Why train functionally?

This is something Mark Frens put together for me when he was first teaching me how the body works.

I train functionally not only because I am a professional athlete, but a human being. In order to move efficently and effectively, I must be able to keep my center of gravity over a constantly changing base of support (one leg). When you take a look at me throwing, you will notice that my shorts/shirt/uniform wrinkle a lot laterally and rotationally. If I were to rip off my skin you would notice that my muscles are also moving laterally and rotationally. My body works like a giant rubber band. It must load laterally and rotationally in order to propell my body and the ball in the needed direction. For me, the key to moving well is balance, posture, stability (control of joints), flexibility/mobility (control around joints), core strength, and reaction time. I must overcome gravity, momentum, inertia, and ground reaction force and use these as my friends in order to control my body one leg at a time in various directions/change in directions and at various speeds/change in speeds. I must train in a proprioceptively enriched enviroment because the efficency of my movement and reaction time are limited by the force I can produce from the core and the force I can transfer from the core. Moving well and throwing a ball well (veloctiy and location) are not about size or how much weight that can be lifted (absolute strength), it is about coordination, timing, rhythm, movement patterns, everything from the toe nails to finger tips working together, balance, and proprioception (cummulative sensory information...the bodies protective mechanism). Training in an enviroment without proprioception would mean that I am jellyfish. Training must first focus on being injury preventative...then it will automatically increase performance. I will continue to train and improve my movement in chaotic and unpredictable enviroments.