Movement competence and force production can coexist in youth strength and conditioning

When viewing strength & conditioning through the lens of traditional barbell based movements and their progressions, coaches often perceive a dichotomy between movement competence and force production.

These two qualities seem to be the starting and end points of a progression, with movement competence at one end and force production at the other. Only as an athlete gains more competence with the movement pattern can he start to produce more force within that pattern.

Let’s explore some ways through which we can view movement competence and force production as complementary, rather than mutually exclusive, pursuits.

Develop movement abilities while surfing the F-v curve

The basic premise of the force-velocity curve is the inverse relationship between force and velocity. The greater the amount of force an athlete produces, the slower the velocity they will produce it with. The faster an athlete can perform a movement, the less force or load they will be able to do it with.

A 1RM back squat, for example, is classified as a high force activity, as the load on the bar is theoretically the maximum the athlete can manage. By its very nature, the athlete cannot execute this lift with much velocity. If the bar was moving more quickly, it is very likely the athlete could lift more weight.

Similarly, if an athlete is executing a movement with high velocity, it is very likely that they could add more load to that movement and still be able to complete the rep, just not as quickly.

As the F-v curve illustrates, as force goes up, velocity goes down; and as velocity goes up, force goes down. When we look at how our athletes are producing these qualities, we can measure force in terms of peak force, and velocity in terms of rate of force development (RFD). 

As S&C coaches, one of our greatest desires is to help our athletes shift their F-v curve to the right. That is, that they can express greater peak force and higher RFD. In other words, our athletes would be able to produce more force, and produce it more quickly.

There are a multitude of ways coaches can apply the F-v curve. You may hear the classical application where force is related to strength and velocity is related to speed, with all the different qualities in between (strength-speed, power, and speed-strength). You may also see weightlifting exercise variations placed on the F-v curve, such as in Tim Suchomel’s work. He places mid-thigh pulls and countermovement shrugs at the high force end of the curve; and hang high pulls and jump shrugs at the high velocity end. These concepts are often paired with a percentage of 1RM prescription aligning with different points on the curve.

This is all very useful, and it can be highly applicable to S&C coaches working to develop force and velocity qualities in their athletes.

But it requires a baseline level of movement competence.

If the athlete does not yet have adequate movement competence to execute the lifts safely and effectively, loading the bar with more weight or getting them to execute the movement with more velocity is simply not safe.

And if they don’t have sufficient movement competence, they cannot execute a lift at an intensity that will generate any appreciable force production adaptations.

As we can see on the chart above, most of our technique focussed drills will fall off the force-velocity curve, with our athletes producing relatively low force at relatively slow velocity.

The main adaptations from technical drilling include coordination, motor control, low level muscle activation and joint stability. While it is necessary to spend time in this area in order to teach younger athletes how to lift with good technique, the transfer to producing force into the ground is limited.

Traditionally, the golden ticket needed to enter onto the F-v curve could only be obtained through movement competence. This has led to coaches spending months and years on end developing the fundamental movement patterns with their youth athletes, so that one day, when they grow up, they might be able to surf the revered force-velocity curve.

Observing the vast arrays of wooden dowels held valiantly above heads, the snapping of resistance bands around grazed knees and size 5 shoes, and the sombre stillness of plank holds, leaves me to wonder if there is more that we can do to better prepare these athletes for the demands of their sport? Are these young, enthusiastic athletes destined to remain stuck in this remedial environment until they can move with the proficiency of Lu Xiaojun? Or is there a way that we can get them surfing the curve, while still learning the fundamental movement patterns?

I am not saying that developing movement competence is not important, nor that we should bypass that process completely. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Being able to squat, hinge, push, pull, brace, rotate, carry, lunge, sprint, jump and land are of the utmost importance. Doing these movements with proper technique is going to set our athletes up for greater long term athletic development into the future. I am just curious whether we can start chasing force generating capacities, namely peak force and RFD, while we develop movement competence, rather than after.

Movement competence is part of athlete development

Movement competence is the ability of an athlete to maintain advantageous shapes and joint positions throughout the entire range of motion of an exercise. A shorter way of saying this is, the ability to maintain good technique.

The Australian Strength & Conditioning Association’s (ASCA) Position Stand on Resistance Training for Children and Youth^[1] references Dr. Stuart McGill. McGill wrote that the lower back is most effective while maintaining a natural lordotic curve. This allows for optimal lower back and abdominal muscle activation, which takes the load off of the lower back ligaments and reduces shearing forces on the spine^[2]. This reduces the likelihood of developing a lower back injury.

The ASCA’s Position Stand emphasises the importance of developing this ability early in an athlete’s lifting career.^[1]

Additionally, the ASCA states that technique often breaks down during heavier loading.^[1]

You typically see this with small packs of teenage boys at commercial gyms on deadlifting platforms. As they jostle for position to see who will be crowned The Most Alpha 16 Year Old, their rounded backs illustrate what it looks like to chase force production before establishing adequate movement competence.

The form in the deadlift breaks down as the athlete begins to move through the range of motion. Most of the time, athletes can get into a relatively good starting position, but lose shape when they begin to apply force and move through range. Their ability to maintain good technique as they move through their range of motion restricts their ability to express force.

But what if the bar has no load? And what if there is no range of motion?

I have yet to come across an athlete who is unable to establish a safe and efficient technique on the isometric mid-thigh pull (IMTP). Once the height of the bar has been set up for the individual’s anthropometrics, it is quite easy to coach the athlete into a good position to produce force. Given that the athlete will not be moving through range of motion as they produce force, there is little to no room for error in terms of technique breakdown. This creates an environment where the athlete is set up for success, allowing them to work without anything limiting their ability to express as much force as they can.

Adapting lifts to improve sport performance

When it comes down to it, our job as the S&C coach is to make our athletes better at their sport. We do this by helping them develop the physiological qualities necessary to prepare them for the physical demands of their sport. This is largely dependent on the joint angles, muscle actions and energy systems that are relevant to their sport.

Commonly, the tools we use to accomplish this aim include barbells, trapbars, dumbbells and kettlebells. But our job is not primarily to make our athletes good at lifting these objects.

Asking for a friend: Why don’t we make powerlifters dribble bumper plates?

Powerlifting is a sport. The sport involves three lifts, each of which have very specific regulations that define a successful lift in competition. The deadlift must be executed with a barbell from the floor. The squat must be executed to a depth where the thighs are parallel to the floor. And, during the bench press, the bar must pause on the chest before the competitor presses up to fully locked elbows.

Similarly, weightlifting is a sport. Athletes perform cleans and snatches from the floor and must finish the lift by stabilising the bar above their heads with locked elbows.

The goal of each sport is to produce as much force as quickly as possible within the constraints of the individual lifts.

But, as Ben Griffin says, “a barbell with plates on it is an arbitrary height off the ground. Athletes are under no obligation to lift from that position.” 

In training, we don’t make powerlifters dribble bumper plates before taking their third step, nor do we make them shoot the plates through a hoop positioned 10 feet above the ground. That would be a ridiculous incorporation of a different sport into theirs. So why is it any different when we graft powerlifting skills and rules into a basketball player’s workout? Why compromise or limit her ability to develop force generating capacities that will help her in basketball by making her perform core lifts to the competition standards of the sports of weightlifting or powerlifting?

If our job as the S&C coach is to make our athletes better at the sport they play, we should set our athletes up for success by placing them into more advantageous positions to produce force.

A 6’2″, 15 year old basketball player who was 5’8″ last year will not optimally produce force by squatting to parallel or lifting from the floor. They will be in a better position to produce force by modifying the range of motion using blocks, trap bars or safety arms. Likewise, when they are jumping for a rebound on the basketball court, their joint angles are more similar to a partial range squat than a deep squat.

Adding movement competence to F-v training

When we remove the constraints of technique by using a push isometric exercise, such as the IMTP, we allow the athlete to chase peak force in a much safer and more athletically conducive environment. By using a push isometric, we can set the athlete in a position where all they have to focus on is the task at hand: producing as much force as they can.

The same can be true for chasing velocity. Instead of having barbells on their back or teaching them a new exercise variation to target the velocity end of the curve, we can use jumping or throwing exercises to chase velocity.

As you can see in the videos, the barbell push press and the vertical medicine ball throw are fundamentally the same movement pattern. The difference is that the medicine ball throw has a far less steep learning curve. The only coaching I have ever needed to implement with this exercise is ensuring the athlete has their elbows below the ball, and then encouraging them to aim for the roof. They seem able to self organise into a position that very closely resembles that of the push press.

This is one way we can chase velocity in the vertical push pattern, without the athlete having to master the barbell variation of the movement.

This shows how we can develop movement competence in our youth athletes while also starting them on the road to force production capacities, namely peak force and rate of force development. The force-velocity curve helps us organise our exercise selection by relating everything back to fundamental movement patterns.

I am a staunch proponent of training movements rather than muscles. For example, I will generally have a vertical movement day, consisting of a squat pattern, vertical push and vertical pull; and then a horizontal movement day, consisting of a hinge pattern, horizontal push and horizontal pull. This is clearly not the only way, and perhaps it isn’t even the best way, but it works for my athletes and me.

S&C coaches need to develop competence in these fundamental movement patterns in our athletes, but it’s also worth concurrently trying to develop force and velocity in these patterns. Let’s take a hinge for example.

The force-velocity-technique block outlines how we can simultaneously develop movement competence, force, and velocity within any movement pattern.

The basic idea is that the coach picks a movement, in this case the hinge, and assigns three exercises to it: one to develop force, one to develop velocity, and one to develop movement competence. The athletes can perform this as a circuit, rolling through in the order of force, velocity, technique.

Force options generally include an overcoming (push) isometric; velocity can include jumps, throws, light implements or body weight exercises; and technique can include yielding (hold) isometrics, body weight, light load, or progressing to moderate or heavy load as the athlete gains movement competence.

The overcoming isometric potentiates the velocity based movement, and then we consolidate the movement pattern with some technical drilling.

Looking at Monday’s lower body FVT block, we would roll straight from an IMTP into a broad jump, and then into a kettlebell Romanian deadlift. The videos below illustrate how these exercises are all fundamentally the same movement pattern, each with a different target adaptation.

You can start to create force, velocity and technique streams for each of the fundamental movement patterns. From there, you can build out your program with whatever options fit your training philosophy, athlete needs, facility design and other factors.

I hope this article has sparked some new ideas about how you can continue taking the best possible care of your youth athletes. If it has, and you would like to discuss some of those ideas, or if you have any questions on the back of this article, I would love to hear from you. You can add me on LinkedIn or send me an email at timrice.strengthcoach@gmail.com.