A study in the Journal of Human Kinetics found that the best predictor of athleticism was strong toes and the ability to change direction is strongly affected by toe muscular strength. The ability to change direction quickly is as important as the ability to sprint fast or jump high. “Relationship Between Toe Muscular Strength and the Ability to Change Direction in Athletes. Journal of Human Kinetics. 2018. Yuasa Y, Kurihara T, Isaka T.” Elite soccer players change direction 700 times per game. There is no specific data on the amount of times @jimmybutler changes direction in a game, but we watched over two dozen games and counted the number of directional changes: it ranges from 1200-2000/game. Either way, athletes are changing directions constantly when playing their sport, so it makes a lot of sense to us to break down where the change is initiated and how it gets expressed into the ground. This exercise is a Contralateral DB, Big-Toe Smash, Single Leg RDL. Tons of tweaks available here, but the main take away is to encourage his big toe to fire during a hip dominant movement (only time I can think this would be relevant is when you are walking, running, jumping, changing direction, or stopping, lol). Building up the small intrinsic muscles of the foot not only aids in performance by allowing you to put more force in the ground for a longer amount of time, but also helps to regain normal arch height and promote arch maintenance and function. The foot has three arches, and they act like jumping on a trampoline. By absorbing the mass and momentum of the body (by stretching/flattening), they can then reverse/return that energy via elastic components of the lower leg muscle-tendon complex. Efficient shock absorption reduces the stress on all joints in the body and owning an explosive stretch-reflex increases everything performance related. Imaging jumping on a trampoline that is already stretched to the ground aka Flat Feet. Not so fun to jump on right? Oh and not all tendons are created equal. Tendons below the knee act different than those above, but that’s another post. Build your arches. Feed your feet. —> 🐺🤘🏽