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Before discussing rotational athletes, one must first define the term. Rotational athlete is a phrase used to delineate golf and baseball from other major sports; however, rotation is involved in nearly every physical activity. For the purpose of this discussion, a rotational athlete will be broadly defined as someone who plays a sport that prioritizes generating rotational forces to achieve its goal (i.e. swinging a bat).
Last year, we gave a lecture to a local Little League team about protecting their throwing arms. We recommended maintaining mobility, stability and strength of the whole body, but mostly the arm for their specific sport. An example was posed to them was about a race car:
“If you were going to drive a car that could go 200 mph, what would you want to know about the car?”
Answers were flying out but the correct conclusion did surface after a minute or so of thought:
“Can I stop the car if it is going that fast?”
This concept seems to often be overlooked in a majority of force generation programs. If an athlete is going to be able to produce superhuman feats of power, the body must be able to decelerate properly to protect from injury. If the body deems it cannot decelerate, it will not accelerate! Thus, if you can increase the ability of the athlete to stop, he or she will gain the ability to accelerate.
I hope this information has made you think more about how you can improve performance in the transverse plane. For further information on rotational training, recovery, health or performance, contact the Integrated Sports Performance team with questions or concerns.