It is not uncommon to read about high-level athletes, especially in sports such as baseball, basketball and football who state that they must overcome physical shortcomings. Some even state that they do not have the physical talent that other athletes possess.
Some of these athletes experience injuries that are not common to other athletes and they often feel that they compensate for an injury by getting another injury. What seems to be missing here?
Is it that the teams are not capable of diagnosing exactly what athletes’ problems are? Do they not have special programs to improve their physical abilities and talents? Or do most athletes and teams think only in terms of becoming more fit?
Coaches and teams believe that being fit is the key to allowing the athlete to demonstrate his skill. But being physically fit and to a certain extent being able to execute most skills, does not mean that the athlete can then execute the skills on the highest level in game play.
For example, two of the most common off-season training programs for professional baseball and other players is yoga and Pilates. These two activities are far from guaranteeing improvement in sports performance since they do not duplicate the same range of motion nor the pattern of movement seen in execution of most sports skills.
Thus they may be of benefit in improving certain physical qualities but they will not improve performance. To improve performance it is necessary to do specialized strengthen and explosive exercises that duplicate what happens in execution of the sports skill.
In other words, they must develop strength as they execute these skills. In this manner they will be able to improve performance to the highest level. For more information see Secrets of Russian Sports Fitness and Training and Build a Better Athlete.