Getting Strong & Getting Slow

This is a follow-up to my post last week with the
statements that is it is relatively easy to get strong and it is easy to get
slow. There were some good responses that basically mirrored what I am going to
say. It is easy to get strong if that is your goal. By strong I mean measurably
strong in the traditional sense of weight room strong. A dedicated block of
eight to twelve weeks can result in appreciable measureable strength gains in
any of the traditional lifts. I am not denigrating this in any way. The key
here and the element that I think is often overlooked is how do you then
transfer/apply this strength to your event or sport? That is the conundrum.
That is what is difficult. Based on what I have seen in 47 years of lifting
weights and my 41 years of coaching is that it is easy to get caught in the
trap of more strength equals better performance. I reconciled this, both as an athlete
and a coach by systematically changing the emphasis from general to special to
specific strength depending on the training and competition objectives. In all
of this it is essential to never stray very far from your event or your sport.
That is the ultimate measure of performance, not numbers in the weight room.

As far as getting slow, that is very easy to do.
Getting faster requires a high degree of coordination. Getting faster requires
ballistic dynamic work in a very narrow range. Using heavy sleds, weight vests,
running in sand make you good at running with those impediments but the
transfer to speed development is minimal. Look closely at the dynamics of
sprinting and what is required. Elite sprinters are already at 7.8 meters per
second in two steps from the blocks. Training with heavy resistance increases ground
contact time. That is not what you want; you want to put as much force into the
ground in the least amount of time. Once again it comes down to understanding
what you are training for, what are the demands of your event or sport. Harder
is not better. Be smart in your training. If is does not look like what you are
trying to do in competition then take another look. Remember you are what you
train to be. Train fast to be fast!