These two phrases have been popping up a lot lately in the arena of athletics. Sport specific and functional training. In sport, they really mean the same things. You have to train sport specifically for your sport– meaning training the same energy systems used during competition, training the same kind of explosive power, strength, endurance, skills, etc…. Functional training in sport means that you are training to enhance your ability to perform a certain task or tasks– again energy systems, power, strength, etc….
If you are not training in a way that is specific, detrimental effects could occur with continued use of these poor training methods. A few months ago I met a soccer coach, who was coach of an A squad and a B squad soccer team. In order to get onto the ‘A’ Team you had to run a mile under a certain time. This was the only qualification. It didn’t matter how good you were, how many goals you scored or anything like that, all that mattered was a mile run time. Now granted a soccer player does a lot of running during a game, I think they figured out that a forward ran something like 8 miles total in an average game.
But never does a player run this continuously. It’s all about starting (accelerating) to the ball or play, stopping (decelerating), then maybe a cut here or there and accelerating again; maybe a jog here, then a quick start and repeat. What’s sad is that this happens on mostly all levels from youth sports all the way up to the pros, and not just soccer, I just used that as an example.
If you’re an athlete, coach, parent I highly encourage you to check out the training program. Even if it is sports specific make sure its quality based and not quantity based. Look subjectively, there probably are some things that can be excluded, or pushed aside for a while and brought back in later. Athletes have enough punishment on their bodies through practice and competition, and if they are pushed to an overtraining state then expect a decline in performance and perhaps even injury. If you have questions, ask me, or ask someone.
How do you think the athletes below would fair if they switched sports and were expected to compete immediately? Think about your training
