Becoming great at anything requires a lot of focused, consistent, and difficult work. But “difficulty” seems to be the only variable that many athletes take into account when considering their training.
“Difficulty”, or working hard throughout your training is very important, and unless you’re extremely naturally gifted, you will never reach your desired performance level without working hard. However, “difficulty” is relative so I think it’s important to give it some context.
Too many athletes and coaches want training to be “hard” for the sake of being hard. This is an antiquated concept that doesn’t serve to improve your on-field performance. If you hold your arm straight out in front of you for 8 hours, that is hard, but that is not going to help you throw harder, run faster, or jump higher.
Athletes often have several specific areas of training that need to be addressed in order to perform at an elite level. For example, most pitchers need to improve strength, power, throwing velocity, execution of their off-speed pitches, and command. Therefore, all factors, in and out of the weight room, must be considered and properly balanced when designing a training program. The weight room serves to improve an athlete’s sport performance but should not overshadow their on-field training. Setting up a mix of low, medium, and high volume/intensity days will help prevent an athlete from becoming overtrained or injured.
With a properly balanced program, athletes should always be training “hard” (and smart) by making every individual repetition as fast and perfect as possible, and by maintaining focus throughout the whole training session. This is difficult. Athletes should not always be training “hard” with super high volume or super heavy weight as it relates to their 1RM (I define this as above 85%).
While some restraint may be necessary with regards to high volume or high weight, there is a time for straight-up, hard training in every athlete’s development, and that will most likely occur in the offseason. One example is hypertrophy training; increasing muscle fiber size through higher rep ranges and higher volume. This style of training can be brutal and is definitely difficult in the classic context. Another example would be building aerobic capacity through running drills, circuits, or any other type of “cardio” the coach decides to use, if the athlete’s sport requires a significant amount of that aspect of fitness.
I’m all for working ridiculously “hard”, just make sure that hard work is actually propelling you towards your goal, not taking your farther away from it.
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Photo:
“Usain Bolt, Anniversary Games, London 2013.jpg” by J. Brichto CC BY-SA 3.0
