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When you lose your
keys, you’ve often left them in the last place you’d think
to look. Coaches and trainers, in search for a competitive edge,
do the same thing. Typically, they look outside for answers when
the secret ingredients for a successful training program might already
be right under their noses. In all my previous articles I mention the importance of making all your speed, agility and quickness drills to be sport-specific. In fact, I’ve even mentioned the importance of going as far as making your drills position-specific. In this article, I will again illustrate the importance in sport-specific and position-specific training; however, rather than concentrating on speed, agility and quickness, I will concentrate on weight training. Muscle development is obviously a vital part of any training program for any athlete of any sport. But which type of muscle, which type of lifts, and which type of programs we use is extremely important because just as weight training can be positive for athletic development, it can also be very detrimental for an athletes development if the wrong type is done. Often, we tend to waste so much time in our weight training programs that could have been used for other developmental drills, but in order to make sure we avoid this, we must first truly understand the sport and the position the athlete is training for. In an effort to understand this, we can start by either watching film and or just simply studying the movements that take place in a given play by the athlete or athletes you are creating this program for. After numerous plays, you’ll then realize what muscle groups are truly used and in what resistance manner those muscles are used while the athlete executes a play. This will give you the first stage to developing your weight-training program. The second stage of our understanding would be to find the lifts and machines that help to duplicate the movements that where learned about in the stage one. This can become somewhat challenging for trainers and coaches because so many of us are so set on lifts (e.g.: bench press, squats, power cleans, etc.) that we have used for many years as our only determining factors for muscle development and success in the weight room. With some of the new lifts you start using, because of what you learned in stage one, you are going to have to start from scratch on the marks in determining factors for muscle development and success in the weight room.
About the author--Danny Arnold Danny Arnold is the director of all operations for Plex Sports & Rehab. Along with his staff, Arnold is recognized as one of the leaders in providing innovative training and Transitional Sports Therapy (TST) to help athletes reach their fullest potential. A graduate of Texas Southern University, Arnold played football and ran track and later coached both sports. You can reach him at danny@plex.cc or calling 281-240-0253 |
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