This is a short follow-up piece to my essay on the adaptations of the triceps surae to plyometric training (which you can read HERE), it’s mostly a collection of links and ideas, a complete change from the academic writing of the last article but one which I hope can lead you down a rabbit hole of research and training ideas.
I live in Germany and studied in the UK and in both countries you’ll always hear a massive amount about ‘the core’ from physios, PTs, therapists and trainers. The core is an ill-defined concept relating basically to the abdomen with the idea that any weakness or instability here will lead to energy leaks and inefficient movement, the force from your big strong legs being wasted if all it does is wobble your weak core or “you’re only as strong as your weakest link”. Well the same can be said for the foot. I worked for a couple of years in France and trained a couple of times in Italy and in both of these countries the importance of the foot was drilled home - this time the potential energy leak was how the athlete applied the force to the ground, “power is nothing without control” as the Pirelli slogan says. Given the emphasis I encountered in France it is no surprise that it’s a French researcher who’s one of the biggest names in this field - JB Morin, who describes a weak ankle/foot complex as trying to drive a car with a flat tyre, which leads to my first links:
Rob Pacey did a really interesting podcast with Alex Natera where Alex spoke about training isometric strength for high speed running. One of his drills will also have the athlete holding very high loads whilst stood on the ball of the foot, which is something I’ve played around with and can testify that it’s hard work. (Unfortunately you can’t see the bar in this video, but I promise I did have some load on it.)
Alex also shared an Interesting Instagram post recently on the same topic, his discussion of different types of iso loading and his idea for the soles are worth looking at:
I’ve worked with a lot of rugby players for whom the foot is the contact point with the ground and I’ve seen a lot of foot and ankle injuries. When running the ground is not always flat, especially on the rubbish pitches at lower levels, there are constant changes of direction and the rest of the body receives perturbations from contact with other players, catching the ball etc. which mean that the ankle/foot has a lot of work to do to maintain control and efficiently transfer the forces being generated by the rest of the body to the ground. One area where I have changed my mind in the last couple of years is regarding the rehab of these injuries. I think I went a bit too ‘sport specific’ discarding the classic wobble board for example as rugby players run over a stable(ish) surface, so why should they be stable whilst the ground moves in rehab? I still believe that exercises with the foot on the ground are king, especially for ‘home exercises’ that the player can do at themselves, but presentations such as this one from Nicola Maffiuletti have convinced me of the need to “constantly surprise the neural system” and wobble boards, Bosu balls, uneven surfaces etc. etc. have a role to play in this.
An ankle rehab session with a rugby player using a lot of uneven and novel surfaces.
Notice in the photo above that the the player is barefoot, this is to maximise the amount of sensory information from the sole of the foot (a rich source of information for postural control). Working barefoot will also help to strengthen the intrinsic muscle of the foot.
The rehab world has an abundance of rehab exercises for the foot which require no or only basic equipment, as seen in the video from JB Morin above and this video of mine:
A really good training program for similar low-intensity exercises is available from the Athlete’s Authority gym. The unilateral tall-to-short landing as described by Lachlan Wilmot (owner of Athlete’s Authority) is also a good drill for controlling landings:
Bulletproof your shin & ankle - Athlete’s Authority
In the last couple of years I’ve been working with trials cyclists and whilst analysing the needs of the sport I was struck by the amount of work done at the ankle - even when the bike is essentially stationary, on the back wheel for example, the rider will be doing a huge amount of work with the ankle. Have a look at the video below of Jonas Friedrich messing around in the gym and concentrate on his ankles.
Cyclists will dorsiflex the ankle to drop the heel when braking to maintain contact with the bike and increase the traction on the back wheel, then when jumping they’ll plantarflex to lift the bike with them. Watch the video below of Nina Reichenbach doing a side-hop, again concentrate on what the feet are doing.
So how do I program for these movements? I try to cover all of the basics with exercises such as the Athlete’s Authority program, the JB Morin video or my video, usually in the warm-up or as part of a low-load easy day alongside mobility exercises. I try to get some work away from the sagittal plane because when falling off they will not always be landing perfectly straight. Here’s an example warm-up drill from Jonas (with whom I work):
During the off-season the riders spend less time on the bike and we use a lot of pogo jumps to get high volume, low amplitude work which simulates the bouncing we’ve seen in the above videos. As the season approaches the focus switches more to higher impact work - jumping over obstacles, off boxes etc. with the volume coming from the riding time. Of course as soon as you give one of these athlete something to jump over it’ll get competitive and soon deviate from what you’ve planned, but that’s the joy of working with extreme sport athletes! Hopefully by using the foot drills and pogos earlier in the training program they’ll be ready for these forces.
Making sure they’re strong and have good control in the ankle and foot will also help when the inevitable happens and they crash. Here’s an Instagram video of Jack Carthy snapping his chain in a precarious position and getting away with it, looks like he has decent ankle control.