Movement is the Key

Although it is a paramount skill at virtually any age/level in sport, movement ability is even more important, I believe, as one gets older.
The ability to move in all directions fluidly, quickly, and with accuracy and power is probably the hardest athletic trait to maintain as one gets older. When you're younger you take it for granted but as you get older you realize that many people fall by the wayside in this invaluable athletic trait.
I play on several senior men's baseball teams and on the one team (16 players) there are only 4 of us that still move well. There are only so many people you can rotate at first base and then you have to play people in positions where they are severely limited in what they can do without being both a liability in the field as well as being more likely to get hurt.
The point is that even in a sport like baseball, which many would not consider a movement dominant sport, good movement is still a prerequisite to being able to do all of the 5 basic skills: running, fielding, throwing, hitting and hitting for power. The first two skills are particularly limited if you have poor movement ability.
Because of what I do many on my teams want to know what they can do to improve their movement ability but there is no single, simple answer.
For some lack of good movement for so long combined with an injury history may make getting good, safe movement back virtually impossible. For others the road back to good movement may be possible but it will take consistent applicable of sound training principles involving a multi-faceted approach including mobility/flexibility work, soft tissue/manual therapy work, strength and power work. The point is that it won't happen overnight nor without some effort.
Bottom line: improve your movement sphere capacity and your game, whatever it is, will improve as well.

Train hard and train smart!
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