Training in all Three Planes of Motion

Enhance athletic ability and reduce the likelihood of injury with a well-rounded approach to training

Athleticism or athletic ability involves the combination of qualities like speed, strength and agility that are characteristics of an athlete. As these characteristics are improved in an individual, sports performance also improves.

As strength & conditioning coaches it is important that we break down athleticism and focus on areas where we utilize all three planes of motion: frontal, sagittal, and transverse. This also includes incorporating multi-planar lifts and movements.

Sports are played in all three planes of motion, so we want to prepare our athletes to be resilient and reduce the likelihood of injury during competition. If one or two planes of motion are neglected in training, athletes are at an increased risk of injury. Regardless of their sport, it is important to include fundamental movement patterns in training and build a foundation for success through all three planes of motion.

The Frontal Plane

When you think about the frontal plane, imagine a sheet of glass running down the middle of your body that is dissecting you into two halves: a front and a back half. This plane allows you to move side to side along that sheet of glass left and right. Some examples of this happening in sports would be lateral shuffling, such as playing defense in basketball or quick side to side movement to field a ground ball in baseball and softball.

Let’s take a look at what we do to increase performance in the frontal plane. In the weight room we program exercises like lateral lunges, lateral squats, banded lateral walks, hip abduction and hip adduction exercises. Here are a few exercises that can help give you visual:

Lateral Lunge

Banded Adduction

Here are examples of movement training videos we utilize for lateral improvement. These drills will help the athletes recruit muscle groups that will enhance explosive power and strength.

Banded Shuffle

Speed Skaters

The Sagittal Plane

Similar to the frontal plane, your body is segmented by a sheet of glass. Now picture the glass running through the center of your body, creating a left and right half. This plane of motion allows you to move front to back along that sheet of glass. Examples in sports include sprinting, running, and backwards running or back pedaling. This plane uses extension and flexion at your joints.

The weight room offers a wide variety of sagittal lifts. Some examples include squatting, deadlift, power clean, bicep curls, RDLs, forward or reverse lunge, and split squat. Here are some videos from the weight room.

Deadlift

Split Squat Progression

Maximum effort sprinting, maximum velocity technique drills, jump training (broad jump, vertical jump, box jump, and altitude lands) are all sagittal movement drills that we use.

Partner Chase

Bounding

Speed kills. Improving acceleration is the plan, but your ability to maintain speed is also a major factor in frontal plane development. That is why we layer in maximum velocity drills.

Pro tip: If you want to sprint fast you have to practice sprinting fast. Giving athletes time to recover between repetitions allows the Central Nervous System to fire on all cylinders on each sprint.

The Transverse Plane

This plane of motion will divide the body into a top and bottom half. Transverse plane movements occur in all sports. A golf swing, baseball or softball swing, and a receiver going up and rotating his top half to make an acrobatic catch are all examples.

We will also train our athletes to fight body rotation with anti-rotational drills and exercises. Why is that important? We want to create symmetry when we train our athletes, so they can be more resilient and reduce common injuries.

Here are some exercises and drills we use to make sure we have addressed the transverse plane. Many of these drills and exercises start with bodyweight because it is important to make sure the athlete has proper mobility and stability before loading them with items such as sandbags, plates, dumbbells, and barbells.

Spiderman Lunge with Rotation

90-degree Box Hop to Double Leg Land

Hip Turns and Quick Hips

1/2 Kneeling Paloff Press

Multi Planar Movements

The combination of planes gives our athletes the biggest bang for their buck. Having them repeat these lifts and movements teaches the body to be able to handle stress during games and competition.

Multi planar exercises and drills will also promote central nervous system learning and development. Here are some of the drills and exercises that we use.

Lateral Lunge with Opposite Hand Reach.

Single-leg Airplane with an Isometric Hold

Improving these planes of motion will increase your athleticism, translate to improved performance and can reduce the likelihood of injury.