This week I am going to shift a bit to start a conversation about a concept from Rob Gray’s newest book titled Learning to be an “Ecological” Coach: Developing Attuned and Adaptable Coaching Skills. He introduced a concept called invariants, or, specific biomechanical movements that all players must have to be successful. Research suggests that dynamic movements such as the softball pitch has a significant amount of variability, both individually pitch to pitch and between successful pitchers. When talking about baseball pitchers he states that his invariants are:
- Is the pitcher effectively taking force from the ground?
- Is the pitcher transferring force through the kinetic chain effectively?
- Does the pitcher decelerate effectively?
Implications: I have spoken with many pitching coaches who speak in terms of “absolutes” for a softball pitcher. Because there isn’t a ton of research to back it up, many of these “absolutes” differ from coach to coach. For me, the term absolute gets thrown around a lot and I am personally not a fan. In thinking along this line, if we use the term invariant maybe we start to look at the essential elements and focus on just those things alone rather than over complicating instruction for our athletes. Using invariants also allows each pitcher to work within their own individual constraints (height, weight, strength, weakness, mobility) to produce their highest outcome. I also believe that if a person well versed in the over 400 baseball pitching studies narrows these invariants down to 3 things, maybe 12 absolutes of softball pitching is too much and doesn’t allow each pitcher to work within their own body.
People to Follow
I have been following the Tim Ferris Show podcast since 2015. I found it while researching the book Becoming a Supple Leaopard by Kelly Starrett because I was having a lot of mobility issues as a player and a friend recommended it. First of all, that’s a great read and something a coach should know. However, Tim’s latest episode with Dr. Keith Baar from UC Davis gets into the weeds on helping to train tendons and the differences between training men and women was phenomenal. I invite you to check it out.
