a decrease
in Granule Cell precursors. This means
that a decrease in neurogenesis can be attributed to a lack of new cells being created
rather than cells dying. Most neurons are made prenatally. However, in mice, rats,
rabbits, guinea pigs and cats, granule cells are made post-natally. These new
Granule Cells are able to elongate their axons to the cerebellum, also known as
the mossy fiber tract. This helps in two ways. First, it allows less glucose to
be used for the cell so that glucose is not unnecessarily used. Secondly, it
allows for less synaptic junctions to be made so the brain is less congested.
This allows the brain to function better because it can have better control
over all the different neural paths₂.
Scientists
from Great Britain led by PhD Drapeau showed the age related decline in
neurogenesis in the SVZ and the Dentate Gyrus. It has been shown that in these
two areas, the decline of new neurons being formed is the greatest out of all
the neurogenic areas within the brain. (see appendix, figure 2 for a picture of
the different areas of neurogenesis). Along with the Eriksson study, these
researchers also showed that external environment had a huge effect on the
decline of new neurons being formed. Researchers have actually been able to
reactivate neurogenesis in the aging brain of humans. This proves that
neurogenesis is not simply an inevitable cell process, but a cause of an
environmental stimulation. Researchers in this study found that memory loss and
neurogenesis had a direct correlation. Based on this analysis, researchers
hypothesized that the formation of new neurons was responsible for memory
processing. It was further hypothesized that age related memory failure was due
to a decrease in neurogenesis is older populations. Interestingly enough this
article found that the aging affects the proliferation of new granule cells
rather than the absolute number. This theory is backed up by the fact that cell
apoptosis is slowed down in the Dentate Gyrus. Rodents that were studied showed
that there was a 3-4 times decrease in cell proliferation in middle aged rats
compared to young rats. Cell markers were used to determine the amount of
active precursor cells in the test subjects. What they found was that the
number of precursor cells did not change in young, middle and old aged rodents.
This may mean that aging is not correlated with the total amount of precursor
cells, but is correlated with the amount of activated precursor cells. A
decrease in the proportion of active precursor cells is associated with
age-related changes in the brain’s environment. The article goes on to say that
a potential reason that cells stop proliferating could be due to a decrease in
mitotic stimuli. This could be for two reasons. (1) The signals that increase
neurogenesis diminish in the older populations and the inhibitory signals of
neurogenesis increase with age,(2) neurogenesis can be increased by reversing
the inhibitory signals and increasing the proliferating signals. It has been
shown that neurogenesis does not increase by speeding up the cell cycle, but by
increasing the amount of precursor cells in the brain. It is interesting that
cells can stop proliferating but still retain ability to do so under the right
stimulus₃. This study concludes that more research needs to be done on age
related neurogenesis correlations however it does make some interesting
preliminary ideas₈.
Many
other research and review articles show that proliferation of new neurons
decreases with age, however a study done at a University in Germany shows the
relationship better than any other. The German researchers studied
proliferation of neurons from 0-100 years of age and found very conclusive
evidence that the studies on rats can be recreated to be done on humans as well. This group of researchers were
trying to connect the rodent brain to the human brain by finding common cell
proliferation markers. Doublecortin (DCX), one of the markers used is a marker
used in rodents that shows neurogenesis in the Dentate Gyrus of the rodent
adult brain. This same marker was used on human tissue where 54 humans were
tested positive for DCX expression from 0-100 years of age. The total amount of
cells that expressed DCX decreased over time which backs up the findings of the
above study. Along with DCX, other
markers were expressed in human tissue and some of these markers were expressed
until 100 years. This research was the first to demonstrate the link between
rodent neurogenic research and human research₄. This article showed a great
graphical interpretation of different tracers and their lifespan in the body. (See
appendix, figure 3). The researchers admit more work needs to be done on
finding a link between rodents and humans. However it was a breakthrough none
the less.
The proliferation of
cells within the brain causes new neurons to be formed within the brain, which
we have examined in this paper. However there is evidence to prove that the
brain is not the only nerve structure in the body that can be reproduced after
an injury. A study done on rats showed that, after death, the rat’s spinal
nerve cells were grown in vitro. It was hypothesized near the end of the report
that the precursor cells are derived from neuroepithelial cells located within
the rodents’ embroytic neural tube. The cells within the neural tube can replicate
into any form of nerve cell and it is believed the cells are migrated towards
the spinal cord during an injury. This study did not go into very much detail
due to the fact it was one of the first to demonstrate that spinal cord
reproduction is even possible. The researchers showed that when certain protein
expression was increased in the culture cells it would cause an increase in
neuronal cells. Neuron Specific Enolase (NSE), Neuron Specific B-Tubulin and Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein were
given to the rats. Neuron Specific B Tubulin showed a much larger increase in
neuron proliferation compared to the Neuron Specific Enolase. The former is a
protein used to develop the exoskeleton of neurons and NSE is a protein that is
known as a Phosphopyruvate Hydratase which cleaves oxygen and carbon bonds. The
research would suggest that because an increased proliferation of the cells
given Neuron Specific B Tubulin, that it plays a more important role in the
proliferation of neuronal cells within the nervous system rather than the NSE₉.
Many different
articles have tried to show that neurogenesis is controlled by the external
environment rather than solely the internal environment. Drapeau led another
study wanting to determine if exercise, forced or from free will, would show an
increase or decrease in neurogenesis in rats. This study showed that there was
a two-fold increase in proliferating cells within the rodents that were able to
run freely on a wheel rather than being forced to remain in a confined area.
Rats were forced to do the water maze test and the Yoked swim test and the results
showed no increase in neurogenesis with this form of training. This suggests
that these tests alone are not enough to stimulate neuron growth. Other studies used treats as a positive re-enforcer;
however this study did not so that all nutrition based proliferations could be
excluded from the study. The rats were
kept in groups of three or four and showed a small increase in neural
proliferation which suggests that social interaction can be a contributing
factor to neurogenesis₁₁. Another study showed that there was an increase in
neurogenesis with the rats that got better results in the water maze test.
These researchers used the same protocol as the others with the BrdU tracing
and examined rats performing the water maze test. The rats who had a lower
latency period showed an increased number of BrdU positive cells which suggests
that there is an increased neurogenic proliferation with spatial learning. The
researchers hypothesized that the formation of new neurons is correlated to the
development of new learning and formation of memories₁₂.
A study done in 2006 does not back up these
findings but showed that rats could learn and retain information similarly with
rats that had irradiation treatment. The researchers made a control group and a
non-neurogenesis group from the rats. The control group, along with the
non-neurogenesis group were injected with BrdU tracer and a comparison of
learning was observed. One group of rodents was also given 10 minutes of gamma
radiation for two consecutive days because it had been shown to reduce
neurogenesis by 78% without any side effects. The other group was not given any
radiation. The control and irradiation rats were shocked and underwent fear
conditioning in a special chamber. The end results were that there was no
significant different between the control group and the irradiation group. The
researchers note this and refer to other researchers that found results on both
sides of the argument, one being that neurogenesis causes increased learning
and the other being that neurogenesis
does not affect all types of learning. The researchers conclude that
spatial learning has been shown to increase with neurogenesis and also state
that much more research needs to be done in the topic₁₃.
Even though there is not
a very definite link between neurogenesis and certain forms of memory retention
and learning there is a much stronger correlation between neurogenesis and
depression. Serotonin seems to be the
big neurotransmitter that is increased during anti-depressant therapy. It has
been previously shown that serotonin has neurogenic effects especially during
development of the CNS. The 5HT 1A receptor seems to play a big role in the
neurogenic effects of serotonin. D,1-fenfluramine, a drug used as an anti-depressant has been
previously shown to increase neurogenesis ₁₄.
It was also shown that activating the 5HT 1A receptors increased the
survival of new born cells. Another study showed that the depletion of
serotonin or the destruction of serotonin producing neurons caused drastic
decreases in neurogenesis. Another
article used Fluoxetine, a well known anti-depressant that increases serotonin
within the brain, and showed that there was a 70% increase in neurogenesis.
Serotonin is not the only neurotransmitter that has been shown to increase
neurogenesis. A study done on glutamate and GABA relationships in the brain
showed that GABA may be a negative feedback loop to decrease neurogenesis by
destroying DNA. Also it showed that glutamate may be a positive feedback loop
causing the increase in proliferation of cells in the SVZ. A
different article went further to say that Metabotropic Glutamate receptors
within the neurons have a direct correlation to neurogenesis. More specifically
the mGlu5 receptor was found in early life, postnatally in areas of the brain
that showed neurogenesis. The mGlu5 receptor was found in the External Granule
Layer(EGL) of the cerebellar cortex and within the SVZ. BrdU staining
successfully showed proliferation of new neurons in these regions of the brain.
This study concluded that either the mGlu5 receptor was responsible for
directly proliferating new neurons or differentiating them from progenitor
cells₁₆.
Adenosine
Triphosphate’s (ATP) also have come up in the battle for neurogenesis. This
research found that ATP was created from progenitor cells that released energy
in bursts. An increase in ATP in the brain has showed that neurogenesis
increased because an increased amount of progenitor cells differentiated into
neurons₁₇.
Along
with different neurotransmitters, stress has been shown to have an effect on
neurogenesis. One study showed that in monkeys, neurogenesis decreased. A group
of monkey’s that had either early or late stress pregnancies showed a decrease
in neurogenesis. The researchers did not find a significant difference
regarding the time of the stress during the pregnancy. The early stress monkeys
had a 21% reduction in neurogensis compared to the controls and the late stress
monkeys had a 23% reduction in neurogenesis compared to controls, using BrdU
tracing₁₈. Not all stress on the body is bad however because another article showed that exercise had a direct
correlation with increased neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus. Researchers
measured the cerebral blood volume in the brain with MRI techniques and found
that the blood volume in the brain directly correlated with cognitive and
cardiopulmonary functioning. This study showed that exercise specifically
targets the dentate gyrus which has been shown to have a direct correlation
with cognitive aging and memory₁₉.
The
brain uses fats for membrane phospholipids and it is essential in the
development and the maintenance of the brain and its functions. Docosahexaenoic acid was experimented on rats
to determine if there was a neurogenic effect on the brain due to fat
ingestion. The results showed that Docosahexaenoic acid did have a correlation
with neurogenesis in the rat brain. Researchers found that there was a decrease
in neurogenesis in the brain with a reduction of this lipid₂₆.
Lipids are not the only important nutritional requirement for
neurogenesis; it turns out that a malnourished state also halts neurogenesis.
Rats were given 4% DRI of protein (casein) (Malnurished) or 24% of DRI
(nourished). The results showed that the malnourished group had less
proliferating neurons in the brain compared to the nourished group₂₁. A very
interesting study revealed that statins may have a positive influence on
neurogenesis in the brain. The
3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-coenzyme A (HMGCoA) reductase inhibitors have been
shown to reduce the production of cholesterol and isoprenoids, which are lipids
that regulate cell function. Statins have been shown to protect against Alzheimer’s
disease (AD) as well which affects the dentate gyrus. Statins have been
reported to increase blood flow to injured areas of the body and to increase
cerebral blood flow. After a stroke, two different types of statins were given
to rats and the results show that statins increase blood flow to the injured
area of the brain and this causes an increase in neurogenesis after a stroke₂₂.
Alzheimer’s
disease is a neurodegenerative disease where for previously unknown reasons the
neurons within the brain begin to deteriorate. It has been a long path in the
science world to discover why exactly neurons just randomly degenerate. A study
showed that the build up of B-Amyloid plaques and fibrillary tangles are one of
the causes of this form of dementia. How exactly these are formed is still a
question for scientists however. This study showed that neurogenesis does occur
in the CA1 part of the brain within the Dentate gyrus and if neurogenesis can
be increased artificially then Alzheimer’s and related diseases can potentially
be reversed₂₃. Inflammation
of the neurons and the surrounding structures within the brain, have been
reported cause for a decline in neurogenesis and a cause of AD. This study took
an inflammatory blocker, indomethacine, and gave it to rats to determine if
neurogenesis could be increased after radiation was induced. The results showed
that the inflammation was decreased and caused an increase in neurogenesis.
Patients with AD are given anti-inflammatorys as part of their regular
medication₂₇.
Many
different proteins have been studied to try and determine if any may hold the
key to increasing neurogenesis. One study showed that Reelin, an extracellular
protein that is instrumental for brain development and neuron migration that
functions through a lipoprotein receptor, may have a positive effect on
neurogenesis. It has been shown that Reelin is expressed by GABAergic neurons and
is crucial for the development of dendrites. These dendrites create new
synapses which can fix broken chains in the brain. Reelin has been shown to be
deficient in patients with AD and therefore has been linked to many
neurodegnerative diseases. This study done on mice conclude that an over
expression of Reelin can cause neurogenesis in the adult forebrain in mice by
causing progenitor cell differentiation₂₄. Many different proteins need to
still be experimented on and research is currently trying to find the links
between neurogenesis and protein structure. Hopefully one day a protein that
can be synthesized can be given to certain populations that are in need of new
neurons in their brains.
A 2005 study showed a relatively unique
concept for increasing neurogenesis in the brain. Researchers from this article
reported that lithium can be used to treat patients with neurodegenerative
diseases such as AD. Lithium is reported to be a mood stabilizer for patients
with depression and neurodegenerative diseases. It is reported that lithium
up-regulated the proteins involved in cell survival such as Brain-Derived
Neurotropic Factor (BDNF). This study showed that lithium may prevent or even
reverse neurodegeneration₃₃.
Future Research:
The world of neurogenesis has vast amounts of
possibilities that all seem to try and point to a cure for brain malfunctions.
Now knowing that neurons and supporting structures can be remade in the brain
after injury, the race is on for a legitimate cure for those who need it. Many
different brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia would
be greatly affected by a synthetic way to create neurons. Due to hippocampal
degeneration these neurologic diseases have been previously thought to be
incurable. The solution based on research may even start with the basics, a well
balanced diet. A study on patients with Alzheimer’s showed an increase in
memory when given a proper diet₂₅. (See appendix, figure 4 for graph). Not
enough humans get a well balanced diet in society due to the busy lifestyles
many lead. Europe has a mandatory 6 week-off vacation period every year and
many get more time off based on their jobs. Europeans are also healthier then
North Americans and in a recent study done comparing 14 countries it was shown
that Europeans have a higher life expectancy then Canadians and Americans₂₉. I
believe that this is because of the fact that Europeans have longer vacation
periods annually₂₈. As noted above by Coe et al., stress diminishes
neurogenesis in the brain which may be an underlying factor to why North
Americans have an increased incidence of neurodegenerative diseases₁₈,₂₉. I
have always believed that too much stress in one’s life can only do more harm
than good. I believe a mandatory day off every 4 days should be administered to
North Americans to see if there is a decrease in degenerative diseases such as
dementia. Unfortunately if people started taking more time off businesses would
face hard times having to pay more money to keep the business running. I believe
that military funding should be cut and transferred to human life expectancy
programs. Such programs would include mandatory vacations larger than the 2
weeks allowed currently. A week break every few months would be a great start I
believe. Muscles get over used during repeated use without sufficient rest so
why should we believe that the brain does not function the same way? Research
has not really answered the question as to “what happens when the brain is over
used?” .Personally I believe it will shut down and that different forms of
dementia are the bodies way of telling people it has had enough and the brain
begins to die. Stress has been shown to slow down neurogenesis and I believe
that we need to take that as a warning that North Americans need to change the
way we are living. I believe constructing time off is needed. This may include
sports, musical learning, constructive hobbies such as building models, art
etc. The brain needs to be used, like muscles in order to maintain a certain
level of functioning, however we need to be careful what we do in our spare
time. Our society revolves around
monetary values, but maybe we need to focus on well being rather than
destroying our neurons to get a new Mercedes Benz.
Neuroscience is currently working on ways to
put small electrodes in the brain that will conduct electrical signals around
the brain in manipulated ways. Some researchers are using this science to block
pain while others use it to try and increase reaction time. What if we used
electrodes to create a bridge between inactive neurons and restore brain
function? In 2002 electrodes were put
into patients with Parkinson’s disease which is a neurodegenerative disorder
like Alzheimer’s disease₃₁. Eloctrodes were put in the brain that vibrated very
fast and caused cells in the brain to be more active. The results showed that if
stimulation around 130Hz was achieved, then the patient’s involuntary
contractions would cease. If electrodes were put into the brain theoretically
that would either, (1) stimulate neurons in the brain to keep firing or
increase activity, or (2) be formed in a way that the electrodes could form a
bride between active neurons that passed inactive cells. This has not been
tested yet, however scientists do have the equipment to do this. This
suggestion does bring in an ethical issue however. Some people may argue that
surgery is very invasive and that patients should not have to go through that
procedure. I believe that if you have patients with neurodegenerative diseases
a chance to live an increased normal life, to any degree that they would agree.
If they don’t agree then nothing says they have to participate. Until a clear
electrode based solution is constructed I believe that we have an untapped human
resource for testing. Death row inmates have no rights because the government
is telling them that they do not have the right to life any more. So why not
use these inmates as experiments. If they are going to be killed anyways,
scientists should at least put their death to use. Penitentiaries could go as
far as to say that if long term inmates that are not on death row volunteer for
scientific experimentation, that time would be taken off their sentence, or if
they are a true public threat, that they get benefits in their sentence such as
extra yard time or a choice in food. Many will argue this point strongly,
however I don’t see how anyone can say they will end a life and that that falls
within moral constraints but then say that the inmates have the right to not be
to use. Why inmates have sit around and
use people’s tax money? Why not make them useful in some way?
Scientists have been struggling to find many
different supplements that may increase neurogenesis and many have been
successful in showing ways to increase the number of proliferating cells. These
methods have already been implemented into treatment processes. Scientists are
looking for a larger solution that will either stop neurogenesis all together
or restore brain function to vast degrees that has not been discovered yet. The
area of Gene modification has been shown to be a potential solution down the
road when researchers can gain a better understanding of exactly how to
manipulate genes. For example (Pattyn et al, 1997), did a study on the effects
of the Phox 2a and Phox 2b genes and their role in Neurogenesis. This study
showed that the activation or the increase of expression of these two genes
increased neurogenesis in the hindbrain. The many genes that cause neurogenesis
and diminish it have been identified through many different research projects
but recreating these genes and implementing or inactivating them still poses a
problem. Scientists do not have the equipment to be able to manipulate the
human genome in live subjects in this way. Simply, further research needs to be
done in this area because the route of all success and failures of the human
body stem from the blue print, ie. genes.
If researchers can label, recreate or
activate/ inactivate genes relating to neurogenesis then many possibilities
open up, one of them being a cure to many mental diseases like dementia. An
equally large benefit from discovering these genes is the possibility to cure
paralysis in certain subjects. Paralysis is a nerve that has been broken or disconnected
from the rest of the nervous system causing the affected area to not respond to
mental or physical stimulation. If scientists can either rebuild neurons from
the inside (neurogenesis) or create artificial bridges in the body then
potentially people can learn to regain function of lost body segments.
Unfortunately researchers are trying to fight fate because death is inevitable
and the research that is being done is simply trying to delay death. Humans are
living longer lives than previously but the root cause of death itself is still
unknown. Why exactly do humans die? Some
believe it’s the body getting tired and finally calling it quits. Some believe
it is the constant pulling of gravity on the human body and after so many years
the genes and proteins of the body, as well as its tissues simply break down.
Whatever the reason is, scientists are theoretically trying to make humans live
longer by altering genes and discovering a way to increase neurogenesis is one
of the pathways.
Appendix:
Figure 1: 
Figure 1 a graphical depiction of the number
of BrdU cells labelled in the brain after a certain amount of days- note the
decrease in numbers with increased age
Figure 2- a graphical interpretation of the areas of
high proliferation of new neurons within the brain. Note the layers of the GCL,
SGL and the Hilus. This picture shows the path of progenitor cells as noted on
page 5, par 2 ( Khun et al.)
Figure 3- life span of different
tracers in the body
Figure 4: 
Figure 4 - graph showing the effects of different macromolecule nutrition levels on
memory scores in patients with Alzeimer's Disease
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