TEACHING STOPPING MECHANICS

Before reading this article, please read Using Strength Training To Teach Stopping Mechanics.

When thinking about stopping mechanics most coaches envision their athletes transitioning from a dynamic movement to a complete stop.  The part of the conversation that usually gets left out is how to stop correctly while also preparing for the next movement.  In most situations, athletes are not trying to come to a complete stop and the main reason for stopping is so an athlete can transition to the next skill as quickly as possible.  That being said, all stopping mechanics should be taught through the lens of preparing for whatever the athlete wants to do next.  

Stopping mechanics occur while running, jumping, agility, walking, throwing, etc so it is vitally important to teach athletes how to do it proficiently and efficiently.  Below are skills, drills, and teaching progressions that can be used to teach stopping, transitions, improve athleticism, and reduce injuries.

PLYOMETRICS

  • Plyometric exercises are a great way of teaching deceleration because the amount of force produced while jumping and landing is much higher than the forces created by just standing and then jumping.  To see a side by side video and graph of force production while jumping, click here.  
  • When coaches discuss landing and jumping, they describe it as the stretch-shortening cycle.  Plyometrics do a great job of teaching the nervous system to improve the efficiency of this action and in turn, makes an athlete faster.  
  • When an athlete is hopping, the forces are not as great as when bounding.  Because of this, good athletes can decelerate and hop again while barely bending their knees and ankles.  This will lead to shorter ground contact times because they can get off the ground quicker by decreasing the stretch shortening cycle.   If you watch your athletes hop in place on two feet, you will notice that the heel displacement of the faster athletes is much smaller than the slower athletes.  The transition of the heel dropping and then rising is one determiner of their ground contact time.  Some of the exercises that can be used to teach this skill are:
  • While performing multiple bounds, the landing forces are much greater than hopping which will cause the heel displacement to increase and the knee will bend at a much higher degree.  Because of this, the strength needed to transition after landing from higher heights is much greater and this is one of the many reasons why strength gains can cause reactive jumping movements to improve.  This is also why all coaches should program eccentric focused exercises.  For beginner athletes, Box Drops, Drop Squats, or Dynamic Drop Squats will help teach proper landing and dismount mechanics.  With more advanced athletes, sometimes it is important to practice quick ground contact and other times they should practice “sticking” their landings.
  • One of the most undervalued techniques for improving landing is engaging the proper muscles to effectively stop.  If an athlete is a wet noodle, then the body will collapse on the path of least resistance.  When an athlete lands they will only do it efficiently if they squeeze their abdominals, quads, and glutes.  If the quadriceps and glutes do not engage, then the stretch shortening cycle will be too long.  If the abdominals are not engaged, then the shoulders will not stay in an athletically advantageous spot and the Center of Mass will move to a place where the athlete will get off-balance.  If an athlete jumps, lands, and tries to jump again, it will be very difficult if their upper body forces are moving in the wrong direction.  If their shoulders are moving, it will affect the angle at which the shin is placed to efficiently and proficiently jump vertically again. Some of the exercises that can be used to teach proper muscle engagement are:
  • After teaching proper landing mechanics, athletes have to start applying these skills to the field.  The scary part about sports is we never know how our athletes will land, how many limbs they will land on, what direction their foot is pointed while landing, or what their upper body position will be.  Most plyometric drills are sterile with no variable of outside force and while this is great for beginners, more is needed for advanced athletes.  Even though nothing is better than actually doing a particular action during a game, the following drills can at least somewhat bridge the gap between training and playing:
  • All of the information above can be applied to the difficulty of unilateral jumping and/or landing on one leg.  It is important to improve this ability because most sports are played where one foot is landing independently of the other and rarely do the feet land at the exact same time.  When all of the weight of the body is landing on one limb, engaging the proper muscles and keeping the Center of Mass in the correct spot becomes even more important for transitioning, decreasing energy loss, and injury risk.