Furthermore, for those sports that rely more heavily on one plane of motion than others [think all your rotational sports like tennis, baseball, etc.], it's important to focus even MORE time on the transverse plane. And for those sports that are trained primarily in one plane [i.e. basketball for vertical jump height and power development], you CANNOT neglect training in the other planes. You'd be surprised how "strong" a basketball athlete may be in the sagittal plane in terms of power development, strength, and even movement control, but the moment you task them with a frontal or transverse plane movement, they melt like Jell-O and their lower extremity alignment becomes horrendous. In our opinion, there is a HUGE lack of training tri-planar movement, as so much of a S&C focused program for top athletes is on developing sagittal plane power and strength [squats, deadlifts, cleans, snatches etc]. This is one of many causes of the high prevalence of non-contact ACL injuries today in the world of sports. . Of course, this deceleration program doesn't begin until you've deemed the athlete has the required STRENGTH to even control these positions. Without proper strength, you're skipping a HUGE step and putting your athletes at risk for injury by jumping straight into plyometric training. Furthermore, you have to TEACH your athlete how to move properly prior as well. . When it comes to the actual progression of deceleration training itself, there are TONS of different ways to do this. Ultimately, I believe you should start in double leg positions first, then transition into single leg positions. When it comes to planes of motion, the same rule as above applies: sagittal, frontal, then transverse. Only when control of all 3 planes is achieved, should you incorporate change of direction drills. I've included a few plyometric/cutting drills at the end of the video just for ideas. Again, not a black and white science here, just ideas for progressions!
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