Saturday, March 12, 2011

Great question from JM

"Joe, what are your thoughts on this recent shift focused on the respirtory/neurological system by regulating breathing? System integration makes sense rehabbing the athlete and not just an injury. Keep up your great thought provoking posts! We are all thankful."
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Excellent question JM that lets me get up on my soapbox & bore with my pontification. The local hip hop stations all seem to have the "old school" at noon where they play music from the 80s. Most just change the station. So you can too but it goes like this...


Back in the day, A.T. education was unique, because we all graduated with a dual A.T./P.E./Health certification. There was no such thing as an A.T. degree. Because of that, those of us coming out of that era had a strong base in motor control/learning. That was something that separated us from other professions like the physical therapy and chiropractic. This whole "functional" movement evolved from US, not the before metioned. They just re-named what we did (e.g. plyometics became "stretch cycle shortening training"). Somewhere around the time actual A.T. degree programs were created, we lost that background in pedagogy, motor control, and movement education. We seemed to borrow from physical therapy, causing the lines between the two professions to blur, leading to unnecessary conflict between the two.
In the last 5 years, the plethora of information supporting complex systems & motor control theory have exploded! And, they are pointing to the "old school" way WE used to do it. Yet we are mindlessly led from one marketing innovation to another rather than taking the lead.
So finally, to answer your question...to us old schoolers this breathing movement is not "system integration" at all. In function, you can do the same task a thousand times, breathing differently each time, using different muscle firing patterns each time... and be doing it absolutely correct. If a breathing pattern does appear aberrant, that particular task is simply outside the athlete's envelope of function. Modify it until you get the results you desire. The catch 22 is, you would have no idea how to do that without a strong background in pedagogy, motor learning/control, and movement education.  Running out and getting some personal trainer certification won't fix it.

1 comment:

sls said...

To us athletic trainers who did not go through the old school education system, and obtained an "AT" degree. How do you recommend getting the background in motor control and pedagogy that you recommend? Do you have any recommended resources? I've been reading your blog since the very beginning, and have been very intrigued by many of the topics that you cover. But feel lacking in the ability to implement your ideas based off the lack of background in these topic areas. I graduated and been certified as an athletic trainer for 3 years. Thank you!