Emily Pappas, MS

‘Sport specific training’ seems to be all the rage: from weighted bats to banded ladder drills, the sports world has seen its fair share of sport specific movements. However, just because these movements look like the sport, does it mean they are the most effective training modalities?

What is SPORT SPECIFIC TRAINING and how SPECIFIC should female athletes get?

This article aims to explain the principle of sport specificity, the physiology that underpins its utility, and bust some myths to help put some “trends” to bed for good…

DEFINING SPORT SPECIFICITY

Sport specificity is a principle that explains that adaptations elicited from training are directly dependent on the specific type of activity, volume, and intensity of the exercise performed. Therefore, specificity of a movement refers to the neuromuscular or metabolic adaptations that enhance the physiological qualities from which sport specific skills are derived (3,4). For example, if a field hockey athlete is looking to improve her sprint speed, performing a bench press will have little carry over to her sprints compared to a high bar back squat. Similarly, if a long distance runner is looking to improve her endurance, performing a HIIT style session will have little carry over to her endurance compared to a longer, lower intensity, steady state training session (3). For this reason, exercises within a program must be chosen with consideration to the characteristics necessary for optimal transfer to sport skills. These characteristics include (3):

Movement patterns
- Complexity of the movement (think single vs multi joint movements)
- Body position factors (think standing vs laying)
- Range of motion and accentuated regions of force production (think a power clean versus a full clean)
- Types of muscle action (concentric, eccentric, stretch shortening cycle)
Force magnitude (think using a barbell versus resistance bands)
Rate of force development (think amount of force produced in a heavy barbell clean within a given time frame)
Acceleration and velocity parameters (think speed of the movement performed)
Ballistic versus non ballistic movements

By definition, sport specific training refers more to the type of adaptation that results from training than the training modality used in eliciting the adaptation.

The Problem with the General Public’s Understanding of Sport Specificity

For the general public, many believe sport specificity is how closely the movement pattern resembles the sport specific skill. With this conception, many sport coaches try to implement strength training modalities into their practice in an attempt to induce “sport specific” strength.

Take for instance, programs titled “core training for volleyball” or “getting fit for field hockey”. Although most of these titles SOUND like they are sport specific, and the movements within them may LOOK like the sport the athlete plays, most of these programs elicit an inferior training adaptation.

To understand this principle, consider the softball athlete below:

She is performing her practice while attached to resistance bands with the goal of improving speed and power of her pop-up. While it may seem logical to apply external resistance to improve power out of this position, this type of training modality is inefficient in improving the physiological system from which speed and power result.

Let’s look at the science…

Quick power output (like popping up from the catcher’s position and throwing the softball) require ample amounts of LOWER BODY STRENGTH (4,5). By definition, power = force x velocity. This means higher power outputs result from greater amounts of force produced at fast velocities (5).

In order to improve an athlete’s power, we must improve her strength, followed by the rate at which she produces force with that strength. Fortunately, sport scientists understand strength is developed based on the principle of PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD (2,3). This principle states that as the body adapts to a given stressor from training at a certain volume and intensity, the stressor placed on the body must increase progressively for it to to remain effective in producing further adaptation or athletic improvements. In the case of improving a softball athlete’s lower body strength, she must be exposed to progressively heavier weights to continue to stimulate strength adaptations.

For a novice athlete, improving strength is enough to see an improvement in power output (5). For the more advanced athletes (think a female athlete than can back squat 1.5x her bodyweight), she needs more specific training modalities that stress her body to adapt and produce large forces at faster rates in order to improve her power (5).

This is where higher velocity and higher force movements such as a HANG CLEAN or a POWER SNATCH are effective modalities for training these training characteristics.

In fact, weightlifters have been shown to have SUPERIOR power outputs compared to other athletes (3).

The problem with using “sport specific” training modalities is multi-fold.

First, most “sport specific movements” fail to provide a progressive overload. Take the resistance bands utilized in the previous example. Without a progressive change in resistance, she will maintain her current force output, resulting in an inefficient use of the athlete’s time (3,4).

Second, most “sport specific movements” impose a small stimulus compared to compound multi-joint lifts. Take the resistance bands utilized in the drills below. The resistance provided here is much smaller than that provided by a barbell. A smaller stimulus means a decreased adaptive response to improve force output (5).

Lastly, overloading “sport specific” movement patterns (such as a weighted softball bat) degrades the technique of the movement skill (4,5). With a weighted implement, the skill of this movement changes and can result in a degradation of performance of that skill. This makes such modalities counterproductive; efficient technique of sport movements allows for the most efficient expression of force (5).

What is Dynamic Correspondence?

According to researchers (3,4), the degree of transfer of training effect depends on the degree of dynamic correspondence. This means that the basic mechanics, but not necessarily the outward appearance of the training movements must be similar to those of performance in order to achieve maximum transfer.

For example, take an athlete looking to sprint faster. When analyzing the movement of sprinting, the biomechanics are highly reliant on horizontal forces. However, studies (3,4) have clearly shown that upright sprinting performance is primarily limited by vertical forces. For this reason, vertical resistance training movements such as a front squat or a hang snatch can have a large transfer of training effect, or dynamic correspondence to sprinting.

Although seemingly less sport specific, performing a front squat or a hang snatch will directly influence the athlete’s sports performance; these modalities enhance the athlete’s physiological qualities of strength and rate of force development. These are the qualities that significantly improve sprinting performance (5).

Another way to think about this concept: if you want to build a brick wall, the athlete who works to improve the number of bricks he/she has will always have a higher wall than the athlete who tries to get creative in how he/she can stack the bricks. As such, the athlete who works to improve the qualities of strength and power have more “building blocks” to help drive faster sprints and more explosive movements in almost any sport skill.

Even more, if the athlete desires to continue to improve her sport performance, these qualities must be continuously enhanced by overloading specific modalities in the weight room (particularly via force magnitude, rates of force development, and power). These enhancements are best achieved in accordance with the athlete’s sport season to ensure the adaptations elicited through training optimally match the current needs of the athlete.

For instance, in off-season or preparation training, more time should be spent in higher volume, lower intensity movements to provide an optimal hypertrophic stimulus. This type of training allows for greater muscle cross sectional area as well as denser tendons and ligaments to help reduce the chance of future injury (2,3,5).

As an athlete approaches her pre-competition season, heavier loads stimulate her body to increase its strength and force outputs (2,3,5).

As competition season approaches, modalities that are high intensity, fast velocity, and lower volume optimally stimulate the athlete to use her newly developed strength and express it as power on the field or court (2,3,5).

Sport Specificity is Physiological

Improving physiological qualities in the weight room is sport specific, as these qualities underlie improvements that can be made in a sport specific setting. Before buying into the next “soccer specific” or “lacrosse strength” program, consider if this modality is the most efficient training for your athlete to reach her sport specific goal.

Although these modalities may look similar to the sport, they likely to be inefficient in improving the qualities from which sport skills derive.

Put simply: leave sport skills for your sport coaches and leave athletic qualities from which these skills derive for your strength coaches.

REFERENCES

Brearley, Simon, and Chris Bishop. “Transfer of Training.” Strength and Conditioning Journal, vol. 41, no. 3, 2019, pp. 97–109., doi:10.1519/ssc.0000000000000450.
Kenney, W. Larry, et al. Physiology of Sport and Exercise. Human Kinetics, 2020.
Stone, Michael H., et al. Principles and Practice of Resistance Training. Human Kinetics, 2007.
Suarez, Dylan G., et al. “Dynamic Correspondence of Resistance Training to Sport.” Strength and Conditioning Journal, vol. 41, no. 4, 2019, pp. 80–88., doi:10.1519/ssc.0000000000000458.
Suchomel, Timothy J., et al. “The Importance of Muscular Strength in Athletic Performance.” Sports Medicine, vol. 46, no. 10, 2016, pp. 1419–1449., doi:10.1007/s40279-016-0486-0.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Emily holds a M.S. in Exercise Physiology from Temple University and a B.S. in Biological Sciences from Drexel University. Through this education, Emily values her ability to coach athletes with a perspective that is grounded in biomechanics and human physiology. Outside of the classroom, Emily has experience coaching and programming at the Division I Collegiate Level working as an assistant strength coach for an internship with Temple University’s Women’s Rugby team.

In addition, Emily holds her USAW Sport Performance certification and values her ability to coach athletes using “Olympic” Weightlifting. Emily is extremely passionate about the sport of Weightlifting, not only for the competitive nature of the sport, but also for the application of the lifts as a tool in the strength field. Through these lifts, Emily has been able to develop athletes that range from grade school athletes to nationally ranked athletes in sports such as lacrosse, field hockey, and weightlifting.

Emily is also an adjunct at Temple University, instructing a course on the development of female athletes.