Consider some sporting examples, how about Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff hitting a six over square leg, or Tiger Woods hitting a drive 300 plus yards down the fairway or even Wayne Rooney dribbling and swerving around several defenders until turning and firing a shot at goal. All these skills don’t just rely on innate ability and technique but also on specialist conditioning drills and methods to develop rotational power.

To perform the above activities all over power is needed but the core (abdominal and back muscles) is fundamental for their optimum performance. The core area must be strong enough to transfer power from the limbs into a sporting skill such as a tennis forehand or discus throw. It must also be strong enough to reduce the risk of injury and must be able to generate specific sports power itself.

Straight Line Speed vs Change of Direction Speed
Many people assume that athletes who are fast in running a straight line will be fast in any direction, however research has shown this may not be true. Young and associates researched the impact of straight line speed training on rotational/change of direction speed, and vice versa(1).

36 males were tested on a 30m straight sprint and six change of direction tests before and after a six week training programme in which one group performed 20-40m straight line sprints whilst the other group performed 20-40m 100° angle change of direction sprints.

The researchers found several relationships:
Straight line sprint training improved straight line sprint performance.
Increased straight speed did not translate into speedier turns.
Change of direction training improved turning performance.
Increased turning performance did not transfer to straight line speed.
The more complex the change of direction the less transfer there was from straight line speed training.

This study showed that the ability to rotate the body at speed is a highly specific skill requiring specialist conditioning especially for sports like football and tennis, where players have to constantly rotate in order to make up the ground to perform their various sport specific skills. Therefore being fast in a straight line is not enough!

Enhancing Sport Specific Rotational Movements
It is hoped improved strength will result in improved performance in most sports and therefore resistance training is a common training method in the majority of performers conditioning routines. However developing rotational power and speed can be very challenging for coaches and players to develop.

Weight exercises such as the squat and power clean are common in most sports but are performed linearly and do not reflect the way in which rotational power is generated in sports movements, like the discus throw.
These linear exercises are used to establish a power base but athletes and coaches need to develop a repertoire of more specialist weights exercises, e.g. the Russian twist and the wood-chop (see below), which are better suited to channelling strength and power into rotational sports skills.

However, the direct relevance of even specialist weight exercises to sports performance is open to question. This is because it would not be possible to generate a sport specific rotational velocity through weight training based on the studies of Welch et al(2).

Welch and associates studied the forces of the hip and shoulder of a baseball hit and found the hip rotates to a maximum speed of 714° per second, followed by a shoulder rotation of up to 937° per second. This equates to a maximum linear bat velocity of 31m/second.

This poses questions relating to rotational conditioning, such as: how can weights and other resistance methods be best employed to enhance specific sports performance skill? And how important is speed of performance?

Cronin et al went in search of the answers(3) and reached the following conclusions:

Developing strength, power and rate of force appear of greater importance than training at the actual movement velocity of the task e.g. the 31m/sec of the baseball hit.
Functional performance can be improved by developing muscular and neuromuscular coordination by combining sport specific training with heavy or varied training loads.
It is essential that the nervous system activates and coordinates all the muscles involved in performing a movement.

Former world javelin record holder Tom Petranoff recommends under speed training when performing medicine ball exercises (widely used to improve rotational strength/power). He advised, ‘The key to any training is to train smart, to train slow and get the technique correct before you add more weight or resistance,’ (4).

Therefore perform the movement at your speed until the technique is mastered. This echoes the eastern bloc coaching methodology of ensuring that a technique is properly mastered before more power is bolted on.

This is especially important in sports involving rotational movements, where controlled, smooth application of power is crucial, as, indeed, is timing. For example a hammer thrower could spin as fast as he was able to but too much speed would result in a loss of balance and control, and therefore underperformance.

Petranoff expands on this issue by emphasising the need for those performing rotational sports movements to develop an awareness of where their centre of gravity is.

Throwers are well aware of this requirement and spend hours performing various rotations, with or without resistance/throwing implements, in the pursuit of better spatial awareness, body positioning and footwork.

Rotational Weight Exercises
Below are some examples of dynamic conditioning drills, which are performed at various velocities but all develop the muscles used in sport specific rotational movements.

Russian twist
• Mimics the shoulder rotation movement employed in numerous hitting and throwing sports.
• Sit on the floor with knees bent at 90° and get a partner to hold your ankles.
• Hold a weights disc with both hands and lower your trunk to a 120° angle.
• Rotate left and then right, stopping the weight 10-15cm from the floor.
• Repeat for number of repetitions.

Reverse trunk twist
• Lie on a weights bench face down, with a barbell positioned across the back of your shoulders.
• Get a partner to hold your ankles down.
• Rotate your torso left and right, while keeping your hips in contact with the bench.

Cable chop
• Exercise uses a high pulley machine and a triangular attachment and develops rotational power in   the shoulders and trunk.
• Stand facing forward with feet slightly more than shoulder width apart.
• Hold the attachment with both hands over your right shoulder and pull the cable across your body   to just beyond your left hip.
• Complete number of repetitions and perform on the other side.

Rotational Plyometric Exercises
Plyometric exercises lead to explosive rotational power development. These drills use an eccentric (lengthening) contraction followed immediately by a concentric (shortening) contraction, which produces a more powerful contraction. The muscles operate like an elastic band; if you stretch the band before releasing it, a great deal more energy is generated as it contracts.

Plyometric exercises can be used to develop rotational power of the core muscles. Exercises such as throwing and catching medicine balls will develop plyometric power however Paul Chek, one of the world’s foremost authorities on sports conditioning, for golf in particular, recommends the following exercises for developing rotational power (5):

The twister
• In a standing position place a small medicine ball between your legs.
• Hold your arms out straight at shoulder height and take small jumps rotating your knees to each   side so you land at an angle. Keep your upper body still.
• Jump first to the right then to the left with the greater the rotation the greater the obliques (the   muscles of the outer abdominal area) work.

The medicine ball toss
• Stand side on to a training partner or wall.
• Catch a medicine ball with both hands.
• Rotate away from the partner/wall as far as possible and then rotate back towards the partner/wall   before throwing the ball back.
• Perform on both sides to develop the obliques.

Tornado ball wall chop
• Using a specialist piece of kit - a polyurethane ball on a length of sailing rope.
• Can be performed kneeling, sitting or standing and with varying angles of ‘chop’.
• Position yourself one metre away from a wall with your back to it.
• Hold the rope with both hands, then rotate and swing it, either to your left or right, so that it hits   the wall.
• It will spring back to you with great force and you need to be braced and ready to control this   reaction so that you can swing back into another chop immediately.
• Repeat for required number of repetitions.

These weight and plyometric rotational exercises can all be used to develop rotational strength and power. This development of the core muscles can transfer into a range of sporting skills to improve your sporting performance – whatever your game!

References
1. Sports Med 1997 Sep;24(3),147-56
2. J Orthop Sports Phys Therapy 1995 Nov;22(5),193-201
3. J Sports Med Phys Fitness 2002 Sep;42(8),267-273
4. Petranoff – Everything Track and Field www.everythingtrackandfield.com
5. Chek – Tornado Training part II www.paulchekseminars.com