Somebody once asked Ben Hogan for a golf lesson. His reply, "You can't teach golf. You can only learn it." Hogan wasn't arrogant, just giving an honest opinion. To learn golf, you must practice until an efficient and effective motion is ingrained in the nervous system and the muscles they feed. Timing, control, balance, feel, rhythm - the muscles and nervous system must figure things out. It must be precise, specific, exactly the same - swing after swing - to reach the pinnacle. Things almost correct will likely retard the process, insert roadblocks, promote negative results.
Yet, this insertion is exactly the essence of sport-specific or performance training. Do something (an exercise or movement) that resembles a sport-movement pattern; then assume there is a positive transfer to the sport itself. Poor assumption. The motor learning principle of specificity is violated every time - something coaches and trainers don't get. They continue to train athletes under false assumptions and beliefs, then argue that they produce results. They have the studs in the barn to prove it. Doing something will produce a result, not the best result, a result.
Why do coaches and trainers not get it? Your guess is as good as mine, but one thing is certain. The alternative, old-school thought, is unattractive, not hip, not functional. Strengthen the muscles needed in the sport, independent of 'how' they are to be used. Then, take the new muscles out to the ball game. Let the nervous system piece the new structure and strength together in the only way possible - by practice of the sport itself, specifically, with no added weight or opinion. Practice the sport exactly as you would in competition.
Let's put the current sport-specific training approach where it belongs - the nearest trash can. The nervous system is capable of improvement with the proper signals - signals not confused by extra weights that trigger patterns similar to, but not exactly like, that encountered in the sport.
Strengthen muscles; practice the sport. Anything else is insanity, fraud or both.
Get it?
Yet, this insertion is exactly the essence of sport-specific or performance training. Do something (an exercise or movement) that resembles a sport-movement pattern; then assume there is a positive transfer to the sport itself. Poor assumption. The motor learning principle of specificity is violated every time - something coaches and trainers don't get. They continue to train athletes under false assumptions and beliefs, then argue that they produce results. They have the studs in the barn to prove it. Doing something will produce a result, not the best result, a result.
Why do coaches and trainers not get it? Your guess is as good as mine, but one thing is certain. The alternative, old-school thought, is unattractive, not hip, not functional. Strengthen the muscles needed in the sport, independent of 'how' they are to be used. Then, take the new muscles out to the ball game. Let the nervous system piece the new structure and strength together in the only way possible - by practice of the sport itself, specifically, with no added weight or opinion. Practice the sport exactly as you would in competition.
Let's put the current sport-specific training approach where it belongs - the nearest trash can. The nervous system is capable of improvement with the proper signals - signals not confused by extra weights that trigger patterns similar to, but not exactly like, that encountered in the sport.
Strengthen muscles; practice the sport. Anything else is insanity, fraud or both.
Get it?
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