Biomotor Ability
Paul McCambridge
In the teaser to his Biomotor Ability series, Paul introduces us to an easy way to decide where our training time should be spent. What is your priority? What do you need to do to be better at your sport?
I am often asked by potential clients how should they go about improving their fitness. Now I always understand what they are trying to say but my analytical and sometimes sarcastic side is thinking "please be more specific! Do you want to become faster, stronger, have more endurance, more agility, better balance… what!"
This neglected understanding of the Tudor Bompa coined Biomotor Abilities could be the difference between winning and losing in sport, or even improved performance in your job. Take a look around your gym next time you train there. I'll bet you now that the strongest guy in the gym will be in the weights section, the most flexible lady there will be cooling down after her daily Yoga class by doing the splits on the stretch mats, whilst Mr Endurance will be dripping in sweat pounding away on the treadmill. Is this wise training that our three examples here tend to always focus on what they are already good at? Well perhaps, and perhaps not!
It really all depends on what they are training for, whether this is a sport, a specific event or even within your own working capacity. And I'm going to show you how to work out your training priorities for yourself on a simple subjective scale.
Bompa coined 8 Biomotor Abilities. (Speed, Strength, Endurance, Coordination, Balance, Power, Flexibility and Agility) The simple task for you is to rate yourself out of 10 for each ability. I suspect you could do this fairly easily, but, if you can't, why not ask your coach or regular training partner to complete this for you. I suspect they would give an accurate reflection of your abilities. To make this even easier for you - understand that a 10 for each Biomotor ability would be the GOLD Standard for that ability. This means the best human being we have seen at this ability. Thus you will be comparing yourself to the likes of Usain Bolt regarding speed!; for power, imagine an Olympic weight lifter; regarding flexibility an elite gymnast; for strength a power lifter or Mariusz Pudzianowski, the world's strongest man; endurance may well be an elite marathon runner, whereas co-ordination could be a highly skilled juggler or dancer; balance could use a circus trained tightrope walker and with agility - any top level martial artist like Bruce Lee.
So compared to these theoretical 10s rate yourself below :-
Biomotor Ability
Strength =
Power =
Speed =
Agility =
Balance =
Coordination =
Endurance =
Flexibility =
Total Score =
If you are still struggling to rate yourself you could always simply test yourself in each ability. The testing protocols go beyond the scope of this article, and are dependent against being specific for the sport, however a footballer may wish to test 1RM Leg Strength, Leg Power Test, a speed Endurance test, a Start speed test etc etc.
Ok so well done, you've now rated yourself. Now we have to assess what is required for your given sport. Consider these two examples, a sprinter (lets say a 40meter sprinter so as not to get too complicated with speed endurance!) and a Rugby Union winger. Now a gold standard Rugby winger would require similar Biomotor Abilities as the sprinter but also so much more in abilities like agility/balance/coordination etc. See the comparison table below for the perfect sprinter vs perfect winger :-
Biomotor Ability-------40m Sprint-------Rugby Winger
Strength---------------------8------------------------------- 8
Power------------------------8 -------------------------------8
Speed-----------------------10------------------------------10
Agility------------------------5 --------------------------------8
Balance---------------------5 ---------------------------------7
Coordination---------------5 ---------------------------------7
Endurance-----------------4----------------------------------6
Flexibility------------------ 6----------------------------------7
Total Score--------------- 51 ------------------------------ 61
Thus, as a conditioning specialist, from this simple subject table I can see straight away the differences in designing a training programme for a sprinter compared to a winger.
So the next is simple. Compare yourself against your optimal scores for your sport, your event or even your job! Trust me a fireman needs to have considerably high scores in multiple Biomotor Abilities to perform effectively compared to most sports. Try lunging over objects with limited vision in an unpredictable environment carrying a heavy hose with heavy equipment on your back if you don't believe me.
Of course even the position in a sport will change the optimal scores for your Biomotor abilities. Staying with rugby, the perfect prop would have different Biomotor Abilities compared to the perfect winger, although I admit these days it is getting harder to tell the difference!
Bear in mind this is the Perfect rugby winger, only Superman or possibly Jonah Lomu will get close to this, so we are simply trying to find out where our biggest deficits are and thus where to train as a priority.
So for my client, who is a rugby winger his comparison table is :-
Biomotor Ability-----------My Client----------Rugby Winger------Deficit
Strength----------------------6----------------------8-------------------minus 2
Power-------------------------6----------------------8-------------------minus 2
Speed-------------------------7----------------------10-----------------minus 3
Agility-------------------------6----------------------8-------------------minus 2
Balance----------------------5----------------------7-------------------minus 2
Coordination----------------5----------------------7-------------------minus 2
Endurance------------------4-----------------------6------------------minus 2
Flexibility--------------------7-----------------------7----------------------- 0
Total Score-----------------46---------------------61---------------------------
Then with this information, your job is simple. My client's highest Biomotor Ability is Speed where I rate him a 7, yet despite this being his best, it's also his biggest deficit compared to his goal of being the perfect rugby winger. Based on time commitments I would still primarily focus on his speed training (see future articles for Information on how to improve speed) and share the load with his other deficits, working least on his flexibility as that is where it should be. This is a tool to maximise the effectiveness of your strength and conditioning programme for your end goal - whether that be to improve as a rugby winger, a climbing champ, or the world’s greatest vegetable stacker!
People often tend to spend time focusing on what they are good at - but for greatest results this is not always where most of your time should be spent. This is crucial because Zatsiorsky states “Fitness gains will decrease if several motor abilities are trained simultaneously during one workout, micro-cycle or meso-cycle. Therefore is not a good idea to have more than two or three main targets in one micro or meso-cycle.” If you are unfamiliar with those terms a Micro Cycle is a training period of maybe a week whereas a Meso-cycle is somewhat longer at around a month.
So have a go, rate yourself.
(Ideas comprised from Tudor Bompa's "Theory and Methodology of Training", Charles Poliquins "Theory and Methodology of Strength Training" Zatsiorsky, V Science and Practise of Strength Training and Paul Chek's "Advanced Programme Design course")
About the Author
Paul McCambridge - Paul is no average personal trainer. Find an article, an idea, a course or any other fitness concept and Paul has done it, read it and can tell you all about it. From a degree in Sport Science to studying from the worlds best coaches, Paul is on a constant mission to find out everything he can about how to get stronger, fitter, leaner and healthier. He is also a food detective! If you can't digest, or can't get lean, he wants your blood!.. He will send it to the lab and sort you out. However, he is rumoured to be both a bad loser and a bad guitar player. You can hunt him down on his Facebook page.
