Mar 10, 2019A Different Perspective on Sport-Related Training
The way former Detroit Red Wings strength and conditioning coach Peter Renzetti sees it, when it comes to sport-specific strength and conditioning training, there is none.
“Strength training will always be an integral part of athlete development, Renzetti writes in an article on the Durham Star (Ontario) website. “And, there is nothing that can help improve sport performance more than the development of strength and speed.
“There are only eight biomotor abilities — strength, speed, power, endurance, flexibility, agility, co-ordination, balance — and seven primal movement patterns — push, pull, bend, twist, lunge, squat, gait (i.e. run),” Renzetti wrote in the article. “And there really are only a couple of ways to effectively train these. While athletes, parents and coaches would love to hear that a particular set of exercises are perfect for their sport, the reality is these so-called magic bullets really are just sexy-looking exercises with very little practical carry-over and the term sports-specific training really is just a marketing trick.
And so, simply stated, the job of a good strength coach is nothing more than to build athletes and confident warriors.”
Renzetti believes that the goal of a strength & conditioning coach is develop and improve the biomotor abilities of athletes and teach them the ability to perform the primal movement patterns with excellence and precision. By doing this, the strength coach is building the proper foundation that enables the sport coaches to teach the specific skills and techniques that are are critical to succeed in the sport.
Thus, he says the “only real form of sports specific-training is to play/practice your sport; to perform the required skills under competition settings and conditions.”
