Misconceptions About The Role The Weight Room Plays In Sports Performance
This week I wanted to a step outside of the general health and fitness realm and dive into the sports performance world. I think this would be beneficial to many of the people reading this who are either high school, collegiate or weekend warrior athletes. Whichever camp you find yourself in, improving your game is probably important to you. I know this to be true for two reasons, the first being, I spent time playing sports from the age of six all the way through my sophomore year in college and for as long as I can remember I was always trying to run faster, jump higher, lift more, throw farther, or hit harder. The second, is that if you’re not trying to get better at the sport you’re playing, I have to pose the question, do you even enjoy doing it? If you’re playing sports regularly, you’re likely competitive, and if you’re competitive, chances are you want to get better so that you win. This week’s blog post is going to address some common misconceptions people have on the role the weight room plays in sports performance and how to properly train to improve athletically.
Misconception 1 – If I want to get better at my sport all I need to do is train in the gym
Off the field training can play a large role in improving your game. Competency in the six basic movement patterns are vitally important to both sports performance and injury prevention. But, there is a reason why elite level power lifters don’t always make elite level offensive lineman. Success in sport comes down to the ability to score points or perform. If I can cross the end zone with the ball more frequently than you, put the basketball through the hoop more than you or can drive more players home than you, my team wins the ball game. Period. Doing so, requires a subset of skills that really can’t be mimicked completely in the weight room. For instance, in baseball, you need to be able to hit the ball with high velocity, power, accuracy and timing. But, you also need to be able to field a ball, throw down a runner, catch a ball in stride etc. There are many facets to the game that simply cannot be worked on in a typical training session to the degree they are in practice. The point I am trying to make is if you want to get better at a sport, you need to practice your sport. Success in a sporting event is a culmination of repetitive successful actions against your opponent (juke/tackle/slide to home base) or against the clock (track events, swim events). Preparing yourself physically will help prepare you for competition but it does not always immediately translate to on field performance.
In general, off field sports performance training should aim to improve the capacity in the six fundamental movement patters. Athletes should be training to improve their squatting, hinging, lunging, pulling, pushing and carrying strength. Almost all movements found in sport will be combinations or variations of these movements. Improving capacity in these movements will build a general foundation of strength and resiliency that will prepare the athlete for the demands of their sport. They can then hone their skills in practice to refine their physical skills into high level on field play. The more physically gifted athlete will not always win the game, but, when physical preparation and sports specific practice come together – it is almost always unbeatable.
Misconception 2 – If you want to improve a sports movement just make it heavier
This is probably one of the most common mistakes I see people – myself included – make. There is a belief that the only way to swing harder, run faster, jump higher or throw farther is to add weight to the movement. But, in reality this is only true up to a point and is much less than what people might think. Adding weight too aggressively has the potential to do two things, first is mess with the mechanics of the movement and second is to greatly reduce the velocity of the movement.
I cannot think of one movement in sport that does not have a “proper” technique. There is an optimal way to swing a bat, throw a ball, sprint, jog, tackle, or jump. When weight is added to these and any other movement, the difficulty to maintain technique is greatly increased. Let’s say you want to throw a football farther, so you purchase a weighted football; If this ball is too heavy, chances are that how you throw it will look nothing like how you throw a regular football. The smaller muscles of your rotator cuff and shoulder are simply not strong enough to be loaded like that and thus the larger muscles will have to take over to accomplish the task and body mechanics will be effected. This will in turn have not only no effect on improving your throwing ability but it actually may make you worse because you are enforcing an improper movement pattern. This can apply to any sport skill, if the weight is too heavy mechanics will almost always be altered.
Rather than maximally loading a movement that is found in sport, a better option would be to break the movement down into the basic patterns required to perform it, maximally load them and then put it together in practice. For example, a baseball swing involves lower body pushing, translated into rotational power. A better way to improve bat speed other than using a heavy bat would be to improve your squat and train rotational strength and power using medicine balls. When it is time for batting practice, the new found general strength and power will be refined into a more explosive swing.
Going a step further, many skills in sports are velocity or power dependent. The power equation is really simple math, power = work/time. How quickly can you move a mass? Skills like running, throwing and swinging a bat are dependent on your ability to move your legs, arm or bat as fast as possible. Maximally loading these movements will do the exact opposite. It is physically impossible to move a maximal weight fast, it has to be slow for maximal motor unit recruitment. If you spend too much time moving slow then guess what happens. You get really good at moving heavy things slow which last time I checked is not a pre-requisite in any sport outside of powerlifting or maybe strongman.
If you choose to load a movement, you need to do so in a way that challenges the muscles involved beyond what they are typically used to, while also maintaining a minimum degree of power or velocity. Most of my own research has been on studies involving sprint training. Those studies showed that loading up to 30% of bodyweight was optimal for improving sprint times. If you extrapolate this to other movements, I would suggest that heavy objects like heavy bats or balls be no more than 30% heavier than what is typically used and I would air on the side caution. Lighter is probably better.
Hopefully by reading this, some common misconceptions about the role of weight room training and sports performance have been corrected. As a strength & conditioning coach I will argue until I am blue in the face with anyone about the importance of physical development in sports. But, there is a proper way to go about doing it, just like there is a proper way to go about playing the game and executing the movements required to perform at a high level. If you want to use the weight room as a tool to step your game up – get strong, explosive and conditioned in the weight room and then practice your sport better than anyone else. If you’re going to load a movement, make sure you’re staying fast or break down the movement into its component parts, train them and put it together in practice.
