November 06, 2025
We ask two fundamental questions to define specificity:
• Is the training transferring its qualities to the sport? Yes, training must always aim for transfer to the sport being played.
• Is simulating the sport movement by overloading it useful? Absolutely not, one should not simulate the sport movement by merely overloading it.
Training must aim to improve physical performance in the sport. Specific objectives include:
• Improve physical performance: If it does not directly affect the physical level, the training is incorrect or not specific.
• Work on the underlying physical qualities of sport skills: This is a central goal.
• Individualized training: It must always be at the core of preparation.
• Stimulate the most relevant energy systems: For example, the aerobic system for a marathon runner, and both aerobic and anaerobic for a soccer player.
• Develop fundamental physical qualities: Physical strength, power, speed, and endurance.
• Injury prevention: Prepare muscles and joints at higher risk to decrease the risk of injury.
• Fill the physical gaps of the individual athlete: Work at an individual level
The following must be strictly avoided:
• Drills and exercises that perfectly simulate the sport movement by merely overloading the exact movement. Examples:
◦ Boxers using 2 kg weights for shadow boxing or fake sparring.
◦ Exercises with a ball (such as broad jumps with a ball in hand for a basketball player, or strength exercises with a ball at the foot for a soccer player).
• Insufficient stimulus to create adaptations: The body does not want to adapt (become more muscular, strong, fast, explosive) unless forced by adequate stimuli. Simulating the competitive event or sport skill by adding load does not allow for the expression of the necessary strength to achieve the desired adaptation.
• Disruption (negative modification) of the sport skill: Placing weights on the wrist or arm to overload shooting in basketball can negatively influence the skill. To improve a sport skill, one must simply practice it under the same playing conditions. The most sport-specific training for a skill is practicing the sport itself.
• No overloaded exercise allows the same level of variables and demands imposed by the sport: Sport is chaotic by nature, while the weight room, plyometrics, and sprint training should not be. These environments must focus on the underlying physical components that will then transfer to the sport.
The solution is “general athletic preparation,” which can also be defined as “sport-specific” provided that the concept of specificity is understood correctly and not as overloading the movement in competition. In summary, correct athletic preparation involves:
• Working on the underlying physical qualities that will serve the sport.
• Respecting the principles of training: Providing the right stimulus, progressive overload, and individualization.
• Practicing the sport as much as possible.
• Having enormous consistency and giving it time: Results are obtained not in 3 months, but in years.