[Supertraining] Rotational training and Specificity

I throw the discus in masters competitions, so I am concerned about developing rotational strength and transferring strength from the weight room to the playing field. Some of the issues that determine success are not obvious.

1. Spinal health and injury: In sports like discus, javelin, tennis, golf, and cricket , excessive use of the spine will cause back injury. I try to use my legs and hips as much as possible when throwing the discus to minimize torque in the spine. You have to do the same thing when playing rotational sports and doing rotational exercises. I have discussed this matter with Stuart McGill (back biomechanists from Canada) and he feels that moving the spine as a unit during these movements is critical to spinal health and rotational performance. It is easy to hurt your spine. Coaches should emphasize good spinal mechanics when young children first learn sports. Remember, you will be old a lot longer than you will be young. Sport is something you can do for a lifetime— if you stay healthy.

2. Specificity: It makes sense that rotational exercises transfer to rotational movements. However, this might not be the case. I received my motor learning training from Franklin Henry at UC Berkeley. He developed the concept of specificity back in the 1950s. His extensive work on this topic showed that movements are extremely task specific. Motor control changed by merely changing the speed of movement. It is possible that strength developed during sledge hammer training or rotational medicine ball exercises do not transfer to golf or discus any better than squats, cleans, or snatches. Force generating capacity in lifts like bench press and dead lift are moderately correlated to powerful movements, such as vertical jump, seated medicine ball throw, and discus (at least in elite throwers) (r = 0.7 approx).

The athlete's goal in performing these motions (i.e., discus, golf, baseball) is to develop centripetal force to maintain angular motion. On the one hand, this could involve doing rotational exercises that develop the muscles' capacity in a manner similar to the way they are used in the sport. Another way would be to make the muscles used in the movement as strong as possible. Specific skill training combined with stronger muscles would result in more powerful sports movements. Most likely, a combination of rational strength methods and traditional strength training will prove best.

3. Transfer of strength and power. Even after thousands of studies on strength and motor performance, we do not know the optimal way to build strength for power movements. The lively discussions on HIT vs power strength techniques and on single vs multiple sets in this group reinforces this.�

One reason for the confusion is genetics. The Heritage Family studies (that included more than 250 published papers) clearly showed that there are responders and non-responders to exercise. A program that works for one person will not work for another. Increasing squat or bench press strength in one athlete will trigger a 20 foot improvement in one athlete but have little effect in another. Genetics determine ultimate strength and power, the rate of change in strength and power, and the capacity to transfer strength developed in the weight room to the playing field. If you have gene polymorphisms (gene variants) that make you a non-responder, it won't matter if you do O lifts, HIT, one set, or five sets— you aren't going to win!

Specificity is another problem. Changing strength adds intravariance to motor performance— you get stronger, which interferes with motor control. We see this during adolescents when rapid changes in growth make young people perform like ugly ducklings until they get used to their new bodies. Strength is the basis of power but it must be integrated with motor performance. In the short run (i.e. 3 months), increases in strength do not automatically result in improvements in motor performance.

I have been throwing the discus on and off since 1963 and have been reasonably successful (at least as an old guy). I've learned several very important lessons:

1. Strength and power are critical in power sports but should never substitute for good technique. In the discus, athletes like John Powell, Ludvik Danek, and Jay Sylvester were not the strongest athletes but they threw very far because of their superior techniques.

2. You must be healthy and injury free on the day of competition. Playing hurt is a training error. In 2003, I won the master's world championships because my two biggest competitors were hurt. In Italy in September, the athlete who should have won the world championship stayed in Germany because of a leg injury. A guy I used to train with in the 80s was a 70 meter discus thrower and made the US Pan American team. He didn't go because of a back injury. He insisted on doing power cleans, even though it hurt his back. He forgot that he was a discus thrower and not an Olympic lifter.

3. There are many ways to build strength. You can get strong doing power lifts, Olympic lifts, or doing functional training with large rocks. I think as long as you overload the large muscles and then integrate this strength into your sport, you will be a better athlete.

4. Be systematic in your training. This includes integrating rest and periodized training into the overall program.

5. Concentrate on factors that account for the majority of the variance of performance. Don't worry about taking zinc or amino acid supplements if your basic technique sucks. Take a look at your sport and identify the main factors that determine success. Work on those. As you become more proficient, then you can sweat the small stuff.

Thomas Fahey
Dept Kinesiology
Track and Field Team
California State University, Chico
Chico, CA 95929-0330
discusdoc@aol.com

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