15 basic training principles for all sports. (Training).

AFTER ALMOST FOUR decades of working with elite athletes, including 25 years with major league baseball players, I am convinced that there are few absolutes and many variables associated with the preparation of top-level athletes for optimal, injury-free performance.

"Absolutes" evolve from the basic principles of sports medicine and exercise science. They are the ideas that have stood the test of time and met the demands of the player and his/her sport and position.

"Variables" are the factors that you cannot control. Experience indicates that the more basic principles you observe, the fewer variables you will have to contend with.

Develop the Total Athlete:

Your body is a three-link chain of legs, trunk, and arms that function as a unit. You cannot get by with just being strong or fast or flexible or skilled. You need the whole package -- total fitness.

For example, strength is important, but what good is it to squat 400 lbs. if you cannot sprint 40 yards in less than 5.0 seconds? And what is the use of being flexible if you are too weak to hit a sacrifice fly or spike a volleyball?

First-step quickness is essential. But the feet do not operate independently of the rest of the body. If you have "slow feet," you will probably have weak legs and a limited range of motion in the hips. If you can improve or strengthen your flexibility, leg strength, hip power, and trunk, you will get quicker feet. The same holds true for a weak arm or slow hands.

If you can improve all the links in the chain, you will throw harder, kick farther, jump higher, and run faster.

Condition the Entire Body, Not Just the Arms and/or Leqs:

When striking, throwing, blocking, etc., start with your legs and trunk, not with your arms.

Your legs and trunk are your "power zone." They provide over 50% of the force generated in striking, blocking, and throwing. The forces are initiated in the legs, then transferred to the upper body through the trunk and finally applied to the opponent, bat, racquet, or ball by the hands and fingers.

Like every chain, your body is only as strong as its weakest link. And the weakest link is often the trunk. A weak mid-section cannot transfer 100% of the forces generated by the legs and hips to the arms and hands for application to the bat, ball, racquet, or opponent. The end result is a loss of strength, power, and speed.

Injury often occurs when we put more stress on the muscles of the arms, shoulders, and hands to compensate for a loss of speed and power. Assume, for example, that you have to generate a force of 1,200 lbs. to throw a baseball 90 mph, spike a volleyball 80 mph, or knock a 300lb. opponent off the line. Your legs will contribute 600 lbs., your trunk 400 lbs., and your arms, shoulders, and hands 200 lbs. If your midsection is weak, you might generate only 200 lbs. with your trunk and transfer only 50% of the force generated by your legs.

The end result would be a total force of 700 lbs. (300 from the legs + 200 from the trunk + 200 from the arms). To compensate for this loss, you will have to increase the stress on your upper extremity, which, in time, will produce arm and shoulder problems.

A similar case can be made for hitting a baseball, striking a golf ball, or shucking a blocker. A player with a weak mid-section will lose power because he cannot transfer and use 100% of his leg and hip force.

Get in Shape to Play:

Prior to the mid-70's, most athletes played themselves into shape. It was a slow and ineffective approach that produced little skill and caused injuries.

When an athlete isn't in shape, he tires quickly and becomes unable to perform the skills correctly. A healthy player with talent will improve when exposed to good coaching. An injured player will not.

The goal of every organization is to get the best players on the field as often as possible. There is no way a team is going to win when its best players are sidelined by injury.

Train Movements, Not Muscles:

Nothing happens when a body is standing still. Most movements m sport are ballistic, fast, and highly reactive. The athlete has to react to the ball, the opponent, or the situation. And the movements are sequential -- one following another, often explosively, and requiring a high level of force.

For optimal, injury-free performance, the athlete should perform the specific movement patterns required by the sport and the position (run, block, throw, jump, direction change, etc.). Once the athlete can execute these patterns efficiently, he should repeat them with resistance to develop sport-specific strength, speed, and power.

Caution: Isolated muscles shouldn't be trained to move slowly. Bodybuilders do this so that they can stand on a stage and slowly show off one muscle or muscle group at a time. Since they don't have to move quickly, they can train isolated muscles to move slowly. Such bodybuilding programs have absolutely no place in sports.

Moral: Get in shape to play Don't play to get into shape. Players in shape can try harder, do more, make better progress and avoid injury.

Train Strength First:

Develop basic strength before working on skill, speed, power, or endurance. Strength is the foundation upon which all the other performance components are predicated.

Without a strong foundation, the body cannot withstand the high intensity required to build speed and power. And without strength, the athlete cannot do the repetitions to improve skill and endurance.

Train for Muscle Balance:

Joint stability relies on the contraction of muscles on both sides of the joint. Programs that focus only on certain muscle groups can expose the joint to injury. The athlete should also make certain to train both sides of the body -- both arms and both legs. The lead leg and non-throwing/striking arm help rotate the trunk to enhance arm and leg speed/power.

Train for performance, Not Capacity:

Emphasize the quality of each effort, not the quantity. Don't max-out in any exercise and don't work to exhaustion. You don't need to "feel the burn" to get a good workout.

Avoid forced reps where you work to exhaustion and then do a few more reps with the help of a partner.

Forced reps violate several principles of resistance training, produce less than optimal gains, and increase the risk of injury.

You don't have to push a muscle beyond its limit to stimulate growth. Growth is directly related to the intensity of the contraction, while the number of contracting muscle fibers determines intensity.

When a muscle fatigues, some of its fibers shut down. And with fewer fibers contracting, it's impossible to generate enough force to complete the last rep without external help. Because some of the muscle has shut down, it cannot contract with max intensity, and max intensity is the key to growth. Forced reps are a form of cheating and are counterproductive. You cannot push a muscle beyond its limits.

Also avoid partial reps. They are another form of "cheating" based on the erroneous assumption that you can force a muscle to work harder by switching to half or quarter-reps upon reaching the point where you cannot do a full rep.

For max results, athletes have to do full reps through the complete range of motion. Partial reps don't train the total muscle. They train only the part that is actually working and develop strength only in the last 25-50% of the ROM. There is no transfer of strength to other points in the ROM.

With fatigue, some of the muscle fibers drop out and you cannot force them to become active with partial reps. Partial reps are possible because muscle and joint leverage tends to increase near the end of most pressing exercises, not because more of the muscle has become active.

Safe, injury-free performance requires functional strength throughout the full ROM. Partial reps limit your force potential and increase your risk of muscle imbalance and injury.

Start Slow and Be Progressive:

While most games require all-out effort, you cannot start a high intensity training program in the first week of the off-season. Don't be in such a hurry to get to the next level that you don't take the time to establish a sound training base from which to work.

You cannot make 100 long jumps, punt a football 100 times, spike a volleyball 100 times, etc., on the first day of practice. You must start with 20-30 and build slowly. The same is true for conditioning. Don't do high-level workouts without first getting in shape. Trying to get "game ready" without first building a base will increase your risk of injury and prevent you from achieving your performance goals.

The key is to match your exercise routine to your fitness level. You should be able to handle your own body weight and maintain a correct dynamic posture before going into an extensive, high-intensity training program that includes strength training, plyometrics, sprints, etc. These activities aren't bad, you just have to progress to them.

Allow for Individual Differences:

While most athletes have similar basic requirements for strength, speed, power, flexibility, etc., each will differ with respect to how much of each element he needs, how much he can improve, how fast he can improve, and how well he will respond to different types and levels of training.

They won't all make the same gains by doing the same thing. Since they occupy different positions and have different movement requirements, roles, and responsibilities, some will rely on speed and finesse, others on strength and power. They will also differ in terms of interest, motivation, training, background, and maturation. Obviously, you cannot adopt a program that will ensure max results for everyone. A program designed for strength-power isn't going to be suitable for a speed-finesse athlete.

The speed-finesse athlete isn't going to need as much strength-power as the power athlete, nor have the training background to handle such a program. For max results, programs have to be personalized.

Specificity, "You Get What You Train For":

Know what you need and train to get it. You have to lift weights to get stronger, run to get faster, and run, hit, catch, jump, and throw to become a better athlete.

Strength and fitness training will not substitute for skill work any more than swinging a 34-oz. bat or throwing a 16-lb. shot will increase strength, speed, power, etc.

Most team sports are games of speed, reaction, and power, not aerobic endurance. While it's important to have an aerobic base, aerobic training should not be the major component of your training program. If you are going to spend 80% of your time jogging, you're going to wind up practicing how to be slow.

Do aerobics early in the off-season to develop an aerobic base and then switch to interval sprints to improve acceleration, speed, and power.

Practice running, jumping, kicking, hitting, throwing, fielding, etc., but train smart. Since fatigue inhibits the learning of skills, do skills when you are fresh. Do a little skill training 2-3 times per week in the off-season when the volume of work and resulting fatigue is high. Gradually increase the amount and quality of skill work as the season approaches.

Do Functional, Closed Kinetic Chain Exercises:

Performance is the result of integrated muscular actions, not the sum of isolated joint movements. Your body is composed of a series of kinetic (moving) links or chains that operate in sequence. Throwing does not involve just the legs. All three involve the whole body. For best results, do complex movements that cross multiple joints.

Squats, for example, involve about 37% of your total muscle mass and force the hips, knees, and ankles to work in sequence.

Leg extensions isolate the quads and use only 10-12% of your muscle mass, while leg curls isolate the hamstrings and use only 7-10% of your muscle mass.

Closed kinetic chain exercise (squats, lunges, step-ups, stepdowns, split-squats, squat touches, push-ups, etc.) require that one or both hands and/or feet be in contact with the ground.

With open chain exercises, the hands (arm curl and triceps kickback) and/or feet (leg curl and leg extension) are not in contact with the ground.

Closed chain exercises not only work the prime movers in patterns similar to those used in sports, but develop the support and stabilizer muscles at each joint in the chain. They require more balance and coordination than open chain activities and are more sport-specific and time-efficient.

Have a Plan:

Use a periodization model that divides the year into five training phases, with each having a specific purpose and incorporating different activities, different volumes, and different intensities of work, and each being more difficult and more sportspecific than the previous.

Periodization training will help you make consistent gains, prevent injuries, avoid burnout, and produce your best effort when needed -- during the season.

Don't jump into a training program without giving any thought to what you need, how much you need, when you need it, or how to get it.

"If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail." Take the time to decide what you want and how to get it. Don't take you career for granted. The only thing you can control in most games is how you prepare. Don't get beat because the other guy was better prepared than you.

Rest and Recovery:

No matter how hard you work, you don't make gains during workouts. Gains are achieved during periods of recovery.

Recovery is one of the most important and most ignored principles of training. Without adequate recovery, training will yield poor results and injury. Anyone who believes in the adage "no pain, no gain" is walking a thin line between max gains and overtraining.

Work and rest are both important, and neither is beneficial without the other. Avoid doing two hard running workouts on consecutive days and allow at least 48-72 hours of recovery between hard strength workouts of the same muscle group(s).

It's Not the Arrow, It's the Indian:

Avoid being caught up in wanting to use the latest and most expensive training equipment, running shoes, etc. Equipment is secondary. The most important factors are the program and the athlete.

The training program must be scientifically adapted to your needs, and you must be willing to put forth the consistent effort required to produce the desired results.

You don't need fancy equipment to get into top shape. Significant gains can be achieved with body weight, jump ropes, medicine balls, step-up benches, and dumbbells.

Practice Makes Permanent:

Do your exercises in a sequence that will maximize your gains. And do your running when you're fresh and able to maintain a fast pace. Running at a slow pace will just condition you to run slow. Also avoid doing plyometrics before strength training. That will enable you to exert maximum effort in your strength work and do multi-joint lifts before single-joint lifts. Do your aerobic work last and stretch after a warm-up to maximize your flexibility

Achieving peak performance when you need it takes planning and hard work. You don't get there by accident. What you do and how you do it will significantly affect the final product. If you do something often enough, even if you do it wrong, it will become fixed in your brain and nervous system.

"Practice does make permanent." If you do it right, you will most likely always do it right. If you do it wrong, you will always do it wrong.

For further information, we recommend:

1. T.O. Bompa:

Theory and Methodology of Training: The Key to Athletic Performance Kendall/Hunt Pub., Dubuque, IA, 1990.

2. G. Coleman:

52 Week Baseball Training

Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL, 2000.

3. A.E. Coleman:

A Baseball Conditioning Program for All Seasons

(In "Injuries in Baseball," J.R. Andrews; B. Szrins; and K.E. Wilk (eds.), Lippencott-Raven Pub., Philadelphia, 1998.

4. V. Gambetta:

Building the Complete Athlete Optimum Sports Training, Sarasota, FL, 1997.

5. www.astros.com:

The first web site by a professional team in any sport to provide conditioning information.