It was not very long ago when the athlete did not seriously consider the intricacies of strength development that are so important in today’s training. The question of strength superiority was decided simply on the basis of lifting the heaviest weight or recording the highest reading on an isokinetic or isometric dynamometer. However, experience and scientific experimentation have uncovered facts which indicate how primitive those evaluations of strength were. This resulted in the necessity to consider the question of strength preparation in sport more carefully and to define the concept of strength more precisely.
The general definition of strength presented in Chapter 1 needs to be expanded to cover its specifics in actual sporting activities. The concept of strength must be sought in physics and physiology. In physics it concerns the interaction of bodies to cause their movement. Therefore, as the ability to produce force, the concept of strength is used to analyse quantitatively the body’s interaction with external objects. In other words, when assessing the force as a cause of movement, we are examining its working effect.
In physiology, strength refers to the ability of muscle contraction to move the body or any of its linkages in a specific situation. Further, the concept of strength is used as one of the characteristics of voluntary movement to execute specific motor tasks. Here, in conjunction with fitness factors such as speed, endurance and skill, strength is a concept used to describe the qualitative aspects of movement.
The great diversity of human movements makes it necessary to evaluate the strength components of movement (sub-maximal strength, maximal strength, impulse strength, work and power), analyse the ability to produce strength (absolute strength, relative strength, and the moment of the force of muscular contraction about a joint), and to comparatively evaluate the strength components of movement (explosive strength, speed-strength movements, strength-endurance and others) which reflect the specificity of movements. Hence, one is able to select appropriate methods for developing strength fitness.
Thus, muscular strength is a specific motor quality and it is involved functionally under extremely diverse conditions in sport. Therefore, before discussing the methods of special strength preparation, the fundamental characteristics of producing muscular strength in sports movements must be examined.
Sorry, to leave you hanging, but all will be answered when you grab your copy of Supertraining
Supertraining 6th Edition by Dr Mel Siff
Supertraining by Dr Mel Siff
