Performance

An Excerpt from The Game Within

Two boxers enter the ring. One man is a chiseled mass of defined and bulging muscle. The other man, smooth and lean, looks very pedestrian to the casual observer. Upon this first superficial inspection the difference in the two fighters’ body types seems to predict an easy victory for the more muscular man. After three rounds of fighting the repetitive motion of boxing has caused the muscular fighter to appear even more muscular. His muscles become engorged with blood and they begin to tighten. His arms become heavy. His hand speed and ability to deliver powerful punches begins to ebb. His opponent’s smooth physique and flexible condition remains fresh. In the sixth round the ordinary man knocks out the muscular man who could no longer punch with speed or hold his hands high enough to protect his chin. The patrons are shocked but the reason for the outcome is quite simple. The muscular fighter trained to look like a winner. The winner trained to be a boxer.

As environmental conditions change, animals are forced to adapt. Over the course of time that adaptation gives rise to evolution. Unlike humans who can manipulate the environment, animals are forced to physiologically change in order to survive. An athletic competition is filled with a form of chaos that cannot be controlled by the contestants. The ability to perform in the improvisational world of sports requires the athlete to adapt to very specific conditions of an otherwise unique competition. The evolution of adaptation takes place during training. It is not physiologically driven by survival as it is with animals. It is motivated by a desire to perform at a level that will produce victory. Training therefore must establish and then enhance skills that are specific to the game to be played. 

Over the many decades that sports have been a part of the fabric of society, countless ideas about performance enhancement have come and gone. Different forms of training have been utilized to varying degrees in the belief that ultimately a competitive advantage could be achieved. Some of these techniques time has revealed to be complete quackery while others have come and gone like seasonal fashion. The one constant in all of these different methods is that they all claimed to increase performance. The training for performance is a simple equation that produces a complex answer. Unfortunately and far too often exercise is done in a random way, under non-applicable conditions in an ill-fated attempt to produce better results. These workout regimes can produce strength and size but will prove to be detrimental to performance unless they accidentally create advantage.

An economic model which is used to predict the price of a product matches a supply curve and a demand curve to produce an intersection by which the price of a good or service is revealed. If you were to superimpose a curve representing speed/endurance on top of a curve representing strength/power the intersection would reveal physical performance. Every sport and every game has within it the need for a certain amount of strength, power, speed and endurance. Each sport has its own mixture of these four factors which must be brought together in an athletic concoction that fits the requirements of the game. A long distance runner must be extremely lean and light but with tremendous endurance and a form of sustainable speed. Successful marathoners will sacrifice size and brute strength for endurance. An offensive lineman in football must be heavy and extremely strong. They will give up sustainable speed and endurance for sheer size and short term mobility. Obviously these two athletes must train in diametrically different ways. This is an extreme example but it shows that training is different for each sport and each athlete. What each of these athletes have in common is that the needs of performing in their chosen sport is the basis for their training. Each will be successful if they use these particular needs as an absolute guide to their training.

If you compete as a power lifter it makes perfect sense for you to constantly bench press, squat and deadlift.  Power-lifting, as the title suggests, is a competition to see who can lift the most weight one time. In the same vein, bodybuilders lift weights to create a muscular look. Bodybuilding is really a physical beauty contest to see who is the biggest and most muscular. Both of these activities on the surface appear to have direct correlation to athletics: one producing power and the other producing size and a static form of strength. But neither of them takes into account the needs of a particular sport. Athletic competitions are not won by those who look good in the uniform or by the squad who appears to be the most fit in the team picture. What you can deadlift or bench press for one repetition will not help you outrun an opponent in the second half of a game. In fact this type of incongruent training will actually hamper performance. All training must be driven exclusively by performance.

Training for competition is a physical and mental undertaking which should be directly analogous to the game and performance. Therefore a good portion of training should be done with all the conditions that can arise within the game as a constant undercurrent. Intensity and focus are the most powerful weapons in an athletes arsenal. Physical training must also support the growth of these primary mental attributes. Therefore training should engage strict concentration on the exercise being done while mentally transforming that exercise to actual game experience. Any superfluous activities that take place during a workout to purposely or accidentally distract are detrimental to physical and mental improvement. It is within the training that the athlete should be preparing for the physical and the mental rigors of the game and the competition, creating a higher level of intensity in which performance is consistent. All things not based on this fundamental recipe are examples of random movements in the hope of success.  

When watching football I am always astonished when an announcer ridiculously suggests that a particular player gets stronger as the game progresses. It is virtually impossible for strength to be increased by being repeatedly slammed to the ground. In reality, the player called into focus by the announcer maintains a consistent level of strength while other players strength diminishes over the course of the game. The prevailing athlete has found the balance of the four elements of performance established by the requirements of the sport and then honed them with specific training. By training to maintain strength, speed and overall endurance analogous to the needs of the competition a performance advantage has been created. More often than not this advantage translates to victory.