Sport specific vs. general strength training for youth athletes

When it comes to training middle school and high school athletes, one question comes up often: Should athletes focus on sport specific training, or general strength training?

Many young athletes are pushed toward early sport specialization. More practices, drills, and year-round sport specific work.

It makes sense on the surface. Parents and athletes want to keep up with what everyone else is doing, and no one wants to fall behind, especially here in SoCal where the competition is deep. In many cases however, this approach skips an important step in long-term athletic development.

These athletes are building advanced skills on top of an underdeveloped foundation.

Early sport specialization and why it’s a problem

Early sport specialization refers to focusing on one sport year-round at a young age (I'd argue before high school age), often with a heavy emphasis on sport specific training.

Like I mentioned above, there's good intention behind this: Parents want to see their athlete succeed and not get left behind skill wise, athletes want to be the best as they can at their sport, and coaches want to see their teams succeed.

Over the long term though, this can create problems.

When athletes specialize too early, they are often:

• Repeating the same movement patterns over and over

• Increasing total training volume of the same few motions

• Missing exposure to general strength and movement development

Over time, this can contribute to:

• Overuse injuries

• Movement imbalances

• Burnout or loss of enjoyment

What is general strength training?

General strength training focuses on building the base that all athletic performance relies on. It's effect carries over to all sports, not just the one sport the athlete specializes in.

This includes:

• Strength (squats, hinges, pushes, pulls)

• Coordination and balance

• Control through full ranges of motion

• Basic power and landing mechanics

At younger ages, general strength training is not about pushing a heavy weight, but reinforcing good movement patterns that they can build upon over time. It is the foundation that future sport performance is built upon.

Before puberty, most strength gains aren't from putting on more muscle mass, but from becoming more coordinated (neuromuscular coordination) in these exercises.

Strength training improve force production, joint stability, coordination, and resiliency. Without these qualities, sport specific training will have a shorter ceiling for their effect.

What is sport specific training?

Sport specific training focuses on movements that directly transfer to a specific sport.

Examples include:

• Hitting or throwing mechanics

• Position specific footwork

• Agility patterns that mimic game situations

This work has value. But it depends heavily on whether the athlete has the physical capacity to handle it. If they don't, then all sport specific training is doing is increasing the total volume & reps of the same movements they already do in sport.

This is when we start to see athletes struggling with recurring nagging injures and plateaus in performance.

Building for long term success:

Now if you're reading this and thinking, "so should no one do sport specific training?", that's not true. When used correctly, sport specfic training can help to elevate a young athletes performance.

I'd recommend starting with general strength training, improving the athletes overall athleticism and coordination, before adding in sport specific training.

Think of it like this: You cannot build a house without a strong foundation. For youth athletes, general strength training is that foundation. Sport specific training becomes much more effective when the body is prepared for it.

These athletes are not doing too much because they are careless, they are doing more because they are trying to keep up. General strength training creates long term durability and performance. Sport specific training refines it.

When this order is correct, athletes tend to perform better, stay healthier, and progress longer in their sport.

If your athlete has been struggling with recurring injuries and has a high volume of training, please reach out to us HERE.