The fourth instalment on our discussion around functional movement, it should come as no surprise then that power in itself is dependent on not only a level of awareness around your centre of gravity (C.O.G), range of movement (R.O.M) and momentum, but the application of these technical proponents into your game. By including all four of these functional movement principles into your game, a player/athlete begins to reach that next stage of development and with that progresses towards that next level.
It becomes a natural denominator in and thereof itself with this level of awareness as a player/athlete begins to take the next step in their game that oftentimes is assimilated with greater performance advancements in contrast to their counterparts who in turn are more susceptible to falling behind. It is also a fundamental contributing factor to again not only safeguard the player by reducing the onset of injury, but by leveraging functional movement principles the player/athlete learns how to integrate power into their game with ‘less’ effort. This ‘less’ is largely as a result of this level of awareness and a more refined game that progresses to use the body as a whole and leverage the underlying kinetic chain to its full advantage.
By learning to integrate to implement these core ‘scienentific’ principles the player/athlete broadens their knowledge base and becomes even more capable of pushing their level of play to greater heights.
This works hand in hand with the coach-athlete relationship. With a shared understanding around these principles and the integration of functional movement patterns — progressively, the player steadily edges closer to their next performance indicator. As the player/athlete and coach reach this level of play in tandem, these principles can not only be further integrated, they’re called upon to more readily produce power and the player/athlete becomes even more skilled, with time, in using power to their advantage on a more consistent level whilst their body and its overall health remains front and centre.
To learn more about the role of power in tennis and functional movement, listen to this week’s episode on Beyond Top 10 Tennis.
