In part one of this two- part series, I wrote about how a strength and conditioning program that is too “sport specific” can be detrimental to a youngster’s performance. In the 2nd part of this series, I will talk about where applying sport specific protocols can be beneficial when used with a properly developed athlete at the right time in their training cycle.

As an athlete matures, they will reach a certain age, or point in their development where it is clear that they have the capability to play in college and beyond. These athletes are often genetically blessed with highly adaptable neuromuscular systems and progress quickly through phases of physical development. They are highly coordinated, fast, powerful, strong and consequently, very rare (1% of 7 million active high school athletes will receive a Division I scholarship). They may have progressed to a point where their limitations are more in the realm of realistic human capability as opposed to appropriate development. For example, if a high school football player can run a 4.3 forty yard dash at 200 pounds and can squat 450 pounds, their neuromuscular system has reached a point of maximal neuromuscular output. Any improvements in these numbers would require a high degree of practice and attention to these specific tasks. Improvements would also be very minute. This may be necessary if the athlete is participating in some sort of combine, but these further minute improvements don’t transfer much to the actual game performance. In this case, an athletic performance coach must work closely with the athlete’s skill coach to determine what needs to be done to improve their performance. While the athlete’s ability to create high magnitudes of output must be maintained with speed work and appropriate loads in the weight room, there may be very specific things that need to be addressed. There may be an imbalance of proficiency moving to one side of the body versus another, there may be certain scenarios that the athletes performance is compromised due to some specific biomechanical weakness. In this case, the athletic performance coach should work closely with the sport skill coach to come up with modalities that can help. For sports that observe a competitive “peak” at a young age, such as ice skating and gymnastics, this specialization may need to be employed earlier in the developmental process.

Speed, agility, quickness (SAQ), and conditioning can be benefited from a sport specific protocol when employed with properly prepared athletes. Assuming that athletes have developed an effective aerobic fitness level, and are at an age where their anaerobic system is effective and adaptable (usually around age 14) specificity can be beneficial. Each sport has different demands for duration of activity, recovery time, and movement requirements. Employing SAQ drills, as well as conditioning drills that address these specific needs allows the athlete to “practice” these demands, and in turn, improve their response to these demands. Generally speaking, due to our poor system of athletic preparation in the United States, it is difficult to pinpoint an age where this specificity is beneficial. There is often a drastic difference between where an athlete should be in regards to physical development, and where they actually are. For example, the game of baseball does not have many aerobic demands. However, if a baseball athlete does not have a basic, aerobic base, it will hinder their improvement in other physical skills. I have found that with many of my high school teams, it takes me many weeks to develop a basic aerobic work capacity, just to get through a training session. Most of the time, 20% of the team is throwing up from the dynamic warm-up. In this case, moving to high-intensity anaerobic work sets such as sprints, agilities, or plyometrics would be of little use. They would not be able to do them with any amount of intensity or focus. Unfortunately, I have found the best way to address a team in any sport is to assume that they are poorly, or improperly prepared. In this case, basic physical development is the goal.

Quite possibly the highest relevance of sport specific training is when considering injury prevention. As athletes age, and levels of competition rise, patterns of injury for certain sports arise. For example, ACL injuries in soccer, high ankle sprains in basketball, shoulder injuries in baseball, along with a host of others. Research has demonstrated that specific modalities can aid in the prevention of these injuries. While a general well-designed, balanced program can decrease the likelihood of general injuries, more specific work is often necessary for different sports. Ideally, this type of work should be introduced at an early point in development, focusing on nearly every avenue of injury prevention. As the athlete ages and becomes more engrained in participation for one sport, or has shown specific inclinations towards certain injuries, the focus should narrow to these specific needs.

As you can see, there is some relevance to sport specific training in specific situations. It is essential, however, that basic physical development is used as the guide to progress to more specific training. It is growingly more important that we address this with our athletic youth. Be one of the educated, helping develop youth into happy, healthy, pain-free adults.

Coach Brett Klika is the Director of Athletic Performance at Todd Durkin's Fitness Quest 10 in San Diego, CA. He specializes in youth fitness and athletic performance, overseeing a staff of 8 strength coaches developing programas for over 300 youth per week, both athletes and non-athletes. He presents around the world to both trainers and corporations with Todd Durkin Enterprises on a variety of health, wellness, and athletic performance topics. Brett contributes monthly to the award-winning "TD Times" newsletter. If you would like to sign up, you can do so by visiting www.FitnessQuest10.com or www.ToddDurkin.com.

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