The Importance of Weight Training in Athletes
The Importance of Weight Training in Athletes
Many athletes overlook weight training, but it is a very important part of being a successful athlete. If you want to be at the top of your game and a step ahead of your opponent you need to hit the weight room.
Lets look at the vertical jump. When you think big vertical jumps I bet you think of basketball players flying high above the rim, but you might be interested to know, that the vertical jump numbers at the 2003 NFL combine blew the vertical jump numbers from the NBA combine out of the water. Out of 76 NBA prospects only one had a vertical jump over 35 inches and the average vertical jump was less then 30 inches. Now lets look at the NFL combine. There were about a dozen vertical jumps over 40 inches and 3 out of the 12 quarterbacks jumped over 35 inches. That’s right I said quarterbacks. So what’s the deal?
The amount of time these athletes spend in the weight room. Football players are expected to hit the weights hard and be big and strong and that is exactly what they do. Basketball players on the other hand spend more time on the court and not as much time in the weight room. As you can see this is a mistake. Athletes need to take more time in the off-season in the weight room then on the field.
Lets say every athlete has a glass with liquid in it. The glass represents maximum relative strength (strength relative to your bodyweight). The stronger you are the bigger your glass. The liquid represents more specific physical attributes such as power, strength, endurance, and agility. Without having a big glass you can’t have a lot of fluid. The bigger your glass the more potential you have.
If we go back and look at the NFL and NBA players glasses we can see why the NFL players preformed better in the vertical jump. Lets say the NBA player had a 6 oz glass and since he spent so much time on the court and doing training specific to his sport his glass was completely full and had 6 oz of fluid in it. Now lets say the NFL player spent a lot of his off-season in the weight room making his glass bigger. He got his glass to be a 12 oz glass. Then in his preseason and season he focused on his sport specific skills and filled his glass 8 oz.
As you can see the NBA player spent more time working on sports specific skills, but since he didn’t have a high enough maximal strength it didn’t matter. The goal is to get a big glass so you have more room for the liquid. Now go out there and hit those weights
References
Cressy Eric. The Ultimate Off-Season Training Manual. Waltham, Massachusetts: Vervante, 2006.
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The Importance of Weight Training in Athletes
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