Evolution of Sports Performance Training

The evolution of sports performance training is finally here – and as athletes, you should be ecstatic! Finally – it’s about improving your ability to play your sport, not just about developing big muscles and flexing your biceps. Sports Performance Training is now about training to become the best athlete possible.

How do we apply this evolution to individual athletes? Well, the first step in designing a program for a particular athlete is to evaluate the movements that are specific to his sport. (For example, a hockey player trying to take a shot will rotate through his core frequently.) Next, we need to consider the speed and angle of the movements so we can replicate these during our workouts. (For example, a track & field athlete must be able to run consistently in a straight line, while a wide receiver must be able to cut & change direction quickly.) We also need to be aware of which movements occur simultaneously or in quick succession when designing a customized strength training program. (If we consider the wide receiver again, he needs to be able to jump to catch the ball and then immediately turn and sprint to the goal line.) Lastly, a sport-specific strength training program will address duration: how long will the athlete execute these movements, and what other stresses play a role? (Our football player only has to run for a short time, but he needs to be able to ward off defenders, while a distance runner has to be able to execute repetitive motion for a longer duration.) Sports-specific movements, their speed, angle, sequence & duration: these are all sport-specific components consideration we must include in our workouts in order to improve athletic performance.

While specific motions may differ slightly from sport to sport, there are many consistent movements across a variety of athletic endeavors: running, jumping, turning and throwing, to name a few. These actions are executed in a similar fashion across many sports, so we can start to formulate a workout based around these movements. Of course, some variation must be applied for specific results, which is why we also consider individual needs, goals and position-specific movements, too.

The speed of the movement is also important since we need to get accustomed to moving at game speed. If we consistently train using slow, controlled movements, we never allow our bodies to get used to the impact and stress on our joints that come with working at full speed. We must train our body to perform at game speed, which can only be achieved by training in the same fashion.

Movement angles are critical considerations of a customized strength training program because we must train our bodies to function in these same positions. For example, in the scrum, players must stay bent over and drive horizontally using strength in their legs; we want to replicate that body position in order to maximize the benefit and specificity for our athletes. So, doing sled drives will help improve our lower body power and strength to help maintain the proper stance and drive more powerfully during the scrum.

In sport, we never use just one joint; instead we ask multiple joints to work together to carry out full body movements, while using leverage and coupling of movements to our advantage. So, we must take into account what joint motions occur together in order to craft a training program that mimics these actions. We also need to consider the sequence of movements to ensure they are trained properly and become natural motions for our athletes.

Sports performance training is finally changing for the better. We now know that in order to improve sports performance, we need to train athletes like athletes. The ability to train movements of a sport in order to be better at the sport is becoming the gold standard of sports performance training. We no longer believe in isolating muscle for the benefit of growing the muscle. We now care about improved performance and effective muscles trained properly through sport-specific movements and our athletes are the beneficiary of these new beliefs.

Article edited by Clarissa Constantine, FitToPublish.com