First off this is probably the best practical approach to long term athletic development I have seen. There are some details I would disagree with or focus on less, but is that not the point of reading books you stretching your point of view? Having a system that is capable of taking athletes regardless of their starting point and being able to develop them is immensely useful.
The book dives into some really important concepts such as developing movement competency and training that is relative to skill development for sport. It is often lost that we are training athletes for a specific sport or purpose. We can frame strength and conditioning as exclusively general preparation, but that does not change the fact that training has to have some relevance to the task of the athlete. What Dechant did was address core issues with throwing based athletes and developing movement that matters to that task.
Sprinting, jumping, throwing are core patterns that are prerequisites for all athletes. Developing sprinting ability is understanding that is in fact a skill. Practicing and rehearsing running with athletes is such a simple concept, but so hard to truly apply. The idea that Dechant went into is not too different from Pavel’s ‘grooving the swing’ or Dan John’s ‘if it’s important to do it everyday’ approaches. Just practice as much as you can to get good at running. Daily exposure to running, with proper management of workloads, is incredibly beneficial. Dechant did a tremendous job of laying out a plan of progression and microcycle organization.
Where I struggled to connect was the description of the athletic position and its connection to hinging mechanics. Ripetoe’s stance on squatting is that it should be with the hips back to activate the hamstring. To be honest, I feel as though this is just not sound logic. At a certain point structural balance is about distribution of stress of specific tissues. If our squatting patterns are replicating our hinging patterns we create an imbalance of stress on tissues. This was a key attribute of Dechant’s athletic position/jumping progressions. Athletic position is largely dependent on balance and being able to exert force, this is not exactly developed by pushing hips back during squatting.
Dechant’s position on shoulder health was a perfect example of how to align stress from resistance and tissue development. Scapula control and strength is foundational to shoulder health. The books’ focus was on scapular retraction and protraction through horizontal rowing and pushing. Stress is appropriately applied to correct tissues to prevent overuse and better motor control during throwing. Personally feel the same logic was not applied to the lower body structural balance. Developing lower body structural balance by focussing on developing poster anterior and posterior chain can serve to enhance both balance and force producing ability from athletic position.
Aside from my personal perspective on hinge mechanics during athletic position, which is my opinion so I could be in fact wrong, this book was fantastic. Great logic with programming for both young to advanced athletes. Unbelievable system that is all encompassing, which is incredibly hard to do.