Athletic Training Insight & Overview
Athletic training is a broad term and is always subjective to the sport you play. Every sport and every position is going to have a difference in training needs and athletic qualities which you must adapt to, which is why athletic training evolves around one main point:... β TRAIN FOR PURPOSE β Training for purpose means the workouts and exercises you do have specific reason to be carried out and a crossover to your sport. The aim is to become better at said sport, which means you have to include movements that would enhance how you move in the pitch, track, court, ring or pool. 𦡠IMPORTANCE OF YOUR LOWER BODY 𦡠Every sport is primarily on your feet, involving a variety of different movements. This means you should NEVER be neglecting training your lower body in different movement styles, creating a strong, powerful and functional base. You ankle and foot strength are important, which means you should do movements which require you to be in an extended ankle position; whether it's body weight or under additional resistance, your ankles most build the strength and stability. Your posterior chain will also be a dominant muscle group whilst performing your sport as it's used in all forms of lifting, jumping and running. It's best to strengthen these through compound movements. π¦ PLYOMETRICS π¦ To increase your speed and your fast twitch muscle fibres, you should be practising plyometric movements in your workouts. These are jumps and throws, which are either under no or low load, that require you to exert as much force as quickly as possible: box jump, broad jump, medicine ball slams, wall slams. Most sports require you to be fast, and your speed may give you an upper hand against your opposition. Plyometrics don't have to have great volume, but should have high quality of reps as you want to focus on exerting as much force at a time to make the movement as fast as possible. ποΈ OLYMPIC LIFTS & EXPLOSIVE MOVEMENTS ποΈ Olympic movements work on your explosive power in triple extension, using a number of muscle groups, and are mainly under two exercises: clean and jerk, and snatch. These lifts have a number of variations that are more popular than the originals, such as hang cleans, which have a lesser range of motion but still allow you to train your explosive power. Olympic lifts are great for developing core strength, upper and lower body power, and overall stability from your ankles up to your shoulders. Although they are greta, sometimes you don't need them and can simply do your basic compound movements in an explosive form, such as box squats which power onto ankle extension. These movements cross over well to the majority of sports as you need to build speed and power, using as much force as possible.