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Athletes these days will go to great lengths to improve their game and get an edge on the competition. A wide array of products and services are available to athletes at any level. These typically are promoted using unreasonable hype and mostly unbelievable results. This is because athletes know what they want and it’s easy to figure that out too. But too many of these programs fall short of their hyped claims and leave the athlete disappointed, no better off, and possibly broken.
Athletic enhancement programs should develop the total athlete. We are finally seeing the media showing how big time coaches are recognizing the well-rounded athleticism, durability, and immediate impact multi-sport athletes have on their programs. And this is also the time to mention how specialization can be detrimental. (We can dig deeper into that in a future article.) Comprehensive, scientifically based programs will effectively increase speed, explosiveness, strength and power while improving conditioning and decreasing injuries. This is what every athlete needs, to be a better athlete.
Athletic enhancement programs that set themselves apart emphasize functional training, core stability and strength, and balance. Although these elements are the basis for all movement, this training is an often overlooked part of improving an athlete’s performance. (examples of what typically get done in the name of athletic enhancement high speed treadmill, heavy wts, heavy oly lifting, resistive sport specific movements… ) Common training methods like strength training and jump training are frequently utilized in performance programs in an effort to help the athlete reach higher and perform better. But too often the message is “more is better” and the mantra becomes “no pain, no gain” as the athlete begins to break down more than they can recover from.
Smart training includes, innovative methods of core training and balance training that should be a fundamental part of every program in order to build better athletes and get results. If you want to really maximize the benefits from training, the program must also be specific to the athlete’s needs and tailored around the athlete’s goals (want). This is when you can build better athletes by creating a foundation of function and quality movement. This is how you meet the needs of athletes and get them what they want.