Interview on Flexibility and Strength for PhysiDex.com
24May10
On May 11th I did an audio interview with Mark Knapp of PhysiDex.com.
The interview was done over Skype, so the recording is not studio-quality, but it may still be worth your while to listen to.
Here are Mark’s main questions:
- What are some of the biggest myths or misconceptions that you see regarding stretching and flexibility for sport?
- What is MOST important to consider when stretching?
- What is the reasoning behind stretching warm vs. cold muscles?
You can listen to the interview here.
Filed under: Flexibility and Stretching, Strength Training for Sports and Martial Arts | 8 Comments
Tags: sports, stretching and flexibility
Dear Mr Kurz,
just listened to the interview, thanks a lot for posting it! 🙂
I really like your style, you’re not just presenting all the answers but encouraging the interviewer to think for himself. Also, I like your emphasis on praxis (of course combined with reading ;)), so many people just talk. In my experience, most of my questions/insights arise during my practice, for example the feeling of correct alignment vs incorrect alignment in the horse stance.
all the best,
Oliver
Thank you for posting that. Hopefully more and more people will get into this way of training. Can’t tell you how many times I see adults each day “warming up” while sitting on the ground and reaching for something. Not to mention how many children under the age of 9 I see before their figure skating lessons mimicking what their coaches are teaching them with the seat and reach technique.
Regards,
Joe
You are very welcome, Oliver.
I believe that best answers to all theoretical questions are in practice. I will write more about this and about the right alignments in exercises in future posts.
Best regards,
Thomas Kurz
Joe,
Thanks for reading the post.
“Hopefully more and more people will get into this way of training.”
Hopefully. But for that they would have to begin thinking about what they are doing—and imagine what would happen if they carried this outside the exercise. . . .
Best regards,
Thomas Kurz
I too enjoyed the interview immensely and although I have read all your work already, I still found myself learning from it. The idea of learning from practice is so simple and natural, I wonder why more people don’t base their training on such simple and correct methods? However, something I’ve always wondered is this. How come some people follow all the improper training methods, but still reach the heights of their sport? Muhammad Ali and many other boxers did and continue to do their very long endurance training before their technical boxing training which violates the order of a microcycle. So many martial artists sit and grab their toes before kicking but still can achieve good form and technique. I understand that this predisposes them for injury and poor recovery, but many follow these methods with such successful sport careers. How is it so?
This is how:
— Athletic form has many components;
— If all do the same stupid things then none is handicapped more than others;
— Some components of the form have more bearing on the outcome than others;
— Some components of the form can compensate for deficiencies in others.
Could you please give me an ideal pregame warmup (presumably active warmup) routine for the sport of American football at the High School Varsity level.
I am also very interested in using grip strength to determine what an athlete’s mode of training should be for a given day (state of readiness), however, I will purchase your books and read them before I post my questions to you. Thank you very much.