The importance of strength and conditioning in sports for optimal performance (Part 1)

In a simplest manner, strength and conditioning is an application of sports science and strength training to enhance the movement quality. Adding strength and conditioning to your routine workout will benefit better movement quality. We must understand that it is not only meant for athletes/players but also for the common people to keep their body in shape and maintain their fitness level throughout the season.

Basically, strength conditioning is training the body to get ready for the entire training season. Training program will be varying from sport to sport activities. By doing the conditioning program it will help the player to outperform other athletes or players in which both are equal in skills. We can also say that the conditioning program develops the Skill Related Physical Fitness Components (SRPF) such as agility, speed, balance, coordination, power and reaction time.

Let’s Understand the Strength & Conditioning

1. By improving movement quality, we will improve the players performance, this can be done by implementing sports specific speed, strength, coordination, and explosive power workouts.

2. Second and most important aspect is preventing injury. Developing a better strength and conditioning program will always help the athlete/player to improve the movement quality which helps them further to enhance the sports performance and boost their sports career.

3. Through strength and conditioning, we can transform our body and get good results at the end of the day no matter if you are a beginner or an elite athlete.

There are training methods which help to improve the movement quality and enhance the fitness level such as plyometric, core stability, endurance, strength (weight training) and mobility. It also depends on the requirement of the sports activity.

Strength and Conditioning will help to improve strength, power and endurance before getting into sports specific skill training and you will be ready to handle all the skill work required. If your fitness level at top notch, the risk of injuries will be less which will keep you in the game for entire season

Golden Rules of Strength and Conditioning Training Program at School Level –

Strength and conditioning program is to enhance the student’s performance in play but the question is how many coaches are effectively implementing it?

The main reason to affect the strength and conditioning program is lack of experienced and qualified coaches. The irony is, these coaches plan their workouts by using YouTube or the internet and also what they have done back in their training days. This is absolutely wrong as every individual has their own body structure and requirements. Coaches must understand the requirements of the child and plan the program accordingly. It is very sad to say that most of the coaches are not focusing on the strength and conditioning at school level and it is resulting in injuries and burn out and the players are having a very short span of their career in the field of sports. Our country has an immense talent but due to the lack of scientific strength and conditioning training programs, players get exhausted before they perform at the highest level.

Also read: My goal is to reduce player injuries so that they get more playing time – Physical preparation coach Jeeth Devaiah

Here are some golden rules that coach must follow during the strength and conditioning training

1. Plan as per the requirement – Make sure you should increase the load and intensity gradually. If not then there are chances that the player might get injured and get sidelined. So plan your training according to the player’s requirement and load bearing capacity. Start from the basics, discuss with your player if the player is getting overloaded and reduce the intensity.

2. Understand why – it is very important that you must know why you are implementing this training program. As a coach, whatever you plan/training program or implementing, you must know the why behind it. It will help the coach to avoid injuries and stop the player from getting exhausted. Coach must clear the objective or the purpose of the training before getting into it. It will help the player to train with an objective. Encourage the player to ask questions related to training which will help them to understand the purpose, also it will help you in research and do better.

3. Basic to Advance – you have probably heard this before that people (beginners) go to the gym and start with the heavy weights which leads to ending their workouts in the gym due to body pain. We should not ignore the basics. We have to start with basics and progress gradually. We all know that athletes who want to increase their performances try to increase the intensity and workload and by doing this they get injured. So it is very important that the coach must take the player to the advanced level after gaining the mastery. Avoiding basic training and getting into the next level training will increase the risk of injuries.

4. 360 Program – As we all know that for players, full body strength is required so whenever planning the conditioning program we must keep every aspect of the body in mind and plan the training accordingly. It is like a balanced diet. Basically upper body, core and lower body strengthening needs to be done.

Stay tuned to read Part 2!