Articles

Articles written by M.J.Mohanachandran in various magazines

Philosophy of Coaching

Coaching should be innovative with scientific backing, each coach has different philosophy and ideology of coaching, and all aims for one purpose to produce international medal winners.

Coaches should evaluate their training program, necessary changes and new ideas with scientific backing should introduce to the training program. Evaluation of own training program improves the coaching skills. Traditional martial art of kerala “Kalaripayattu” has lot of training methods which improves the flexibility and explosive strength of human body, if, it is introduced right from young age. Kalari lessen the severity of injuries. Chavitty thirumu”of kalari improves the blood flow to Center Nerves System. Kalari training gives you a sense of inner power.

Yoga one of the ancient Indian Meditation technical will improve our mind and body co-ordination, very useful for psychological and physical tension relaxation through controlled breathing exercise.

Coach should be a director, who should have the full vision of the script, each and every thing he does should lead to the higher performance of their ward, without any damage to his mental and physical state. Players believe in coach when training program find result.

Many parents and players find it difficult in choosing their career, one percent talent is enough, ninety nine percent perseverance make you a good player, not a champion, for champion you should have some in born quality, how we find out this qualities, is a matter of fact, there are ham teen ways to spot talent, through motor quality test, psychomotor ability test etc; after passing all the quality test some are becoming utter flop, Why?.

No answer for this. Scotland Yard, world renowned British investigation agency has all the backing of scientific, physical and physiological back up for investigating crime, has adopted Palmistry for spotting out well planned highly intelligent criminals of different gender. After years of research in palmistry have spot out certain lines which predicts a person is good for higher performance in sports. With this knowledge of lines and high quality of training, some results are harvested. This will guide us to spot real champions. Many a coaches have concern how to produce result within 10-15 days of coaching, all the players are well trained by different coaches, tapering is a phenomena which helps the player for higher or peak performance, it is like sharpening a spear to penetrate deep into the body, try to learn the art of peaking, you can become a champion coach.

Speed

“It is the performance pre-requisite to do motor actions under given condition”, most of them are concerned about the speed of their, game. How to make Indians faster and fitter is major issue we are facing, when compared to our fellow Asians.

Speed is a motor quality, speed and explosiveness is the most needed ability in badminton, speed should not be equated with mechanical speed, which is equal to distance covered per unit of time, and in badminton speed ability primarily signifies the ability to execute motor movements with high speed.

Those who have more numbers of fast twitch fibers have grater ability to move or execute faster. Speed ability is linked with seven different factors.1) Reaction ability, 2) Movement speed, 3) Acceleration .4) Speed endurance.5) Explosive strength or Speed strength 6) Flexibility. 7) Good Technique along with a balanced Centre Nerves System.

Confusion arises, how we improve this complex motor ability. Selected player should have more number of fast twitch fibers, only then there is any effect in training. Here we are dealing with specific speed quality development; it can be called movement speed or frequency movement.

Speed ability is trainable to a very limited extent due to its marked dependence on the function of the Centre Nerve System. Speed can be improved indirectly by improving the various factors on the speed performance dependent. Example, in Badminton, checking the technique of the player, by correcting technical faults the subject can execute strokes faster and smother, secondly checking reaction ability.

“Reaction ability is the ability of a player to react effectively and quickly to a signal”. If this ability is lacking, game of the player will be slow. Reaction ability is classified into visual and tactile. By using training aids we can develop upto certain extent.

“Movement speed is the ability to do a single movement in minimum of time.” In simple words economical foot work, economical in the sense with less wastage of time moving to the far corners of the court. Instead of moving all around the court, you can develop a specific step movement. In this, the important factor is speed in initial movement (e.g.: moving from stationary position).

“Acceleration is the ability to achieve high speed of locomotion from stationary position”, as said in previous, this ability is mostly needed in Badminton. This is mostly depends on explosive strength, flawless technique and movement frequency (foot work).

Speed endurance is the ability to do sports movements with high speed under conditions of fatigues”. It is a combination of speed and endurance ability, in badminton one of the most needed ability is speed endurance, moving again and again with maximum possible speed with jumping and smashing is the challenging task for a badminton player.

“Flexibility is the stretchability of the muscles and mobility of the joints.” Good flexibility allows for optimum range of movements without much internal resistance, there by positively affecting speed. Improving optimum flexibility leads to improvement of speed. Ballistic method, post iso-metric stretches:

Last not least, explosive strength, speed performance depends to a great extent on explosive strength, of the muscles concerned. Because of the high trainability of explosive strength most of the time speed performance is improved by improving explosive strength. Explosive strength further depends on muscle composition, muscle size, muscle co-ordination and metabolic process. Except muscle composition all other factors can be improved through training.

Relatively proposition of fast twitch and slow twitch fibers determines to a great extent the maximum possible speed with which a muscle can contract. But this is not trainable as it is genetically determined.

For selection to intensive coaching programs players must be tested for motor qualities, we are aiming for international medals, by competing with other Asian giants. Don’t shy away from reality! Find out what system others follow.