Why Do We (Still) Do This Exercise? (114)

…Enjoying a mug of coffee on a wet and cold day... Quiet here, perhaps too early for most…I was reflecting on an exercise that professional football-soccer athletes were doing as part of their warming up routines prior to a match. It was shown in the background of that half-hour of television time before kick-off that lets people settle in. The exercise that most of the players were doing caught my eye and evoked a bit of surprise. It was a very common feature of warmups in decades past and I guess is now just done because it has always been done. It is an adapted jog that is variously called a butt kick or heel-flick. (self-portrait here is one variation)

This was one of the exercises I did not do as an athlete, as it wasn’t really around. Further, I learned a related perhaps original skill from two master coaches as a faster developmental exercise and not a sloppy jogging thing. It is likely that the heel-flick of today is a corruption of the original, as can happen with exercises in the hands of those who have not seen the original.

As a young coach I didn’t include it in my printed routines, but at the same time did not have the language to explain why. That part came a bit later at a coaching workshop for sprints where a coach commented that the heel flick exercise was not, in any part, a segment of a running or sprint stride. She was right…it wasn’t part of sprinting, running, or any other skill I had seen. So, why are we doing it?
The original was a dynamic posture exercise with a considerable demand if done at speed. It related well to Sprint Training. This jog action was replete with postural imbalances, faulty patterns, and potentially destructive leg actions. That early experience gave me a bit of a life lesson that I share with athletes as I design programmes and conduct sessions: if in doubt, ask questions. Because I use a lot of variations I do get asked ‘why are we doing this?’

In the case of this exercise, asking the questions around applicability or carryover to the training target might have created an exercise evolution that was productive rather than limited or limiting. Exercises and training do evolve and fade, and I’m sure that the heel-flick, in the hands of others, has evolved to be challenging and productive, perhaps because they question why an exercise is being selected…

Another coaching lesson I learned back then in ancient times was the notion of applicability being directed at the targeted objective of the activity. As a coach involved in speed and power sports, I needed to be mindful of keeping the exercises used in preparation targeted to speed and power. The simple directive from the original master coaches was that if speed was the essence of the event, then speed never leaves the programme. One reason for this is the obvious one of time. Time for preparation, training, and competition readiness is often limited so targeting the activities makes sense.

At a more specific level, coaches and athletes can learn to look at training and prep formats to tease out the variables that are related to the activity being pursued. Take a look…The coach who highlighted the issue with this exercise had a closer look and questioned validity, reliability, and relatedness. It’s a good place to start…I am thankful for the lesson because it has helped me eliminate a few exercises with dubious benefit and potential harm. It has helped me question my own designs and ensure that they are of benefit to the target skills. And, it has helped me grow as a coach.

Now, back to the coffee before it cools…