Mar

I hate the weight room!

Okay, so I don’t really hate the weight room. I do want to stress that for sport performance the weight room should not be the ONLY prescribed method of training. Too many times we see super strong athletes that cannot translate that strength to an effective sporting performance…strength does not equal success in sports.

Strength can be a factor in success, but not the root cause. Elite athletes know that it takes more than time spent in the weight room to get to their level. They know it takes a translation of strength into athletic movement. It takes speed, it takes agility, it takes explosive power. Build all the strength you want, but make sure you do training that then teaches the body to apply that strength to sport. Translation is key.

You wouldn’t become fluent in a new language by sitting in a library studying the language all day. You may be good at reading the new language. You could appear to be fluent if you could site read a new language. Immersion teaches fluency. Speak with others, think in that language, interact in that language. In other words, get out of the library and into the field to train that language. Then you would actually be fluent.

Same with weights. Hit the weight room only and their is no immersion in the sport. Your body will be strong and you will look like an athlete, but you may not be the best athlete you can be. You need to train in sport-specific exercises, in all three planes of the body, in the way you would if you were actually playing. Get out of the weight room and into the field to train for sport. You immerse yourself in that kind of training and you will actually be an athlete.

Get out of the gym once in a while and train in sport-specific exercises. Use dynamic, fluid weights as resistance, or even body weight. Connect “weight training” exercises with movement patterns from your sport (like med ball rotation tosses to simulate core rotation in baseball). It may help you appreciate the weight room more once you have trained on the field.