What About All the Others?

Is there any other industry that is so prone to flip flop behavior and ideas more than the fitness and sports performance industry? Really, between "core training", "functional training", and "sport-specific training" it seems that these popular buzz words are so popular that you can ask ten different coaches what they mean and probably get ten different answers.

One that cracks me up is sport-specific training. I love when parents want their 13 year old to perform sport-specific training! These kids have so little training background that such training is useless as they need to build a base of strength, endurance, and flexibility. Nowadays, this trend is so bad that it is having a large negative impact on their training!

Then you have another group that tries to replicate sporting movement with weights. That isn't sport-specific training, that is foolish and often results in ruining the sport skill that you are trying to improve.

There is the group that believes you should just try to get crazy strong in the weight room and this will take care of everything on the field. You know the team that brags about their bench and squat numbers, but ends up having a very average record for the season.

Then there finally is a group that shouldn't perform any strength training. Yes, in the modern age there are still coaches and sports that think strength training makes you immobile and lose your sporting skill. One of the sports is the one I grew up playing, basketball.

No, basketball players are training, well sorta! There are still a lot of players and coaches that think strength training is going to mess up their shot. In fact, legendary strength coach, Vern Gambetta, once told the story of working with the Bulls in the 80's and how upset the head coach was about the guys lifting! That isn't THAT long ago.

Of course you have those that do train, but they bodybuild, try to powerlift or olympic lift. It is as though we try to cram athletes into our strength training paradigms. A good coach can recognize not only the needs of the athlete, but the challenges they face as well.

I feel outside of football our interest in really developing strength programs for other sports is very limited. Firstly, basketball players typically have terrible leverages because of their height. Trying to force them to do the same lifts guys who average 5'7 excel in is a little crazy!!! Can they benefit from them? Maybe, but is there a better way? That is why I believe sandbags are such a terrific tool when implemented correctly. Remember the goal of athletics isn't to make your athletes better lifters, but better athletes.

Want to see an example of how powerful sandbags can be for not only producing powerful results, but problem solving? Check out today's video: