Our first of three videos posted this week is a functional anatomy video covering the muscles of the upper appendicular skeleton. This video is intended for those coaches wanting to come to an understanding of the origins, insertions and actions of the muscles moving the arm and shoulder girdle as presented using interactive functional anatomy software from Primal Pictures. The second video this week is Dan Pfaff’s outstanding dissection of hurdling technique in another edition of his Classroom to Track series. Lastly, Wynn Gmitroski takes distance coaches through his ideas on warm ups, dynamic mobility and therapy protocols.

Please find below comprehensive summaries of the newly posted sport science videos. All videos are available under the appropriate category through the Media On Demand feature offered by the Canadian Athletics Coaching Centre. Click on the heading of the following videos to be directed to the video content.

Classroom to Track - Hurdles  by Dan Pfaff

This unique series of videos offers athletics coaches a complete examination of proper mechanics and teaching strategies for each technical event in athletics. Each is composed of two parts: The first part is a full biomechanical video analysis by Coach Pfaff on a world class competitor. The second part is comprised of a videotaped training session of him working with an athlete in the same event discipline. This video focuses on hurdle mechanics. Topics include: Optimal acceleration to the first hurdle, overall acceleration patterns, interhurdle running technique, takeoff technique and effective hurdle clearance mechanics.

Functional Anatomy - Upper Appendicular Skeleton  by Dr. Normand Boule

This video is one of three installments of our Introduction to Functional Anatomy series. Dr. Normand Boule discusses the muscles of the upper appendicular skeleton with the use of a human model and the functional anatomy software from Primal Pictures. Topics include: The origins, insertions and actions of the muscles of the upper appendicular skeleton, as well as some brief comments on how these muscles may contribute to more complicated movements.

Warm-Up, Mobility and Therapy Protocols for the Endurance Athlete – Practical Session  by Wynn Gmitroski

In this practical session Coach Gmitroski discusses the important warm-up procedures for endurance athletes. Topics include: Balance in athletic performance and using warm-up as a tool for assessing athlete preparedness (measuring nervous system fatigue). Other topics include: A selection of various balance and proprioreceptive-enhancing exercises and their implementation into a warm-up, how to manage recoveries between warm-up exercises, examples of active mobility exercises, coordination exercises and their implementation in a warm-up routine, nutrition and hydration and passive flexibility work.