BFS Magazine

How important is ankle mobility to injury prevention? One study of 10,393 Australian basketball players found that the “players who did not stretch before the game were 2.6 times more likely to injure an ankle than players who did.” Let’s look at another example.

Many athletes believe that tendons are fragile and that they should wear high-top tennis shoes for added support – however, there is no research to support the idea that high-top tennis shoes reduce the risk of any injury. Further, in the sport of weightlifting (snatch and clean and jerk), the athletes wear low-top shoes. And although male athletes have lifted triple bodyweight overhead and women have lifted double, ankle and knee injuries are rare. 

Coaches often comment on an athlete as having “good feet.” They want athletes who are light on their feet, are quick on their feet and have a fast “first step.” But having good feet is not a mysterious quality that only a few fortunate individuals are blessed with. Every athlete can improve this important athletic quality, much more than you might suspect.

A Closer Look at Absolute #2 - Be Tall - Why this absolute is the key to good posture and athletic performance

“Good posture is that state of muscular and skeletal balance which protects the supporting structures of the body against injury or progressive deformity irrespective of the attitude (erect, lying, squatting, stooping) in which these structures are working or resting. Under such conditions, the muscles will function most efficiently and the optimum positions are afforded for the thoracic and abdominal organs.”

All sports require the use of one or both of the same two basic foot stances, a jump stance, and an athletic stance. Collectively, we refer to this as the first absolute of the Six Absolutes of Perfect Technique, which is “Use an Athletic or Jump Stance.”

When Coach Jessen at Piute High School was looking to change the culture of his school's athletics he did what many coaches and athletic directors do. He looked at upgrading his facility. But equipment is just a great FIRST step. Really changing the attitude of teams also takes a Total Program that gets all students and athletes involved and excited about physical development and physic

Jeff Kasuboski, who was the principal at the time of that first BFS clinic, said this about the influence of BFS: “BFS has made all the difference in the world – it turned everything around. Attitude, character, work ethic... everything has changed.” 

What Moon did was call Jeff Scurran, a BFS clinician who had developed a reputation for turning around football programs. The first step was a BFS clinic, which Moon made happen!