sport specific

What is 'sport specific' training?

by Scott E. Pucek

Wanna know a pet peeve of mine? Coaches who scream at their athletes to “Run faster!”, “Swing harder!”, “Throw it farther!” or whatever other command they decide to shout out at games.

Why does this bother me so… because I wonder if they even have the knowledge to instruct the athlete “how” to do it – let alone “how” to do it “better”. I sincerely doubt they truly understand how to communicate the “how’s” & “why’s” of moving the body more effectively and efficiently.

Now I don’t expect every coach out there to be a biomechanical genius, but it relates to the idea of searching out competent coaches and trainers to teach and work with athletes. Unfortunately, there is an abundance of less-than qualified trainers and coaches promoting ‘sport specific’ training to the athletic population.

What is the difference between ‘sports performance’ training and ‘sport specific’ training? If you don’t know the answer or even if you THINK you know the answer – keep reading…

Athletes, parents and coaches are always seeking ‘sport specific’ programs or drills. Phrases like “I need to get faster for soccer” or “I need to get quicker for basketball” and the list goes on and on and on. I think the word ‘specific’ is very misleading as it implies there is some magical technique unique to each individual sport.

This is where I believe people get confused and easily misled.

Athletes are continually bombarded by ‘sport specific’ trainers (mostly personal trainers or sport coaches) who have very little knowledge and experience in training proper biomechanics to athletes. They simply copy some athletic looking throws, jumps or drills and try to pass it over as ‘sport specific’ training.

So, to be completely honest with you, ‘sport specific’ training is pretty much a marketing ‘catch phrase’ designed to steal your money. However, ‘sports performance’ training is entirely different and vital to the proper development of every athlete. Some may call it a simple case of semantics, but I beg to differ. Sports performance training actually develops proficient human movement. It is instructed by educated, experienced and certified specialists whom you will rarely find in most gyms and fitness facilities.

I’ve been a professional in the sports performance training field for over 15 years. A true definition of sports performance training is that which develops the underlying, fundamental physical characteristics that are needed to execute any sport skill movement. Therefore, sports performance training is designed to give an athlete greater resistance to injury, stability, force generating potential, balance & coordination, speed, body control and stamina through systematic program design. These are the underlying tools that must be developed first before one is able to express optimal specific sport skills, techniques and movements.

Often called performance specialists, these professionals actually teach and develop proper biomechanics, running technique and movement pattern skills. They understand the inter-dependency of mobility, coordination, strength, power, stability, body awareness and stamina as it pertains to human movement. Once proper movement mechanics are established, only then should an experienced coach integrate various positional and transitional movement patterns to simulate the more complicated movement patterns of the desired sport.

Let’s look at the movement skill, or speed technique, needed for proper acceleration mechanics. The demands of correct acceleration technique - proper postural body lean, strong arm action, correct foot position, proper firing sequencing of the running stride (don’t forget the functional strength, power & flexibility need to perform such technique) - is no different for a baseball player racing towards first base than it is for a football player sprinting downfield covering a kickoff. The starting position, the preceding movement and he subsequent action(s) is what makes the act of acceleration a much more complicated movement pattern.

Having athletes run through some ladder drills and receive a football pass, dribble a soccer ball through cones or shoot a basketball after hopping over some mini-hurdles doesn’t do much other than fool the athlete he or she is doing something ‘sport specific’. A knowledgeable coach or trainer is able to teach and instruct proper movement skills to get the most out of even the simplest of drills. This is the only way there will ever be any carry-over to the field of play.

Here’s another example.

It's a multi-directional speed day for a 13 year old soccer and a 13 year old football player. Better break out my ‘sport specific soccer training manual’ and my ‘sport specific football training manual’, right? Wrong. Both of these athletes likely have similar weaknesses in their running mechanics and skill. So I can train them in the same session with the primary difference stemming from their individual technical flaws.

At some point – way down the road - the soccer player will incorporate ball handling skills and the football player will run carrying a football. That distinction is not based on some 'sport specific' guide. It's based on developing better overall athletes using a systematic approach to training. Not some fictitious need for 'specialization'. But this STILL isn’t ‘sport specific’ – it’s just incorporating a sports ball or object to a drill.

It doesn't matter what sport(s) you play, the training plan is based on the same fundamental goals for all athletes, ages and genders: improve the speed, strength, flexibility, stability, coordination, resistance to injury and endurance of every athlete.

‘Sport specific’ training should be defined as ‘sport skills’ training that develops those special skills, techniques and movements that are ‘specifically’ practiced and repeated for mastery in a respective sport. ‘Sport specific’ training develops unique sport skills like pitching (by a baseball pitcher), kicking (by a soccer player) or serving (by a tennis player). Sport coaches should be the ones teaching athletes ‘how’ to dribble a basketball, ‘how’ to cradle the ball with a lacrosse stick or ‘how’ to execute a tennis backhand. The act of practicing unique movements like these helps to refine the technique, but without the aide of proper sports performance training, improvement will be limited by physical, neural and metabolic limitations.

The reality is that human movement and movement skills are universal. The laws of biomechanics apply to everyone regardless of sport: young, old, male or female. These fundamental biomechanics need to be mastered before any hint of unique movement is then applied. All athletes, independent of sport, need to master the biomechanical movement skills of speed and agility in linear, lateral and multi-directional planes. An athlete that has mastered these fundamental movement skills can truly express multi-dimensional speed and athleticism.

Don’t be fooled into believing your athlete(s) need 'special' training, drills, etc... 'specific' to their sport unless of course you are talking about an elite collegiate or professional athlete. The main differences in training lay in the energy system demands of that particular sport and in the more unique movement patterns that are inherent to that sport.

The only programs specifically designed to cover each of these training components in the Raleigh, NC area through Xplosive Speed at the Athletic Performance Center (APC) facility. If you don't utilize this program already, then there may be huge gaps in the way your athletes are trained. We invite you to train with the sports performance professionals at Xplosive Speed so you don’t fall victim to the self-titled ‘sport specific’ trainers exploiting your good intentions.

Beware of ‘masters of drills’ and coaches that mimic or simply copy what they have seen in a popular magazine or on some $19.95 video. Don’t let your athletes train with anyone that simply ‘looks’ like they know what they are talking about. A qualified coach or trainer must be very experienced in order to effectively teach and develop the total athlete. Unqualified trainers do more harm than good and are potentially quite dangerous to athletes.

The next time a trainer offers ‘sport specific’ training, a few of these questions should automatically pop into your head:

1. Is he/she certified by a professional organization to train athletes?

2. What coaching experience has he/she had? At what level?

3. How long has he/she been coaching?

4. How many athletes have they worked with? Who were they?

5. How does the coach evaluate the strengths/weaknesses of the athlete before he/she trains them?

6. Is the coach teaching them a unique skill (ie. pitching mechanics)?

I hope this article has identified some flaws in the idea of ‘sport specific’ training, defined ‘sport specific’ training as developing sport skills and helped change the way you look at the advanced field of sports performance training.