Understanding Conditioning
What I value highly is not one-way communication from me but rather a two-way conditioning where athletes understand and actively engage. It's crucial not to impose what I've just discussed onto the athletes but to ensure they comprehend and agree with it.
In other words, there's a need to demonstrate and validate my methods. The simplest way to do this is by visibly improving stiff joints using my method within minutes. Ankle joints, for instance, are convenient for this purpose as they are easily visible and palpable to the individual.
For instance, I conduct an experiment where the athlete lies on their back and attempts to touch the floor with their toes, akin to a ballet dancer, while turning their ankle towards the ground. Often, after daily training sessions, ankle fatigue reduces the range of motion significantly. After confirming with the athlete their restricted ankle mobility, I spend around five minutes loosening the muscles inhibiting ankle movement, transforming it into a flexible ankle resembling that of a ballet dancer, and then have the athlete confirm the change.
By demonstrating the reliability of my method firsthand, the distance between the athlete and me diminishes rapidly, and a collaborative relationship in conditioning emerges, facilitating smoother progress.
In essence, establishing a clear starting point for conditioning is an absolute prerequisite for success. (By the way, the starting point doesn't have to be the ankle; any part of the body can serve as the starting point as long as it adheres to the concept of covering the entire body.)