THE WEIGHT ROOM ISN’T THE SPORT

I think it's safe to say strength coaches love the weight room.  It's where we coach, where we develop physical qualities and build relationships.  It's also where we can control exercise selection, loading, volume and progression.

It's easy to get excited when numbers go up.  A bigger squat, a higher jump, a faster sprint, those improvements matter.  But none of them are the reasons we get to coach our athletes.

The baseball player is here to play baseball.  The volleyball player was recruited to play volleyball.

The weight room supports athletes in playing their sport; it doesn't become the sport.

STRONGER ISN’T THE FINAL GOAL

Don’t get me wrong, strength matters.  So does power, speed, body composition etc… and developing those qualities can improve an athlete’s ability to perform, but eventually, we have to ask:

What are we developing them for?

Taking an undertrained athlete and making them significantly stronger can provide a huge return.  They have a larger foundation to produce force, become more resilient, and may see other physical qualities improve as well.

But does every additional pound on the bar provide the same return?

At some point, we have to stop asking only whether an athlete can get stronger and start asking whether getting stronger should still be the priority.

The goal isn’t infinite strength.  It can’t be.  The goal should be to develop enough of the right physical qualities to support the demands of the sport.

WHAT’S THE RETURN ON INVESTMENT?

Every training decision requires a tradeoff.

o   Time

o   Energy

o   Recovery

o   Training volume

Those resources aren’t unlimited.

So when we decide to continue pushing a physical quality, we should also be asking what we’re getting in return.

For example, taking an athlete’s max squat from 185lbs to 275lbs is extremely impressive and that significant increase may change their physical capacity.  Now think about taking an athlete’s max squat from 275lbs to 365lbs.  Does that level of increase provide the same return?

Maybe.  Maybe not.

That’s where coaching becomes more complicated than simply improving numbers.

As an athlete’s training age increases and they become more developed, improving a physical quality often involves more investment: more volume, intensity, recovery and time.

There comes a point where another five or ten pounds on the bar provides very little additional value to what the athlete actually does in their sport.

Meanwhile, those resources could’ve been spent developing something else that gives the athlete more benefit, a higher return on investment.

More only matters when more actually helps.

WHEN DOES MORE START TO COST YOU?

Sometimes the return gets smaller; other times, continuing to chase a physical quality can begin competing with another, more valuable quality.

Body mass is an easy example of this.

Adding mass may help an athlete increase force production, improve resilience and help the athlete better handle physical demands, but at what point does the additional weight begin affecting movement?

Can the athlete still accelerate well?  Can they still change direction efficiently?  How well are they able to repeatedly express their sport skill?

Does the additional mass help them perform in their sport position or are they now carrying additional weight that doesn’t provide enough benefit to justify adding it?

The same conversation applies to strength gains.

What does it take to add another 20lbs to an already trained athlete who has a strong squat max?

How much training volume?  How much fatigue?  How much necessary recovery?  And probably most importantly, what does the athlete get back from that investment?

There isn’t one specific number where strength suddenly stops being useful.  There isn’t one ideal body weight that applies to everyone.

The answer depends on the athlete, the sport, the position, their training age and what is currently limiting their performance.

That’s why the number itself can never be the entire goal.

DON’T SACRIFICE THE SKILL FOR THE PHYSICAL QUALITY

As strength and conditioning coaches, we have to recognize our own biases.  We like objective measurements.  Weight on the bar is easy to see, body weight is easy to track and jump height and sprint times give us numbers.

Watching those numbers trend in the right direction gives us evidence that something is working, but sport performance is much more complicated.

A baseball player still has to hit, throw and field a baseball. 

A volleyball player still has to attack, block, serve and defend.

If an athlete gains 15lbs and gets significantly stronger but no longer moves as well or their ability to execute sport skills suffers, was that really a successful physical preparation plan?

Weight room numbers only matter if the athletes can use them.

That doesn’t mean that every five-pound increase in a squat needs to immediately transfer to sport, but it does mean that we need to continually evaluate whether the physical qualities we’re developing are still supporting the bigger goal.

THE WEIGHT ROOM SHOULDN’T LOOK LIKE THE SPORT

“Sport-specific.”  What a buzzword lately.  Honestly, I hate it.  I have always made a point to say that I do not train athletes to be “sport-specific” in the weight room; instead, we will train the qualities needed to be successful in their sport.  To me, that is an important distinction.

We do not need to recreate the sport in the weight room.  Let me say that again: WE DO NOT NEED TO RECREATE THE SPORT IN THE WEIGHT ROOM.

A baseball player rotates, but every exercise doesn’t need to be rotational.

A volleyball player jumps, but every training session doesn’t need to focus on jumping movements.

Athletes already practice their sport.  They get thousands of repetitions of sport-specific skills through practice and competition.

The weight room allows us to build a foundation for those specific movements and provide exposure to things the sport itself does not provide enough of.

o   Strength

o   Force production

o   Power

o   Tissue capacity

o   Movement literacy

o   Exposure to different positions and loads

Training doesn’t have to look like the sport for someone to be prepared to compete.  Sport-specific training should prepare athletes for the demands of the sport, not simply imitate them.

EVERY EXERCISE NEEDS A JOB

Exercises are tools and the value of those tools depends on the problem we are trying to solve.

o   Why this exercise?

o   Why this athlete?

o   Why now?

Depending on what’s going on, an Olympic lift might make sense, or a back squat, or a trapbar deadlift, or even a split squat variation.  None of these options need to be defended because we simply like to coach a particular movement.

I’ve spent a large portion of my career around Olympic lifting, and I believe Olympic lifts are extremely valuable, but I also understand that an Olympic lift might not always be the best option, and my athletes don’t need to become competitive weightlifters.

As a coach, it's my job to set the athletes up for success.  If there is an exercise that develops the physical qualities an athlete needs, I’m going to use it.  But if another exercise becomes a better option, I need to be willing to use that instead.

The exercises need to serve the athletes, not play to my personal preferences.

DON’T CHASE WEIGHT ROOM ATHLETES

Throughout your career, you’ll find that some athletes are really good at training.  They move well, they learn quickly, they enjoy the weight room and respond positively to the stimulus.  That’s all very exciting to experience.

But being the strongest athlete on the team doesn’t automatically make someone the best player.  The opposite is also true, being the best player doesn’t require being the strongest in the weight room.

Testing and training numbers give us information.  They allow us to evaluate development and make informed decisions, but they shouldn’t define athletic success. 

At the end of the day, the scoreboard in the weight room doesn’t matter as much as the scoreboard on the field.

KNOW WHEN TO CHANGE THE PRIORITY

One of the more difficult parts of programming is recognizing when something that was once a priority no longer needs to be one.

A freshman who was once significantly undertrained will need to build strength.  Later in their career, as their training age increases and strength gains begin to slow down, we need to recognize that strength may no longer be their biggest limitation.

That doesn’t mean we need to stop training strength, but we may start to shift our focus toward other qualities.

We need to help our athletes develop physical qualities they may be lacking to be more successful in their sport.

Work toward developing qualities, evaluate the return, recognize when that return begins to diminish, and then shift the focus.

DON’T LET THE PROGRAM COMPETE WITH THE SPORT

The same return-on-investment conversation applies to the entire training session.

Was the volume completed?  Did everyone hit their percentages?  Did we complete every exercise?

Answers to those questions tell us whether the workout was completed; they don’t necessarily tell us whether the workout was successful.  So another question we can ask is:

What did it cost?

If an athlete leaves the weight room so fatigued that their quality of practice consistently suffers, we need to ask whether the return justifies the cost.

At the same time, that doesn’t mean an athlete will never be fatigued.  Adaptation requires stress.  Sometimes we need to intentionally create fatigue, but it should have a purpose.

Finishing everything written on a program for a specific day doesn’t automatically make it successful.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

What we do to prepare athletes is important, but our value isn’t determined by how impressive the weight room numbers are.  Our job is to develop physical qualities that can be used outside of the weight room.

o   Strength

o   Speed

o   Power

o   Capacity

o   Resilience

Those qualities matter because of what they allow athletes to do when they leave us.

The question then becomes:

Are we still getting enough return to justify the investment?

If the answer is yes, keep developing it.  If the answer is no, start to focus on something more important.

A SIMPLE STARTING POINT

Look at the major physical qualities you’re currently working to develop and ask:

What are we getting in return?

Then consider:

o   Is this still a limiting factor?

o   Is improving it helping the athletes perform?

o   What does further improvement cost?

o   Is there another quality that deserves more attention?

o   Are we chasing a number because it matters or only because we can measure it?

We can’t maximize everything all the time.  We need to develop what matters, maintain what we’ve built and recognize when the return no longer justifies the investment.

More only matters when more helps.

-Coach Metz

Effective performance systems aren’t built around maximizing every measurable quality.  They’re built by identifying what athletes need, developing it with purpose and continually evaluating whether the investment is still supporting performance.

If you’re an athletic department seeking structured, intentional support without the financial burden of hiring full-time staff, AXIS S&C offers contracted systems built around long-term sustainability.