Tip of the Month - January 2025
Posture Training Is A Must
Many coaches focus on correcting technical errors when they should be examining the athlete’s posture to assess postural flaws that may impact performance.
Correct posture is crucial to successful skill learning and performance in sports. Let’s compare the human body to a car! Tires and other components are affected when the vehicle's alignment is off. When car tires are not correctly balanced, riding quality diminishes, and longevity decreases. When the human posture is not aligned correctly, problems such as a restricted range of motion (ROM) can occur. Incorrect or poor posture stresses the spine, which can induce neck, shoulder, back, hip, pelvis, knee, ankle, and foot problems, organ dysfunction, joint, tendon, ligament and muscle stress, etc.
Correct posture means proper body alignment and control, regardless of what one does in daily life, physical activity, or sports performance. Postural flaws tremendously impact everything we do or perform, as incorrect posture leads to health issues such as lower back pain, knee issues, etc., making participants and athletes more injury-prone.
The new fundamental concept is to increase athletic abilities and sports skills by improving body awareness, postural alignment, and body control. Despite the benefits of correct versus poor or faulty posture, the common syndrome among younger participants – athletes, posture training has largely been ignored and gets little – if any – attention or is considered not a training factor in sports programs. This is mainly because coaches are usually not trained or familiar with this phenomenon. Good posture is a function of the core muscles to control the body through correct alignment. Improving personal health and daily living and optimizing and maximizing training efforts and performance is critical. Therefore, pre-mid-post-season assessments (tests) and posture analysis should be administered and then monitored throughout the season/year. The Pre- and Post-training phases (former Warm-up – Cool-down are re-named) should incorporate general and specific exercises (geared toward individual participants – athletes based on assessment and needs.
Faulty Posture Affects Skill Learning And Performance
Poor or Faulty Posture…
Increases Health Issues – Affects Daily Activities and Quality of Life – Overall Well-being-
Interferes with Successful Skill Learning in Sports – Technique-
Diminishes Successful Sports Performance-
Assess Posture at the Annual Program Start – at Mid-term – at the End- and Keep Data -
Incorporate Posture Exercises into Daily Training (Warm-up or Cool-down)-
See the free materials below for examples:
Reference:
Schloder, M.E. (2025). Developing physical literacy for young participants and developmental athletes. Calgary, Alberta, Canada: coachingbest.com
Schloder, M.E. (2025). E.P.P.T. Effective pre-post training for age group swimmers.
Schloder, M.E. (2017). Physical literacy for children and youth through fun, fitness, and fundamentals: Chp 7: Posture awareness series, pp. 57-76.