Existential identity crisis!

[Bak2ThaBasix]

Apparently I am the only one that doesn't understand. If you get stronger by weight training, won't you be better in virtually any sport?

The difficulty is in determining "what is stronger"? Sure I can go in and bench press "lot" but how does that translate to sport? having a strong bench does not mean I will be better at sport. Neither does any other lift that we do in the gym, one caveat is in untrained populations. I would say there is some benefit in taking a previously untrained person and having them undergo a S&C program while playing sport. At a certain point though, there is little (IMO) that I can do to improve an athlete's skill in a sport, especially at the collegiate level.

[Bak2ThaBasix]

Apparently I am the only one that doesn't understand. If you get stronger by weight training, won't you be better in virtually any sport?

Further the argument could be had that if it were as simple as

strength training + sport = better

that simply is not the case unfortunately.

[Serack]

Apparently I am the only one that doesn't understand. If you get stronger by weight training, won't you be better in virtually any sport?

Bak2ThaBasix Said part of the problem is defining strength. Chris Beardsley goes into detail about the various aspects of strength that can be trained. Here is a small, anecdotal piece of what that means. (it's dumbed down by my being several months removed from reading an article by Beardsley that had aspects that were slightly over my head.)

If you were to train for a 1RM, some of the adaptations involve converting certain muscle fibers towards versions that are better at producing force for the duration of a 1RM attempt. Additionally, when these fibers are being converted and are growing bigger, the muscle develops extra, non contractile connections between the fibers that allow them to more efficiently transfer this force to the tendon>bone>load.

The thing is, these selected muscle fiber sub type conversions, while hell on wheels for grinding out a 1RM, are less efficient at explosive displays of strength like a jump or sprint. The same is true about all these extra connections between the muscle fibers, which can impede how fast the muscle can contract.

So training to be an elite powerlifter can be counter productive towards improving your 40 time, vertical jump, and the aspects of sport those NFL combine tested items are supposed to be indicative towards an athlete being good at.

This just goes into just 2 tiny aspects of what adaptations are selected for in strength training. Beardsley's *Strength is Specific* has 329 pages dedicated to the topic.