What Must Come Before Sport-Specific Training

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Sport-specific training is important for athletic performance, but the missing link for almost all modern athletes now is pre-sport-specific skills. In other words, general athleticism.

It’s All In How You Respond

Playing a sport, you have a fraction of a second to respond, or else an opportunity can be missed. Responding well and instantly are extremely important in a game situation.

Pre-sport-specific skills are the skills that allow you to respond well. An example of responding well is being in position: in position to be ready for anything that can happen in a game situation.

A reliable athlete is someone who can handle uncertainty. The better your coordination is, the more you will be able to respond to uncertainty, pressure, and dynamic game situations.

Be In Position

What does it mean to be in position? Your feet are under you, and you have options.

Why do you need to be in position as quickly as possible? When any given situation happens in sport, you have a split second to make a decision. If that split second is wasted by expending energy getting into position, then you’ve lost the opportunity to react well.

The Truth About Fundamentals

Fundamental sport-specific skills are technical skills that apply directly to your sport.

Athletic coordination and footwork come before sport-specific fundamentals. Most coaches think training starts with sport-specific skills. Athletic coordination is the foundation of athleticism that transfers to sport specialization.

If you can coordinate well, you’ll be able to produce any skill from any sport easily.

Unfortunately, most coaches focus solely on proficiency of sport-specific skills. Perfecting sport-specific skills alone will result in efficiency only in that exact skill. So, in a game situation that suddenly demands a slight variation to the skill you’ve practiced, your specialized skillset will mean nothing.

Degree of adaptability and ability to adjust to any situation on the court / ice / field is determined by how generally athletic you are. And general athleticism comes down to coordination.

Coordination Is King

Coordination cuts down wasted movement, making you inherently more efficient. So as you get more coordinated, you are knocking off seconds in reaction time, perception, and responding.

The better you can coordinate, the more instantaneously you can react. The faster and better you can react, the better you play. This is why coordination is king.

Coordination is a part of universal athleticism.

Improving skills of universal athleticism, like coordination, balance, and rhythm is also the most effective path to mastering sport-specific skills.

Remember: the greatest athletes of all time are not considered great because they mastered biomechanics and specific techniques for their sport. They have a quality of athleticism that is well-rounded and superior abilities to react before anyone else.