Sport specific training is a myth

[Beastinthemakin]

question?Does this refer to the adding of sport specific things to overalll workout, because i know several exercises that were made becasue they replicate actuall sport movments.

[KiloNewton]

I think you should be training the whole body and doing all the basic exercises, but there are sport specific exercises that you can do in addition to these. For swimming I do some lat/shoulder exercises that are sport specific, but I still do workouts for my entire body and they include squats, bench, deadlift, etc.

I agree. There are some exercises which are so potent that they are effective regardless of specificity.

I think the reason most people disagree with the idea of training specificity is that they define it incorrectly. Throwing an overweight shot for a shot putter is a highly effective and highly specific form of resistance training. For a rower attaching a small bucket trailing behind the boat to add resistance is highly specific and highly effective.

The confusion on this topic arrises when people imagine that exercises which are neither specific nor beneficial are what is meant by specific. For example on this forum I once argued this same topic with someone and in an attempt to ridicule the notion of training specificity he argued that we don't see soccer players kicking overweight balls. The implication being that this practice would be ineffective but none the less specific. The example is wrong however, kicking an overweight soccer ball is unlikely to be specific to much if any part of the game.

The problem is not that training specificity is a myth, the problem is that people don't know what specificity means.

Deadlifts and squats have the benefits of being very heavy compound movements sure, but part of the reason they are so widely sucessful is also because they are specific to a great many sports. These exercises to not disprove the law of specificity, they are simply so specific to so many sports that people imagine that they are not specific rather that they are magic.

This confusion has lead many coaches to trust their experience and abandon the fairly academic notion of specificity having had little success with it. Their experience is not wrong, nor is specificity.

I think gymnastics is the best example of the importance of training specificity. Gymnastics coaches rarely waste time doing deadlifts, as good as deadlifts are they have little if any transfer over to the sport of gymnastics. Gymnastics is not special, all sports benefit from specific training; you just have to be able to pick what is actually specific from the bull**** people imagine to be specific.

Be aware also that training teenagers is different from training adults. Athletes with a young training age do not benefit as much from specific resistance training as adults.
I remember reading that the soviets used to train their young athletes with as little as 30% of resistance exercices being specific.

[farzamk]

question?Does this refer to the adding of sport specific things to overalll workout, because i know several exercises that were made becasue they replicate actuall sport movments.

You need to understand the principle here, we want to develop better athletes, not just mimic the movements of one's sport during speed/conditioning/agility training. Overall functional work must be done as the BASE of the program.

[GuiYoM]

You need to do some research and see how many of the world's top coaches reject sport specific training.

Because it create adaptation. It depend alot of the sport, there's no general rule of thumb about sport specific drills. This topic is to general.

Overall functional work must be done as the BASE of the program.

That's wrong, young athlete doesn't give a damn about drills. We get them stronger, we gives us the best training environment possible, we make them play arround with theirs friends. They don't know what training is. They do gets basic drills, nothing like NFL Bootcamp.

Does this refer to the adding of sport specific things to overalll workout, because i know several exercises that were made becasue they replicate actuall sport movments.

Overall workout is alway different throught the years, basicly yes. I said BASICLY.

[fbcoach]

I agree. There are some exercises which are so potent that they are effective regardless of specificity.

I think the reason most people disagree with the idea of training specificity is that they define it incorrectly. Throwing an overweight shot for a shot putter is a highly effective and highly specific form of resistance training. For a rower attaching a small bucket trailing behind the boat to add resistance is highly specific and highly effective.

The confusion on this topic arrises when people imagine that exercises which are neither specific nor beneficial are what is meant by specific. For example on this forum I once argued this same topic with someone and in an attempt to ridicule the notion of training specificity he argued that we don't see soccer players kicking overweight balls. The implication being that this practice would be ineffective but none the less specific. The example is wrong however, kicking an overweight soccer ball is unlikely to be specific to much if any part of the game.

The problem is not that training specificity is a myth, the problem is that people don't know what specificity means.

Deadlifts and squats have the benefits of being very heavy compound movements sure, but part of the reason they are so widely sucessful is also because they are specific to a great many sports. These exercises to not disprove the law of specificity, they are simply so specific to so many sports that people imagine that they are not specific rather that they are magic.

This confusion has lead many coaches to trust their experience and abandon the fairly academic notion of specificity having had little success with it. Their experience is not wrong, nor is specificity.

I think gymnastics is the best example of the importance of training specificity. Gymnastics coaches rarely waste time doing deadlifts, as good as deadlifts are they have little if any transfer over to the sport of gymnastics. Gymnastics is not special, all sports benefit from specific training; you just have to be able to pick what is actually specific from the bull**** people imagine to be specific.

Be aware also that training teenagers is different from training adults. Athletes with a young training age do not benefit as much from specific resistance training as adults.
I remember reading that the soviets used to train their young athletes with as little as 30% of resistance exercices being specific.

I agree with most of what you have said. Let's take for example an O-lineman and a Tennis player. I would have my football player doing Push Presses. This would do wonders to improve his pass blocking technique. I wouldn't use it for my tennis player. Also, when training for sport specific, it would depend on if that sport required lots of muscular endurance..or power..or speed..or use of certain bodyparts. Would you train a Tennis Player as you would a MMA Fighter????