The Importance of Good Balance Skills – Sport Knowhow XL

The Importance of Good Balance Skills – Sport Knowhow XL

By: Emilie Maclaine Pont, Sportknowhowxl

Pictures: Olaf Kraak

Carrying weights for muscle building, running, cycling, and boxing for improved fitness—“strength” and “cardio” are often seen as the two most important forms of training. However, balance is just as crucial. On September 20, the third meeting of the 2024 Masters of Movement series, organized by the Athletic Skills Model (ASM), focused on the importance of good balance skills. The event also revolved around successfully bringing an innovative idea into practice.

Movement scientist Dr. Jos de Koning took the stage as the keynote speaker in Amsterdam. De Koning is renowned as one of the pioneers of the clap skate, a topic on which he earned his PhD under the guidance of inventor Gerrit Jan van Ingen Schenau. As an associate professor at VU Amsterdam, he has unparalleled knowledge of how to successfully implement innovation. However, this process did not come without challenges. In the 1980s, no skating talent was particularly eager to adopt the clap skate.

Before De Koning began his presentation, ASM leader Gregory Sedoc and founder Prof. Geert Savelsbergh kicked off the evening. De Koning needed little introduction, as everyone is familiar with the existence of the clap skate, though it took around fifteen years after its invention for it to be widely adopted.

No Patent, But Improvement
De Koning then vividly guided the audience through the history of the clap skate. He traced its development from the creation of the regular skate in the 14th century to Van Ingen Schenau’s invention around 1985. Interestingly, this invention wasn’t entirely new. There was already a German patent from 1894 for a skate with a hinge at heel level, resembling the clap skate, but it had never been put into practice.

At the time, the established elite among Dutch speed skaters was not eager to embrace the clap skate.

Van Ingen Schenau was unable to secure a new patent due to the existing one, but this didn’t bother him. Under his leadership, De Koning sought a way to bring the theory into practice. Their research made the advantage of the clap skate clear. With a regular skate, the blade lifts off the ground during each stroke, reducing the time a skater can push off against the ice. This is different with the clap skate, where the blade remains in constant contact with the ice while gliding. During the push-off, the skater delivers an additional “clap,” which explains the name “clap skate.” As a result of this extra push, a skater generates 10% more power compared to a regular skate. After accounting for air resistance, this leads to a 5% improvement in performance. This enhancement comes purely from a change in biomechanics, allowing for more efficient use of muscles, De Koning explained.

A Sudden World Record
At the time, the established elite of Dutch speed skaters weren’t eager to adopt the clap skate. Why seek balance on a new type of skate when you can glide just fine on a regular one? That changed when a junior skating team dared to take the leap. In just one year, the skaters improved by 6.2%, compared to the 2.5% natural progression of similarly talented peers without clap skates. One of them, Jelmer Beulenkamp, even became a junior world champion using them. However, the professional skaters were still not convinced. That is, until Bob de Jong tried out Beulenkamp’s clap skates during a warm-up lap on race day. De Jong didn’t have time to switch back to his own skates before his 5,000-meter race and ended up setting a world record on the outdoor track with the borrowed clap skates.

This marked the signal for first female and later male elite skaters to make the switch. Considering the five gold, four silver, and two bronze medals that the Dutch team won with clap skates at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, it was certainly a wise choice. However, as De Koning emphasized, technological innovations alone do not guarantee long-term success, as anyone can adopt them. He believes that innovative training and methodologies are more effective in the long run.

 

De Koning concluded by illustrating how the blade of a skate can also be an inspiring tool for practicing balance skills, referencing the invention by VU PhD candidate Moira van Leeuwen. Older adults often walk with a wider stance to maintain better balance, which is not an efficient method. Walking with legs forward reduces wasted effort. Van Leeuwen developed a shoe with a transverse ridge in the middle. Walking in these shoes automatically trains the wearer’s instability. According to Van Leeuwen’s research, when participants switched back to regular shoes, they walked straighter and thus more efficiently. It’s an invention that De Koning hopes will be used and become an innovation.

Focusing on what you do in a competition is the key principle.

A World to Gain
After the dinner break, Martin Truijens and fellow ASM founder René Wormhoudt held a Q&A session for the attendees. Truijens is a movement scientist and top coach, having previously worked in swimming and currently coaching Dutch cycling talents at CycleClass NL, an independent foundation. He is convinced that there is still much to gain in many sports through “transfers,” or cross-pollination between different sports or movements. He believes that this approach increases the likelihood of executing the movements of one’s competitive sport more effectively. Additionally, it provides athletes with more enjoyment by avoiding one-dimensional training.

Up close, Truijens has observed how narrow-minded thinking still occurs in the swimming and cycling worlds. The mantra is to focus on what you do in a competition. Therefore, he co-introduced dryland training in swimming to help swimmers start their water training more effectively. He applies the same approach now with the 16 to 18-year-old talents at CycleClass NL. Instead of immediately getting on the bike, he engages them in core stability exercises, trains their balance skills on a football field, or activates the cyclists’ muscles by having them perform dynamic movements, depending on the training session that follows.

Wormhoudt added that if children, around six to eight years old, participate in various sports, they will learn specific skills more effectively and quickly later on. Additionally, their overall coordination improves, which can benefit them even while cycling, especially during sprints.

Truijens refers to the implementation of “dryland training” and the mixing of all cycling disciplines—from mountain biking and BMX to gravel and road cycling—as “one of the slowest innovations in sports.” Wormhoudt points out that football is leading the way in this regard. Clubs like Ajax, PSV, and AZ have embraced the Athletic Skills Model and train in a versatile manner. This is something Truijens can only dream of in cycling, despite the success stories of Puck Pieterse and Mathieu van der Poel.

Some view the board as a dangerous "instrument," making it difficult to apply in gym classes, training, or rehabilitation.

Skateboard as a Balance Tool
The evening concluded, as always, with an active practical workshop led by ASM instructor Cas Adrichem. He is not only a Physical Education teacher in secondary education but also a skate coach and works for the Skateboard Federation of the Netherlands. Although skateboarding is now an official Olympic sport, it is often practiced in an unorganized manner by youth. Some view the board as a dangerous “instrument,” making it difficult to apply in gym classes, training, or rehabilitation. Adrichem believes this view is misguided. Therefore, he demonstrated to the participants how the skateboard can be used as a tool to develop and maintain balance skills through practical and accessible methodologies.

Masters of Movement – community of learners

On December 13, ASM will host the final masterclass of the Masters of Movement series for 2024. The keynote speaker that evening will be Peter Heerschop, known to the general public as a comedian, but he is also a physical education teacher. He will discuss how coaches, physical education teachers, and physiotherapists can perform like theater artists.
Anyone interested can register for a one-time participation or join the ASM Community for twelve months.


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