asis of their anthropometric characteristics and strength capabilities

(Quarrie
et al. 1995; Quarrie and Wilson 2000; Duthie et al. 2003). Site-specific
hypertrophy is also important in contact sports such as American football
and
rugby football (Kraemer 1997). The shoulders are a key area for
development
as this is frequently the point of impact when tackling opponents.
Based upon what data exist in the literature, there appear to be significant
differences in strength demands between playing positions in the sports
studied. For example, it has been identified that different playing position
groupings in professional rugby league vary in their performance on
various
strength, speed and endurance measures (Meir et al. 2001). Specifically,
rugby
league forwards exhibit greater upper-body strength than backs.
Conversely,
outside backs in rugby league are faster over 15m than forwards – and
faster
than all other positional sub-groups over 40m (Meir et al. 2001). All
playing
positions, irrespective of differences in body mass and positional demands,
require high levels of dynamic muscular strength relative to body mass in
order to contend with the physical aspects of the sport (Baker 2001b; Meir
et
al. 2001).
When athletes are required to perform movements repeatedly, other
capabilities are implicated that relate to the strength qualities described.
Strength-endurance, speed-endurance, and power-endurance are identified
as
discrete elements and should be considered independently, as opposed to
merely derivatives of strength, speed and power (Yessis 1994). The
capacity to
activate musculature under conditions of fatigue has been identified as a
trainable quality (Behm 1995). Under conditions of fatigue, trained
individuals
appear to have superior ability to fully activate the musculature (Behm
1995).
Two key adaptations identified as underlying strength-endurance are acid–
base buffering (Kraemer 1997) and neural mechanisms (intramuscular
coordination) that make the athlete better able to more fully activate
fatigued
motor units (Behm 1995).
Sport-specific strength
Strength training has become established as a key component in a
programme
of physical preparation for the majority of sports. However, the diverse
physical demands involved in team sports pose unique demands for
strength
training design. For the majority of sports it is suggested that athletes
require
optimal levels of strength as opposed to maximal levels in order to
successfully compete in their sport (Murray and Brown 2006). It is
therefore
important to recognise that ‘optimal strength’ may be a more important
training goal than maximal strength for these athletes. The design of
strength
training should therefore reflect the specific demands of the particular sport
–
and in the case of team sports, the playing position.
What defines ‘sport-specific’ strength capabilities is the ability of the
player
to express their strength qualities during the execution of game-related
activities or sport skills in the context of a match situation (Smith 2003).
Anecdotally, many coaches will be familiar with the scenario that their top
performing players are not necessarily those that have the best strength test
scores or lift the heaviest weights in the weights room (McGill 2006d).
One
aspect of this is that team sports performance requires more than just
strength
performance. However, another implication is that the strength and
speedstrength capabilities expressed in the context of team sports are
somewhat
different to the classical weights room definition of strength performance.