MAKE CHANGES EASIER
If you have been executing a skill a certain way for a long period of time the skill motor pathway will be well ingrained in your nervous system and muscles. To make changes in your technique at this time, is usually extremely difficult and many times impossible if you do not put in the necessary time and effort required.
Very slight modifications or adjustments can always be made but it the changes cannot be great, especially if they involve gross movements This is one of the main reasons why it is so important that you learn proper technique from the very earliest years so that you do not develop ineffective movement patterns.
However, when necessary, changes must and should be made. The key is to learn how to make the technique the changes as easily and as effectively as possible so that they can be enacted in the shortest amount of time.
Keep in mind that the more drastic the changes that must be made, the longer it will take. In some cases, it may even be necessary to stop performing in your sport until some of the changes take place. In extreme situations this may take one or more months depending upon the methods that are used in making the changes.
Some of you may now be asking why it is even necessary to make changes in technique. The answer is simple; technique, or how you execute a sports skill or action, determines how effectively the skill is performed. Understand that execution of the skill is the main factor that determines the success of the athlete in competition.
The more effectively the athlete executes the necessary skills of his sport or position, the more successful he will be in his game play. In other words, how well you execute and perform the necessary skills the more successful you, and the team will be. This is the key to winning or losing. Because of physical abilities are constantly changing, technique must be constantly adjusted to ensure the best performance.
Most effective when correcting or making a change in technique, is to work on only one aspect of the total technique. It should be the one joint action that is most in need of improvement and which may affect other joint actions as a consequence of the change made.
In most cases this will be a correction in a major joint action, not in the fine actions. If it is a change in the fine points, as for example, finger action when throwing a ball, then typically it is considered as fine tuning a skill or making it more precise rather than making a modification in total technique.
Some examples of technique changes that affect other actions, include learning how to shift weight and rotate the hips. This is especially important in all hitting and throwing actions as seen in in baseball, football, tennis, lacrosse and other sports.
When you are capable of doing these two movements well, the following shoulder and arm actions will usually follow in basically good sequence with more power. This is an instance where correction of one body part will enable you to execute other body actions even more effectively.
The key to making changes and learning something different, is to first do a biomechanical technique analysis of your technique. In the analysis you must look at the film or video frame by frame in order to see the exact actions that occur and in the sequence that are they occur.
By doing this you will be able to point out the joint actions that are in need of improvement so that you can then develop a feel for the new technique and the actions involved. Not only must you strengthen the muscles that are involved in the action, but you must repeat the action a multitude of times in order to develop the correct feel.
The number of repetitions often run into the hundreds before you establish the neuromuscular pathway needed to be able to duplicate these actions automatically. Once you have developed this ability, you then incorporate it into the total skill and then repeat the total skill for many repetitions. The entire skill will then become automatic.
Thus, the key to learning and making changes in technique involves determining exactly what you do in your technique and then improving the technique and strengthening the muscles as they are involved in the new action. You will then be able to develop a feel for the actions through multiple repetitions to make the movement feel natural and automatic.
Using specialized strength exercises is the key to learning and making changes in technique most effective and most often in the shortest amount of time. .
For more information see Build a Better Athlete.