Sport Specific Training…. And Why You Don’t Need it

Following on from the last blog post I wanted to touch on peoples desire to thrust themselves into sport specific training with the idea that they are going to progress much faster in their sport because of it. Firstly let's talk about what sports specific training actually is, sports specific training can be defined as the training done that is used to replicate movements and attributes found in the sport being trained for. Sports specific training certainly has its place in training for any sport however, when it comes to strength and conditioning in the gym for your sport becoming too hyper fixated on replicating the exact movements of your sport you may find yourself stunting progress. Gym training should be used as a tool to develop a base of solid movement patterns, strength strength and maximal force output becoming hyper fixated on replicating ultra specific movements will Hindi your ability to produce maximum force and then therefore developing maximal strength.

So that the question where is sports specific training valid and the answer to that is going to be in your sport. If you are, for example, a rugby player in a tight forward position and you want to be developing your scrummaging you are going to do yourself a disservice if you try and replicate a scrum setting in the gym. Why do I say this? Because the scrum in rugby is what we call an open variable sport meaning that you have to be adapting to new variables constantly ie the opposition turning one way or dropping/raising themselves. If you were trying to replicate this in the gym you would not be able to give yourself these unpredictable variables. So where do you practice this skill? In the scrum on a rugby pitch ,you are practising your sports specific skills while playing your sport. If you want to become the best scrimmager you can as a rugby player you should be practising scrimmaging on the field with your team the best you can and developing your maximum strength in the gym.

To continue with the example of a rugby player that wants to develop their scrimmaging we can look at what areas the player may want to develop strengthen to become the best scrimmage they can this is going to be primarily the legs, back and core. So what exercises would we look at to develop this with the goal of scrummaging in mind? Firstly we would look back at the scrummage and decide what kind of movement it is and we would decide it is a compound movement because there is many if not all muscle groups involved. So we will use compound movements to develop these areas this is where sports specificity comes into the gym. We would use exercise exercises such as the back squat, the deadlift, a heavy single arm farmers carry and back extensions who developed strength and power in these areas.

So summarise when we look at sports specific training we are not looking at trying to replicate the exact movement pattern in the sport with exercises in the gym you get those movement patterns from playing and practising the sport. What we are trying to do is develop strength and power in the area that it demanded from us using exercise exercises in the gym that have similar qualities to this sport and it's demands.