Guarden’s Focused Strength

At the moment I am reading “Athletic Development” by Vern Gambetta

Very detailed and well written book about his ideas concerning training of elite athletes.

Here is his oppinion about what he calls Dynamic 3-D Flexibility:

“Even though flexibility is a key component of training it is misunderstood, misapplied, overemphasized in certain instances, and underused in other circumstances. It falls under the broad umbrella of work capacity because it can be a limiting factor in effective perfomance of other training components. Limits in functional flexibility can significantly impair the ability to move efficiently. Flexibility is a good example of the application of the principle of context. In context, flexiblity is very beneficial; taken out of context, it can be detrimental. Flexibility is closely related to strength and posture. Functional flexibility will create a dynamic three-dimensional active range of motion of body segments for the required motor task. Three-dimensional implies control around the joint in all three planes of motion. Flexibility is not an end in itself, and flexibility and stretching are not synonymous. Traditionally flexibility is defined as range of motion around a joint. A more suitbale definition is range of motion around a joint with control.

…The key is control.”

I think the main points are as follows:

See the book here