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Neuromechanics of Human Movement

Roger Enoka

Everyone needs a solid reference textbook for a general field, and mine is Enoka’s Neuromechanics. Rather than sifting through blog posts and attempting to pick up pieces of the biomechanics language over time, I think it would serve coaches well to dedicate a couple months directly studying this text.

Neuromechanics of Human Movement

Roger Enoka

Everyone needs a solid reference textbook for a general field, and mine is Enoka’s Neuromechanics. Rather than sifting through blog posts and attempting to pick up pieces of the biomechanics language over time, I think it would serve coaches well to dedicate a couple months directly studying this text.

A Guide to Better Movement

Todd Hargrove

Reading this early on as a student opened a lot of doors for me. The pain science realm, complexity, variability and a host of other interesting topics are covered. Todd’s an excellent communicator as evidenced by how well he simplifies these concepts. If you are on the fence, try heading over to his blog, Better Movement, and you’ll find yourself some gold.

A Guide to Better Movement

Todd Hargrove

Reading this early on as a student opened a lot of doors for me. The pain science realm, complexity, variability and a host of other interesting topics are covered. Todd’s an excellent communicator as evidenced by how well he simplifies these concepts. If you are on the fence, try heading over to his blog, Better Movement, and you’ll find yourself some gold.

Anatomy of Breathing

Blandine Calais-Germain

If you’re looking for a beginner’s introduction to breathing, and something that takes little more than a few hours, then I’d recommend starting with Anatomy of Breathing. It’s written for the lay person, easily shareable to athletes, and covers the basics of breathing with beautiful drawings and pictures. You won’t learn the significance of the Bohr Effect but you will improve your understanding of the topic.

Anatomy of Breathing

Blandine Calais-Germain

If you’re looking for a beginner’s introduction to breathing, and something that takes little more than a few hours, then I’d recommend starting with Anatomy of Breathing. It’s written for the lay person, easily shareable to athletes, and covers the basics of breathing with beautiful drawings and pictures. You won’t learn the significance of the Bohr Effect but you will improve your understanding of the topic.

NEXT STEPS

NEXT STEPS

The Brain’s Sense of Movement

Alain Berthoz 

Berthoz describes how humans perceive and control movement, navigates our predictive and projective nature, and answers questions like “What if Newton Had Wanted to Catch the Apple?” as sections of his book.  This is a bit of a dense read, but certainly attainable if you have a science background. It’s a fascinating look into the perception-action world that I haven’t seen mentioned in my circles, and I’m not quite sure why. .

The Brain’s Sense of Movement

Alain Berthoz 

Berthoz describes how humans perceive and control movement, navigates our predictive and projective nature, and answers questions like “What if Newton Had Wanted to Catch the Apple?” as sections of his book.  This is a bit of a dense read, but certainly attainable if you have a science background. It’s a fascinating look into the perception-action world that I haven’t seen mentioned in my circles, and I’m not quite sure why. .

Kinetic Control: The Management of Uncontrolled Movement

Comerford, Mottram

This book came highly recommended a long time ago by Dr. Michael Chivers, and at the time I wasn’t wise enough to fully grasp its importance. A few years afterwards, while attempting to recall an amazing figure depicting the movement system, it dawned on me that I needed to go back to Kinetic Control for round two. Don’t be fooled you, this textbook has hundreds of pages of depth on joint movement, assessing it, and how to correct it.

Kinetic Control: The Management of Uncontrolled Movement

Comerford, Mottram

This book came highly recommended a long time ago by Dr. Michael Chivers, and at the time I wasn’t wise enough to fully grasp its importance. A few years afterwards, while attempting to recall an amazing figure depicting the movement system, it dawned on me that I needed to go back to Kinetic Control for round two. Don’t be fooled you, this textbook has hundreds of pages of depth on joint movement, assessing it, and how to correct it.

Recognizing and Treating Breathing Disorders

Chaitow, Bradley, Gilbert

I spent a lot of time considering breathing and its role in health & performance while studying at chiropractic school. It’s a topic that is covered in, or central to, a lot of the dominant continuing education courses in the therapy & performance world. If you’re at all interested in breathing, the physiology, anatomy, and downstream consequences, then this is certainly a great place to start.

Recognizing and Treating Breathing Disorders

Chaitow, Bradley, Gilbert

I spent a lot of time considering breathing and its role in health & performance while studying at chiropractic school. It’s a topic that is covered in, or central to, a lot of the dominant continuing education courses in the therapy & performance world. If you’re at all interested in breathing, the physiology, anatomy, and downstream consequences, then this is certainly a great place to start.

DEEPER DIVE

DEEPER DIVE

Strength Training and Coordination: An Integrative Approach

Frans Bosch

I had a hard time deciding where to place this one but it ended up here because it’s much more than a strength & conditioning book. If you’re willing to get a bit outside of your comfort zone (you should) then diving into Frans Bosch’s latest book is a must. Exposure to his ideas on coordination and strength training, muscle slack, finding attractors, among others, will challenge your coaching philosophies. This of course, is not a bad thing.

Strength Training and Coordination: An Integrative Approach

Frans Bosch

I had a hard time deciding where to place this one but it ended up here because it’s much more than a strength & conditioning book. If you’re willing to get a bit outside of your comfort zone (you should) then diving into Frans Bosch’s latest book is a must. Exposure to his ideas on coordination and strength training, muscle slack, finding attractors, among others, will challenge your coaching philosophies. This of course, is not a bad thing.

Biomechanics and Motor Control

Latash, Zatsiorsky

This is a graduate level textbook that is a tough read even if you have a science background. It’s something you’d probably only want to tackle if you’ve got a decent grasp on everything else (Neuromechanics included). It gets into the depth on the topics of neurophysiology, motor abundancy and redundancy, postural control, and more. Again, it’s DENSE.

Biomechanics and Motor Control

Latash, Zatsiorsky

This is a graduate level textbook that is a tough read even if you have a science background. It’s something you’d probably only want to tackle if you’ve got a decent grasp on everything else (Neuromechanics included). It gets into the depth on the topics of neurophysiology, motor abundancy and redundancy, postural control, and more. Again, it’s DENSE.

RESOURCES

RESOURCES

The Essentials of Sport and Exercise Nutrition Certification Manual

Precision Nutrition

Precision Nutritions textbook for their certification course (a great feather to add to your cap ). It’s a textbook with all of the relevant information that you’d want to feel comfortable giving nutritional advice to players.

The Essentials of Sport and Exercise Nutrition Certification Manual

Precision Nutrition

Precision Nutritions textbook for their certification course (a great feather to add to your cap ). It’s a textbook with all of the relevant information that you’d want to feel comfortable giving nutritional advice to players.

Examine.com

Website

Got questions about supplementation or nutrition and want unbiased and research-based information? Examine is a website where you can literally key-in a supplement and then get all the background information you’d ever want about it. That includes the totality of scientific literature on it, the level of evidence supporting its efficacy (or lack thereof), some recommended guidelines and much more.

Examine.com

Website

Got questions about supplementation or nutrition and want unbiased and research-based information? Examine is a website where you can literally key-in a supplement and then get all the background information you’d ever want about it. That includes the totality of scientific literature on it, the level of evidence supporting its efficacy (or lack thereof), some recommended guidelines and much more.

START HERE

START HERE

Recovery Strategies: You Pain Guidebook

Greg Lehman 

Every coach, parent, player and human being should pick up this free eBook and go through it. Unfortunately, pain is so engrained in the culture of baseball that we often see players take pre-emptive Advils or think it’s cool to get into the “Tommy John Club.” Whether you are suffering from elbow pain after pitching or are one of the millions of people living in chronic pain, this resource is a must-read.

Recovery Strategies: You Pain Guidebook

Greg Lehman 

Every coach, parent, player and human being should pick up this free eBook and go through it. Unfortunately, pain is so engrained in the culture of baseball that we often see players take pre-emptive Advils or think it’s cool to get into the “Tommy John Club.” Whether you are suffering from elbow pain after pitching or are one of the millions of people living in chronic pain, this resource is a must-read.

Atlas of Functional Shoulder Anatomy

Edited by Giacomo, Pouliart, Costantini, de Vita

Everyone needs a textbook on anatomy. The problem with most textbooks, however, is that their depiction of what’s underneath the hood is often a misrepresentation of sorts. Muscles, tendons, ligaments (and all tissues, really) aren’t discrete entities, disconnected from their neighbours. What can happen when learning exclusively from these textbooks is that we begin to think as a reductionist – a problematic perspective when attempting to solve complexity. Rather, I think it’s a far better idea to find anatomy texts that showcase the interconnectedness of the human body. If you’ve spent any significant time in a cadaver lab, you’re probably not the person sitting on social media arguing about isolated muscle loading or dismissing the importance of serially aligned connective tissue. Atlas of Functional Shoulder Anatomy does an incredible job of walking through the shoulder complex, explaining the anatomy and clinical significance, all while keeping things connected. Where else are you going to find an anatomy textbook that highlights the subscapularis tendon interdigitating with the supraspinatus tendon?

Atlas of Functional Shoulder Anatomy

Edited by Giacomo, Pouliart, Costantini, de Vita

Everyone needs a textbook on anatomy. The problem with most textbooks, however, is that their depiction of what’s underneath the hood is often a misrepresentation of sorts. Muscles, tendons, ligaments (and all tissues, really) aren’t discrete entities, disconnected from their neighbours.

What can happen when learning exclusively from these textbooks is that we begin to think as a reductionist – a problematic perspective when attempting to solve complexity. Rather, I think it’s a far better idea to find anatomy texts that showcase the interconnectedness of the human body. If you’ve spent any significant time in a cadaver lab, you’re probably not the person sitting on social media arguing about isolated muscle loading or dismissing the importance of serially aligned connective tissue.

Atlas of Functional Shoulder Anatomy does an incredible job of walking through the shoulder complex, explaining the anatomy and clinical significance, all while keeping things connected. Where else are you going to find an anatomy textbook that highlights the subscapularis tendon interdigitating with the supraspinatus tendon?

Explain Pain

Moseley, Butler

I was very fortunate to be recommended this book early on in my chiropractic degree. Explain Pain lays out the fundamentals of pain science at a level easily digestible for the general population. I’ve been saying it for a while but with the significant percentage of players struggling with pain / discomfort each season, the baseball community desperately needs to understand these pain science concepts.

Explain Pain

Moseley, Butler

I was very fortunate to be recommended this book early on in my chiropractic degree. Explain Pain lays out the fundamentals of pain science at a level easily digestible for the general population. I’ve been saying it for a while but with the significant percentage of players struggling with pain / discomfort each season, the baseball community desperately needs to understand these pain science concepts.

NEXT STEPS

NEXT STEPS

The Sensitive Nervous System

David Butler

This text is more technical than Explain Pain but does an excellent job conceptualizing nociception, pain, and neurodynamics. The first four chapters on the theory and physiology are worth the price alone while the second half is more of an entry point for practical application. Overall, if you’re looking to go deeper down the pain hole, it’s a pretty good follow up. Or, if you’re a therapist, I’d recommend checking out Butler’s course Mobilization of the Nervous System. .

The Sensitive Nervous System

David Butler

This text is more technical than Explain Pain but does an excellent job conceptualizing nociception, pain, and neurodynamics. The first four chapters on the theory and physiology are worth the price alone while the second half is more of an entry point for practical application. Overall, if you’re looking to go deeper down the pain hole, it’s a pretty good follow up. Or, if you’re a therapist, I’d recommend checking out Butler’s course Mobilization of the Nervous System. .

The Athlete’s Shoulder

Wilk, Reinold, Andrews

If you’re a therapist working with overhead athletes, this book is a must-purchase. I remember carrying it around with me in chiropractic school, taking in the information as often as I could. I still find myself referring to it regularly and think it’s an invaluable resource (although probably a bit too dense for the lay coach, player or parent). .

The Athlete’s Shoulder

Wilk, Reinold, Andrews

If you’re a therapist working with overhead athletes, this book is a must-purchase. I remember carrying it around with me in chiropractic school, taking in the information as often as I could. I still find myself referring to it regularly and think it’s an invaluable resource (although probably a bit too dense for the lay coach, player or parent). .

DEEPER DIVE

DEEPER DIVE

Fascia: The Tensional Network of the Human Body

Edited by Schleip, Findlay, Chaitow, Huijing 

My go-to resource when it comes to fascia, connective tissue, and its potential implications to therapy and performance. This book is loaded with chapters dedicated to the neurophysiology, mechanical properties, applications and more, written by the foremost experts in the field. One thing that I highly recommend checking out is the last few chapters on practical applications and the theory behind them — do some critical thinking and decide for yourself what that soft tissue work is accomplishing!

Fascia: The Tensional Network of the Human Body

Edited by Schleip, Findlay, Chaitow, Huijing 

My go-to resource when it comes to fascia, connective tissue, and its potential implications to therapy and performance. This book is loaded with chapters dedicated to the neurophysiology, mechanical properties, applications and more, written by the foremost experts in the field. One thing that I highly recommend checking out is the last few chapters on practical applications and the theory behind them — do some critical thinking and decide for yourself what that soft tissue work is accomplishing!

Venolympathic Drainage Therapy

Guido Meert

Don’t let the title fool you, this book is much more than just ‘drainage therapy’. Meert comprehensively explores the fluid systems in the body, their ecosystem, interactions, and some practical approaches to affecting it. It goes into detail on connective tissue, cell and tissue respiration, assessing and treating the diaphragms and much, much more. When most of our bodies are made up of fluid, it’s probably a good idea to brush up on their dynamics. This text is probably only relevant if you’re a therapist.

Venolympathic Drainage Therapy

Guido Meert

Don’t let the title fool you, this book is much more than just ‘drainage therapy’. Meert comprehensively explores the fluid systems in the body, their ecosystem, interactions, and some practical approaches to affecting it. It goes into detail on connective tissue, cell and tissue respiration, assessing and treating the diaphragms and much, much more. When most of our bodies are made up of fluid, it’s probably a good idea to brush up on their dynamics. This text is probably only relevant if you’re a therapist.

START HERE

START HERE

Thinking in Systems

Donella Meadows 

This is the best place to start learning about complexity and systems. The late Donella Meadows makes the concepts of feedback loops, self-organization, and emergence easily accessible to the general population. With diagrams and real world examples, Thinking in Systems will leave you with a solid background to progress forward.

Thinking in Systems

Donella Meadows  This is the best place to start learning about complexity and systems. The late Donella Meadows makes the concepts of feedback loops, self-organization, and emergence easily accessible to the general population. With diagrams and real world examples, Thinking in Systems will leave you with a solid background to progress forward.

Chaos

James Gleick

This is a classic written by an exceptional author, that investigates the nature and history of Chaos Theory. From Lorenz and the Butterfly Effect to the discovery of fractals, Gleick’s story telling is engaging and accessible to both beginners and non-scientists. It’s not a quick read by any means but it serves an important role in expanding our perspective on complexity.  

Chaos

James Gleick

This is a classic written by an exceptional author, that investigates the nature and history of Chaos Theory. From Lorenz and the Butterfly Effect to the discovery of fractals, Gleick’s story telling is engaging and accessible to both beginners and non-scientists. It’s not a quick read by any means but it serves an important role in expanding our perspective on complexity.  

NEXT STEPS

NEXT STEPS

Complex Systems in Sport

Edited by Hristovski, Davids, Araujo, Serre, Button, Passos

This textbook brings together some of the worlds experts studying complex systems in the context of the sporting environment. Ecological and coordination dynamics, perception-action, creativity and emergence and variability are among some of the many concepts reviewed. As with any of the Routledge books in here, it’s dense, chalk full of researchers to follow, and worth every penny of the purchase. .

Complex Systems in Sport

Edited by Hristovski, Davids, Araujo, Serre, Button, Passos

This textbook brings together some of the worlds experts studying complex systems in the context of the sporting environment. Ecological and coordination dynamics, perception-action, creativity and emergence and variability are among some of the many concepts reviewed. As with any of the Routledge books in here, it’s dense, chalk full of researchers to follow, and worth every penny of the purchase. .

Complexity: A Guided Tour

Melanie Mitchell

In Complexity: A Guided Tour, the external professor from the Sante Fe Institute overviews the general principles of the theory. Drawing from several disciplines and examples, such as ant colonies and the immune system, Mitchell gets into the basics; chaos, emergence, and entropy.

Complexity: A Guided Tour

Melanie Mitchell

In Complexity: A Guided Tour, the external professor from the Sante Fe Institute overviews the general principles of the theory. Drawing from several disciplines and examples, such as ant colonies and the immune system, Mitchell gets into the basics; chaos, emergence, and entropy.

DEEPER DIVE

DEEPER DIVE

Simplexity: Simplifying Principles for a Complex World

Alain Berthoz 

This book rocked me pretty good – even on the second time through. Berthoz, already mentioned previously in this list, does his best to breakdown the key elements of complexity theory and link them to simplicity. In doing so, he outlines his argument for the derivation of ‘simplexity’ or the set of solutions that beings use to navigate the complexity of the past and the future. This one is tough… but totally worth digging into.

Simplexity: Simplifying Principles for a Complex World

Alain Berthoz  This book rocked me pretty good – even on the second time through. Berthoz, already mentioned previously in this list, does his best to breakdown the key elements of complexity theory and link them to simplicity. In doing so, he outlines his argument for the derivation of ‘simplexity’ or the set of solutions that beings use to navigate the complexity of the past and the future. This one is tough… but totally worth digging into.

Yes, you may just be a person working within a specific performance silo – like a pitching coach or a therapist – but whatever it is that you’re trying to accomplish is inevitably inseparable from everything else.

There is no true isolation.

Let’s say you’re attempting to address a pitcher’s lead leg stability with some new drill work. You’re really honed into their movement in the warm-up, your cuing strategy, and altering the task constraints, but the athlete is still not improving.

What’s the next move or line of thought?

“I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when looked at in the right way, did not become still more complicated” – Poul Anderson

Human biology, and performance, is an insanely complex system. And a complex system is much more than just a collection of cells.

It’s more than the sum of its parts.

A system consists of three kinds of things: elements, interconnections, and a function. Elements of a baseball pitcher, for example, could be their muscle fibres, joints, emotions, bone structure, among many other possibilities. In fact, once you start getting into the process of identifying the elements, you’ll start to see that there are sub-elements. And that these sub-elements have their own sub-elements. And so on, and so forth.

As the late Donella Meadows suggested in her book, Thinking in Systems,

“It’s a good idea to stop dissecting out elements and start looking for the interconnections, the relationships that hold the elements together.”

If we are going to be solving the problem of baseball performance (a systems problem), it would be wise to investigate how these elements are connected. What we don’t want to do is get so bogged within the elements that we lose sight of the system itself.  “We don’t want to lose sight of the forest for the trees.”

It is with that in mind that I believe our efforts as coaches, therapists, strength coaches, and other members of the performance team shouldn’t be directed entirely towards our own elements. We want to master our domain, but simultaneously we should be expanding our web of knowledge so that we can better see the relationships between the elements.

As Edward O Wilson would argue, we are striving for consilience:

“A ‘jumping together’ of knowledge by the linking of facts and fact-based theory across disciplines to create a common groundwork of explanation.” 

This is the model that we strive for at BDG.

Yes, you may just be a person working within a specific performance silo – like a pitching coach or a therapist – but whatever it is that you’re trying to accomplish is inevitably inseparable from everything else.

There is no true isolation.

Let’s say you’re attempting to address a pitcher’s lead leg stability with some new drill work. You’re really honed into their movement in the warm-up, your cuing strategy, and altering the task constraints, but the athlete is still not improving.

What’s the next move or line of thought?

 

“I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when looked at in the right way, did not become still more complicated” – Poul Anderson

Human biology, and performance, is an insanely complex system. And a complex system is much more than just a collection of cells.

It’s more than the sum of its parts.

A system consists of three kinds of things: elements, interconnections, and a function. Elements of a baseball pitcher, for example, could be their muscle fibres, joints, emotions, bone structure, among many other possibilities. In fact, once you start getting into the process of identifying the elements, you’ll start to see that there are sub-elements. And that these sub-elements have their own sub-elements. And so on, and so forth.

As the late Donella Meadows suggested in her book, Thinking in Systems,

“It’s a good idea to stop dissecting out elements and start looking for the interconnections, the relationships that hold the elements together.”

If we are going to be solving the problem of baseball performance (a systems problem), it would be wise to investigate how these elements are connected. What we don’t want to do is get so bogged within the elements that we lose sight of the system itself.  “We don’t want to lose sight of the forest for the trees.”

It is with that in mind that I believe our efforts as coaches, therapists, strength coaches, and other members of the performance team shouldn’t be directed entirely towards our own elements. We want to master our domain, but simultaneously we should be expanding our web of knowledge so that we can better see the relationships between the elements.

As Edward O Wilson would argue, we are striving for consilience:

“A ‘jumping together’ of knowledge by the linking of facts and fact-based theory across disciplines to create a common groundwork of explanation.” 

This is the model that we strive for at BDG.