Key Concepts - Building athletic performance (Part 2)

1. Aim

To introduce the Sanari Fitness model of athletic performance and why it should be the definitive approach to athletic development.

2. Intended Audience

Sports coaches, S&C coaches, healthcare professionals, athletes

3. Introduction

Continuation explaining the model below. Visit https://www.sanarifitness.com/2020/09/key-concepts-building-athletic.html for the beginning in the series.

4. Level 2 - Proprioception and controlling HQ

What is proprioception. Firstly we mustn't confuse it with balance. Balance is the umbrella term for maintaining a position with ease. But to achieve balance we need the three systems below to be functioning:

1. Visual - Eyes
2. Vestibular - Inner ear
3. Proprioception - Joints, muscles, tendons, ligaments, skin

Interestingly we often talk about the 5 senses, olfactory (smell), visual (sight), somatosensory (touch), auditory (hearing) and gustatory (taste). But unless we are talking about issues concerning injuries and rehabilitation we rarely talk about proprioception. However, I believe it to be one of the most crucial in human movement and indeed deserves a place as the 6th sense. 

So what is proprioception. As with balance, proprioception is an umbrella term for various other components but fundamentally it is the sense of knowing where our bodies and limbs are in space, how fast they are moving, in which direction and with how much force. So for example, just because the lights go off in a room doesn't mean you loose the ability to walk. Granted you adapt your movements somewhat as you try to avoid disintegrating your shin on the corner of the bed or stubbing your toes, but you can still get around. We can do this because we use the feed back from our skin, joints, muscles, ligaments and tendons to guide us along with the map we have in our head of the layout of the room when the lights were on.

However, when the lights go out, some people are able to move more effectively then others.  There will be those who can move relatively unperturbed, only raising their hands to protect their face, eyes and so forth. Then there are those who really struggle and feel extremely discombobulated, moving very slowly, stumbling around and very unsure of themselves. If this is you, then you likely have very poor proprioception.

With out fail those who have chronic injuries or regularly get acute injuries, almost always have poor proprioception. One of many tests for proprioception involves balancing with the eyes open and assessing the individual. Often at this point the individual professes how their balance has always been pretty good. Then we move to the second phase and get them to close their eyes. At this point the wheel usually falls off, with the client wibbling and wobbling all over the show and often within about 10 seconds. The bottom line, as with most things in life, you're only as strong as your weakest link. Poor proprioception  ultimately means poor balance.

Next in stage 2 is integration of HQ (Head Quarters), HQ in this case being your head. Our head is special because not only does it physically house nearly all the hardware (organs) we need for sensing things but it is also houses the main frame that processes all the feedback and makes decisions on what to do, your brain. In fact it could be argued that 100% of all senses are housed in the head as all sensing needs to be processed in the brain, bar certain reflexes, however, awareness (thus sense) of these reflexes is still registered in the brain. So the muscles involved in controlling HQ have a unique role. Tehse are teh muscles of the neck and the muscles involved in controlling our eyes (both movement and focusing). As our senses give feedback to the brain, be it sounds, touch, visual stimuli or smell, we may need to move our heads to improve locating the origin of the stimuli. But in addition to this, the muscles of the neck and eyes have to stabilise our gaze and/or head position during movements. This later role is unique in the body and often over looked in rehab and training of athletes.

With out an integrated HQ and and sense of proprioception we can not build the next phases of performance effectively.

Next up we will look at the 5 base movement patterns.