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Strong Endurance What has your success been with SE or A+A for sport or general life?

JPCross said:
I would compare tennis to it in a way - I imagine after thousands of "reps" in practice and games, you became very proficient in reading the ball off the bat with respect to launch angle, spin, velocity, etc. and were able to get yourself into position to field the ball as cleanly as possible so you could make the appropriate throw.

Tennis is no different - you start to see so many shots come off an opponents strings and start interpreting their body movements/mechanics and the launch angle/spin/velocity of the ball, you end up in good positions so you have more options yourself with your next shot.

I've yet to find a way aside from just doing it thousands upon thousands of times that speeds up that learning curve.
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You'd be right in that I am pretty good at reading launch angle etc., based off what I see from the batter's motion. VERY strong correlation to what I see in a motion swinging a tennis racquet. I came in with a 'head start' witnessing thousands of an opponent's rotational motion.

Same as why I came into golf/tennis with a strong capability to hit the ball hard - all my life I've been taught 'swing for a double' (ie hit through the ball). With the underlying physical ability (and as FMS would add, additionally the underlying competency to achieve the ideal body position) all that was missing was the sport specific skill.

This is why I'm such a believer in the physical literacy/motor skill development model. Thousands of reps are so important, but when there are large similarities between something it greatly speeds up the learning curve. When kids trial multiple sports, explore all motor skills, it keeps options open (both for competitive and 'active for life' endeavours).
 
wespom9 said:
You'd be right in that I am pretty good at reading launch angle etc., based off what I see from the batter's motion. VERY strong correlation to what I see in a motion swinging a tennis racquet. I came in with a 'head start' witnessing thousands of an opponent's rotational motion.

Same as why I came into golf/tennis with a strong capability to hit the ball hard - all my life I've been taught 'swing for a double' (ie hit through the ball). With the underlying physical ability (and as FMS would add, additionally the underlying competency to achieve the ideal body position) all that was missing was the sport specific skill.

This is why I'm such a believer in the physical literacy/motor skill development model. Thousands of reps are so important, but when there are large similarities between something it greatly speeds up the learning curve. When kids trial multiple sports, explore all motor skills, it keeps options open (both for competitive and 'active for life' endeavours).
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I need to quote this and share it with all of the parents of my son's tae kwon do school and swim school as well as his little league baseball team I help to coach.

Some of the specialization and focus I see my six year old son's friends, classmates, or teammates have on their sports or activities tells me they are being set up for early burn out.

Even some of the best athletes in the world participated in multiple sports or activities at a high level until ultimately pursuing one - Nadal and Djokovic being two that come to mind quickly.

As my grandfather once told me, if your peak happens at 18, it seems like there is quite the downhill ride ahead.
 
It's truly wild. Being in Canada I miss some of it, but Perfect Game USA for baseball has like 8 and 9U rankings in baseball. What a colossally stupid idea. I have a hard time justifying why a kid needs to travel for a sport prior to being a teenager. Sure, maybe the 1x a year tournament for a fun team trip, but even that can be a lot.
Part of why I have so much fun in tennis/golf is that I'm pretty good at it. Similarly, I can play decent amateur basketball, volleyball, soccer. All of these things would not have been available to me if I hadn't 'sampled' for a number of years. Then, I specialized, but that broad base still allows huge transferability. And to be honest, we all want to be is Active for Life (literally called that in the LTAD development model) cause most of us won't make money off sport.

I stole the attached image from Canada's LTAD model (for some reason I found it easiest in water polo, but this image shows up in all Canada provincial sport organizations and it highlights the range of things you can't do if you miss out on a basic aspect of physical literacy. What we should all be after is basic competency in all motor skills.

PS 'Range' By David Epstein is a must read in this sphere. Not directly sport related but amazing read on the benefits of exploration and resisting the urge to specialize
 

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I keep digging A+A for 7 years ( @Anna C was it 2016 when we started Al's lazy endurance swing protocols?) without getting hurt by it except for some hand punishment by doing loads of snatches during warm seasons of the year. According to a myth every seven years every cell of the organism got replaced...

As I mentioned sometimed before that I don't believe in programming (allthough good ones actually work haha ). It's a program without having a program, just about a handfull of profound guiding principles. It resonates with my aimless attitude. The more I do it, the more it does on me. The aimless boundaries just get wider, no peak but a plateau...

In every day life and work I can move pretty well in all 'childish' positions pain free and effortless as a middle aged adult. I get no bad comments about my physique when I meet new people pretty much every time.

It is so much of a pretty perfect philosophy of training that I dedicated an A+A thread: Kettlebell - Alactic + Aerobic continued...
 
Harald Motz said:
I keep digging A+A for 7 years ( @Anna C was it 2016 when we started Al's lazy endurance swing protocols?)
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To my recollection... Spring of 2015, Al was having some of his local folks testing it out. He had me do some versions of swing sessions in the SFG Prep program (note the "OTM swings" in the program). Summer of 2015 we had a FB test group. Late 2015 and early 2016 more swing protocols but starting to move into snatches. I continued with this into 2017 and returned to it in 2019 for a while.

As for my success with A+A, looking back on it now (or am I still doing it? Weightlifting feels very similar, sometimes...) I can say that several years of it from 2015-2017 got me in the best shape of my life! Although I've come to realize that "shape" or "fitness" is specific to qualities and tasks.... In some ways I am more "fit" now (heavy barbell training, strength, skill, power) and other ways I am less "fit" now (strength endurance, ease of strong bodyweight movement in something like "animal flow", and aerobic base -- although in these, I am still "adequate" for my needs and health).

A+A swings got me to Sinister.

A+A got me in excellent shape to donate a kidney.

A+A helped me train for SFG II, SFL, SFB... leading to StrongFirst Elite.

A+A formed a base of fitness that allowed me to take up the very challenging sport of weightlifting at the age of 52 and compete at IWF Masters Worlds in Dec 2022 at the age of 55.

And last but certainly not least, the A+A journey has brought many awesome people into my life!
 
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