The sport specific craze is a byproduct of the anti-developmental youth sport model we use today.
“Outside of barbell sports, there’s no such thing as ‘sport specific strength’.
Athletes strength train to develop ‘general strength’.
The idea is to develop strength generally, so that you can use the increased levels of the quality within your specific domain.”
-Ray Zingler on X
The only reason the sport specific training term has any flare is because it’s a buzz phrase that unknowing adults will buy for their kids in hopes of “getting them an edge”.
But here is the deal..
Sport specific training doesn’t exist.
It’s not even a real thing.
Sports are specific.
Training is general.
You can’t combine the two and make it one thing.
It’d be like calling it a “rainy sunny day!”
When you hear the term sport specific training, what people are referring to is sport practice.
They just give it a fancy name because they know you’ll pay extra for it.
It’d be no different than being sold blinker fluid by your local mechanic. You can buy it all day long, but there is no such thing.
The sport of soccer has it right, by calling their practices, “training”.
But when soccer players go to (soccer) training, they aren’t doing goofy ass drills branded as sport specific training. They are practicing their soccer.
Ask yourself, “how much practice is my kid going to? Does he really need more ‘sport specific training’ (sport practice)?”
If your answer is yes, great!
Find him a coach/team that prioritizes development and practices the sport he plays regularly instead of just playing a bunch of meaningless games and tournaments.
You don’t have to buy “extra lessons” from the snake oil salesmen. You just have to find a program who actually cares about your kid’s development and not only your dollars.
In the modern era, those organizations are few and far between, so if you find one, STICK. WITH. THEM.
Now that that’s out of the way, here is the point of the message.
The goal of training, which again is GENERAL, is to enhance general athletic qualities.
As performance coaches, we are trying to help kids become better athletes, not better specialists.
The reason is because general athleticism funds specific demands.
Our kids today don’t have the general qualities to (continually) support and improve the specific requirements placed upon them.
Stop with the sports specific training, it’s counterproductive.
Focus on general training, because when we improve generally in training, we can then apply our newly enhanced capacities in specific environments.
It doesn’t work the other way around.
