Post 7: Functional vs. Sport Specific Training

           Two words or phrases that are too commonly interchanged in the S&C world are "Functional" and "Sport Specific." These are not the same thing. They are similar in the fact that they prepare any given athlete for their events or season. However, they are not similar in purpose. Functional Training creates athletes, Sport Specific Training creates basketball players, runners, hockey players etc.

          Functional training uses exercises that confuse athletes and typically provoke questions like "what does this have to do with (insert your sport here)?" A good answer for these questions is simple: "Exactly." It is functional training. It has very little to do with YOUR - specific sport - (notice how that was just "sport specific" backwards?) Cool. I said in my opening paragraph that functional training creates athletes. Athletes require strength in scenarios different than powerlifters or olympic lifters. Rarely during competition do athletes need strength while they are standing still. They are almost always on one leg, unsupported by something else, off balance, leaning, or otherwise. Starting to sound like the words used in the exercises you do isn't it? Athletes need strength in these unusual scenarios, and that's why we train them that way. Yes you can develop strength through squats, bench presses, and things like that, but the speed of the movement, and the nature of the movement (how many points of support you have etc.) are NOT the same as they would be while competing.

          The brain controls the body, the body controls the movement. If you were to do a heavy squat, you would become stronger in the legs, the brain is trained to recruit powerful muscular contractions to produce force while both legs are securely on the ground and there are no other external factors. Is this newly gained strength useful in sport? Yes, but only to a certain extent. The conditions under which you compete don't typically require this type of bilateral standing strength. Don't get me wrong, I love the squat for developing stength. BUT, as the training season progresses, It's more sensible to train the same muscles by doing things like lunges or bulgarian squats where you can manipulate the range of motion and stance because the mind and body will remember how to produce forces in these positions that are more similar to athletic movement.

          Having said that, being athletic is a universal benefit no matter what your specific sport is, there's those words again, "sport specific." Basically, you can train any athletes using the same quad, hamstring, and glute exercises, but their core exercises will vary depending on what they compete in. For example, track and field athletes will typically use olympic lifts because of the powerful hip, knee, and ankle extension that is used in thrower's "wind ups" and in running. Volleyball and basketball athletes will use the same types of lifts, but with lighter loads and not from the floor because they are required to jump a lot for blocks, rebounds, layups, and spikes. This is what is known as sport specific. Doing these extra exercises ON TOP of building a strong athletic strength foundation is what makes training programs different, and why certain athletes use different exercises based on their sport.

          To tie it all together, functional training is the basis for building strong athletes. Familiarizing the brain and neromuscular pathways with movements that require strength in less than favorable positions creates more athletic bodies. Sport specific training is simply the variance in exercises that relate more to one sport than the other, making you more efficient and competitive at your individual event.

-Alex