The Importance of Rhythm in Athletics

The first period of RISE’s softball/baseball off-season training camp is slowly coming to an end. The RISE athletes have been working hard in The Lab and most importantly, having fun! Some days are are easy, but others days are tough where the kids had to learn how to be uncomfortable during strenuous endurance circuits. But their hard work will pay off in the next period, as well as for their upcoming season!

One component that has been hammered into the kids during this period’s camp is RHYTHM. Rhythm is often-overlooked and falls under the “Skill” category of athleticism. The most skillful athletes across all sports move with a sense of grace, coordination, and rhythm.

More specific to this camp, rhythm is crucial in the games of softball and baseball. The showdown between the pitcher and the batter is basically a dance: the batter’s primary goals are to be on plane and on TIME with the pitch. On the flip side, the pitcher is trying to disrupt the batter’s timing by throwing different pitches, at different locations, at different speeds. So the best hitters have a knack of establishing rhythm in their swing, in order to time the incoming pitch to the best of their abilities. Another example in these games is an infielder fielding a ground ball: it’s a “dance” between the ball bouncing their way and the fielder’s ability to read the hops, field it on either a short-hop or long/no-hop, have their momentum going towards the intended base, all while creating rhythm with their footwork to set the platform for an efficient and accurate throw without wasted movements.

In other sports, you hear the words “timing” and “rhythm” a lot. In football, commentators constantly talk about how offenses lack rhythm if their plays seem to be running out of sequence. In an offense play, a receiver has to be at a certain part of the field, at a specific time, in order to give the quarterback levels and a progression to throw to find an open receiver. In addition, the offensive lineman have to block to a certain direction and for a certain time to allow the receivers to get to their spot and give the quarterback time to scan the field. Finally, the quarterback times his footwork so when his back-side foot hits the ground on his last drop step (3-, 5-, or 7-step drop), he can push off that leg and throw the ball to the correct receiver with accuracy, velocity, and no hesitation. You hear often about “timing plays” between the quarterback and receiver and how the good partnerships seem to be “in sync” or “in rhythm.”

Finally, in the game of basketball, the best shooters have ways to create rhythm with their footwork and shot. No matter the situation, whether it’s a set-shot from the corner, or creating their own shot off the dribble with separation and space, their footwork plays a key role to release the ball with rhythm and consistency. Check out this the video to the right of a practice session of Steph Curry shooting threes. You could close your eyes and just hear a rhythmic sound of the “thwap” of the ball going through the next, to a ball bouncing to Coach Q, to Steph’s hands catching the thrown ball from Coach Q, back to the “thwap” of the net. The time between his shots is very consistent, allowing him to create rhythm. Th best pure shooter to ever play showing off incredible rhythm to create an accurate shot. Anyone who has watching enough athletics should be able to pinpoint how rhythm is of the utmost importance to provide an athlete with being successful in their skill execution. Rhythm can absolutely be developed and it can be worked on in such fun ways!

A ritual that we’ve started with the 12U softball team I coach is a pre-game dance circle. Number 1: it’s a way for the girls to loosen up, relax, and put a smile on their faces, especially before a big game. Number 2: dancing is a great way to develop rhythm! It can be done anywhere, anytime, to any kind of music. Dancing incorporates total body movements, helps with one’s awareness of their limbs in space (“kinesthetic awareness), and rhythm to hit those body positions at the right time, in beat with the music. The video to the left was a dance circle we did back in May 2019 right before the championship game of a tournament (which we went on to win!). Not only was “the whoa” a popular dance move at the time, but the song required them to “hit the whoa” at a certain time throughout the song. Talk about improving athleticism in a fun way!

During this RISE off-season camp, the athletes participated in “Tempo Tuesdays.” A big part of the circuit on Tuesdays was to lift in cadence to a metronome. I would mix up the exercises and the tempos of lifts, but lifting to a cadence forced the kids to not only slow down their movements to concentrate on good technique, it also forced their muscles to work for an extended period of time to build stamina, AND to coordinate their limbs to move on beat and in rhythm with the metronome. If people lift weights with no specific cadence, the brain’s natural tempo seems to be 1-1: 1 second down, 1 second up. To the right is one example of the many ways I manipulated “Tempo Tuesday:” Sophia is doing Med Ball Hugging Split Squat. Her cadence was 2-2-2, which mean she was to take 2 seconds to lower herself to the bottom of the split squat, then hold that bottom position for 2 full seconds, then take 2 seconds to stand back up to the start. So the muscles were working for 6 seconds during 1 repetition for 60 seconds total. On the 1-Arm Dumbbell Bench Press, Kaila was to lower the dumbbell for 4-seconds, then time the movement and raise the dumbbell back to the start in 2 seconds. Another exercise that took 6 seconds per repetition for 60 seconds. This specific tempo was one of the slowest tempos I used, and on occasions, I went as fast as 1-second per rep (0.5 second down, 0.5 second up = that’s fast!). Not only were we forcing the muscles to work for a long time, but I created cognitive training to mentally focus on moving at the right speed, to the beeping of the metronome.

I’ve historically told my Kinesiology students (a class where I teach functional anatomy and how movement can be manipulated by muscle dysfunctions) that I think the best athletes are breakdancers. The combination of relative body strength, speed, power, flexibility, mobility, body control and coordination, group and stage coordination, and TIMING is very impressive. If you have 8 minutes, check out this performance by the dance crew Jabbawockeez and tell me if you’re not impressed with their rhythm and synchronicity!