Many times when speaking to our athletes and parents the question of sport specific training comes up. “Is this sport specific?“I often answer with a yes and no answer. At the core of our training is the principle of Athletic Performance. When distilled the concept of athletic performance versus sport specific performance is a very different one. Game specific skills and knowledge are the result of training, experience, and practice within that discipline. Athletic performance is the ability to perform within competitive situations with power, agility, balance, and body awareness, that can be applied to all sports. This is the result of a balanced body with good range of motion, strength, and flexibility. This is an important distinction to make because it makes what we do more clear.

Our treadmill training, plyometric training, strength training, and conditioning, all provide the foundation for athletic performance. As a result of our training programs our athletes have a comprehensive strength that will allow for performance in many disciplines.

During the course of training with us though, there are sport specific elements of training introduced and utilized. For example, our hockey treadmill provides stride refinement while also conditioning. We use slide boards and hockey specific strength exercises to build athletic performance specific to hockey. We also use throwing and hitting cords for baseball players, and soccer players.

The reason we think it important to make these distinctions is to provide the understanding that there is training that provides a foundation for athletic movement and performance, as well as training that reinforces or improves game/sport-specific skills and actions. We provide both, building a foundation of athletic performance so that sport specific training can have maximum impact. Our athletic abilities, once formed and reinforced, allow us to perform our sport specific skills at maximum potential. We cannot achieve sport specific strength until we achieve athletic strength.