I recently re-read the Physical Competence Assessment from Giles and the idea that training is testing really hit home as it kicked up my experience at the Building and Rebuilding the Complete Athlete seminar. In team settings many proponents of the FMS don’t actually use the FMS to screen their athletes. Good training is a screen and if one is doing a real GPP you have literally a myriad of assessments being done daily. When I was first exposed to the FMS more than ten years ago I liked the idea of getting a bunch of information before we designed training programs. This was fine with very small groups but in team settings it was impossible unless you sacrifice a few precious training days. Assessments are great and I believe in them but what about day 2 all the way through day 320? What then? A score of 12 improving to 16 means what in the real world? The better prepared the athlete the less likely he or she will be injured. Power ratings can be concluded by evaluating the total indicators and when they must be met. Conditioning is important, but the two primary needs are work capacity for the training (training to train) and the game itself. Any assessment without performance indicators is moot, since fatigue or weakness will poison the well. Those that blog about the sports medicine side tend to fail to show the interplay of performance indicators and assessment. I have seen a huge increase in mobility at specific joints when the proper strength training is done. Muscles that shorten from overload are no longer locked because they could handle the rigors of training and competition. If one can clean from the floor with great technique and load it’s likely that they were trained correctly to allow them to get in those joint positions. It’s ironic that many who are opposed to such exercises are often touting corrective work when in reality the proof is in the training. Assessments are part of the periodization process and it’s not something you do twice a year (some don’t do it all apparently because they know how to train) it’s a process from day one to the end of the season. The interplay of all the variables is the assessment.
Carl Valle
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