7 PRINCIPLES OF

EXERCISE AND SPORT

TRAINING
By Marty Gaal | Aug. 28, 2012, 6:41 p.m. (ET)

When you approach your multisport training, the best way to answer your questions is
to better understand the principles behind the work you are putting in to improve. These
are seven basic principles of exercise or sport training you will want to keep in mind:

Individuality
Everyone is different and responds differently to training. Some people are able to
handle higher volumes of training while others may respond better to higher intensities.
This is based on a combination of factors like genetic ability, predominance of muscle
fiber types, other factors in your life, chronological or athletic age, and mental state.

Specificity
Improving your ability in a sport is very specific. If you want to be a great pitcher,
running laps will help your overall conditioning but won’t develop your skills at throwing
or the power and muscular endurance required to throw a fastball fifty times in a game.
Swimming will help improve your aerobic endurance but won’t develop tissue resiliency
and muscular endurance for your running legs.

Progression
To reach the roof of your ability, you have to climb the first flight of stairs before you can
exit the 20th floor and stare out over the landscape. You can view this from both a
technical skills standpoint as well as from an effort/distance standpoint. In order to swim
the 500 freestyle, you need to be able to maintain your body position and breathing
pattern well enough to complete the distance. In order to swim the 500 freestyle, you
also need to build your muscular endurance well enough to repeat the necessary
motions enough times to finish.

Overload
To increase strength and endurance, you need to add new resistance or time/intensity
to your efforts. This principle works in concert with progression. To run a 10-kilometer
race, athletes need to build up distance over repeated sessions in a reasonable manner
in order to improve muscle adaptation as well as improve soft tissue strength/resiliency.
Any demanding exercise attempted too soon risks injury. The same principle holds true
for strength and power exercises.
Adaptation
Over time the body becomes accustomed to exercising at a given level. This adaptation
results in improved efficiency, less effort and less muscle breakdown at that level. That
is why the first time you ran two miles you were sore after, but now it’s just a warm up
for your main workout. This is why you need to change the stimulus via higher intensity
or longer duration in order to continue improvements. The same holds true for adapting
to lesser amounts of exercise.

Recovery
The body cannot repair itself without rest and time to recover. Both short periods like
hours between multiple sessions in a day and longer periods like days or weeks to
recover from a long season are necessary to ensure your body does not suffer from
exhaustion or overuse injuries. Motivated athletes often neglect this. At the basic level,
the more you train the more sleep your body needs, despite the adaptations you have
made to said training.

Reversibility
If you discontinue application of a particular exercise like running five miles or bench
pressing 150 pounds 10 times, you will lose the ability to successfully complete that
exercise. Your muscles will atrophy and the cellular adaptations like increased
capillaries (blood flow to the muscles) and mitochondria density will reverse. You can
slow this rate of loss substantially by conducting a maintenance/reduced program of
training during periods where life gets in the way, and is why just about all sports
coaches ask their athletes to stay active in the offseason.

The principles of specificity, progression, overload, adaptation, and reversibility are why
practicing frequently and consistently are so important if you want to improve your
performance. Missed sessions cannot really be made up within the context of a single
season. They are lost opportunities for improvement. Skipping your long ride on
weekend A means you can’t or shouldn’t go as far as originally planned on weekend B
(progression & overload). Skipping your Monday swim means your swimming skills and
muscles won’t be honed or stressed that day (specificity). Missing a week due to a
vacation sets you back more than one week (adaptation and reversibility). Apply these
principles to your training to get a better understanding of your body and how to achieve
success.

Marty Gaal, CSCS, is a triathlon and swim coach in Cary, N.C. You can read about One
Step Beyond and his services at www.osbmultisport.com.

The views expressed in this article are the opinion of the author and not
necessarily the practices of USA Triathlon. Before starting any new diet or
exercise program, you should check with your physician and/or coach.
Principle of Specificity in Athletic Training
By 

Elizabeth Quinn 

 Reviewed by 

Michael Lau, PT, DPT 

on November 28, 2019

Print

MJPS / Getty Images

Table of Contents
 General to Specific Training
 Benefits
 Drawbacks
 Principles of Sports Conditioning
The principle of specificity states that sports training should be relevant and appropriate to the
sport for which the individual is training in order to produce the desired effect. Additionally,
training should progress from general conditioning to specific training for the particular skills
required in that sport or activity. 

Essentially, specificity training means that you must perform the skill in order to get better at it.
It is the principle behind that old saying, "practice makes perfect."

General to Specific Athletic Training

In order to perform most sports and physical activities, you need a base level of fitness. Whether
you play soccer or basketball or you are training for a marathon, you need aerobic conditioning.
It is an essential component of any athlete's general training.
The specificity principle of sports conditioning comes into play when an athlete wishes to excel
in a specific sport or activity.1 Your training must go from highly general—such as lifting
weights and cardio— to very specific so it includes performing that exercise or skill. To be a
good cyclist, you must cycle. A runner should train by running, and a swimmer should train by
swimming.
In sports that require a wider set of skills, a training program may break down different
components. For example, in baseball you would train for batting, catching, throwing, or
pitching. In basketball, training would consist of agility and bursts of speed as well as shooting
accuracy.
Training mimics the action and skills that will be needed in the game or activity. It may
concentrate on any combination of fitness components, such as strength, power, and endurance.
For instance, while a marathon runner will train more for endurance and strength, a weightlifter
is more concerned with strength and power.

Benefits
The primary goal of specificity of training is to condition the muscles that will be used in the
target activity. Over time, you develop muscle memory for specific actions so you can perform
them without having to concentrate on them.

As you train, you are able to master the skills you will need and learn the best form to use. You
can also progress to learning variations of those skills, which may be even more useful during a
game or activity.

If you are training to run a race, for instance, you will work on your speed and endurance. But
you also want to train under conditions that will mimic the race itself. This includes training in
the same sort of terrain with hills, pavement, and weather conditions to build up to the distance
and pace required.
While you could simply run on a treadmill, that would not prepare you mentally and physically
for the varied conditions you will find in a road race.

Drawbacks
A well-designed training program does not neglect aspects of fitness that aren't specific to a
sport. You still need to maintain overall fitness and balance the development of opposing muscle
groups.

If you focus only on drills and skills specific to your sport, you may end up unbalanced. This
may inhibit your athletic ability and performance in the long run.

Principles of Sports Conditioning

The six principles of sports conditioning are the cornerstone of all other effective training
methods. These cover all aspects of a solid foundation of athletic training.

 Individual differences: Everyone is unique, so training must be adapted to the individual.

 Overload: In order to improve your fitness, you need to increase the stress or load the muscles
are exposed to.
 Progression: As your fitness level improves, your training should become more difficult and the
workload greater.
 Adaptation: Your body's ability to adapt over time to an increase in exercise can dictate your
training.
 Use and disuse: To maintain conditioning, you need to keep using your muscles.
 Specificity: Training for a particular athletic activity.
Once put together, the most logical training program involves a periodized approach that cycles
the intensity and training objectives. The training must be specific not only to your sport but to
your individual abilities. This includes your tolerance to training stress, recoverability, and
outside obligations, among others.

It is also important to increase the training loads over time, allowing some workouts to be less
intense than others. Training needs to be regular as well. Sessions should be frequent enough to
prevent a detraining effect and to force an adaptation to what you may encounter on game or race
day.

A Word From Verywell

The best athletic training programs offer a well-rounded schedule that applies to the principles of
sports conditioning. The specificity of your training is going to depend on your sport of choice as
well as your individual needs. Keep in mind, however, that developing great athletic skills
should not be too focused and should include elements that work on your overall fitness.

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Run, Jump, Throw & More: A Beginners Guide to
Track & Field

An article by Corina Willner '17

In this year’s track and field seasons alone, senior Dana Fry placed 21st in the 5000-meter run, first-
year Sunny Shan achieved seventh in the 500-meter, and senior Jennie Ochterski threw 10.17m to earn
seventh in the weight throw. Hold on, don’t stop reading yet. Yes, I know when you see sports articles the
headline—maybe the first sentence too—are all you read, but this article is different, promise. Instead of only
detailing the efforts and achievements of our athletes, I want to understand—as I am hoping you do too—just
what it is that they do. Click here for an inside look via video at the indoor track & field season.
THE BASICS:
The most basic concept of track and field is obvious: it brings together a variety of short competitions based on
a track and a field. Beyond that, both you and I are short on details. From what I have learned, track and field
competitions, called “meets,” can stretch throughout the entire day, usually beginning around ten or eleven am,
and ending around four or five pm. Because there are over twenty events that need to happen in that five to
seven hours, throwing can overlap with running events. Some events involve upwards of eighty athletes
competing for the same title of first place. When senior Dana Fry placed 21st in the 5000-meter run, she had
already beaten dozens of others by managing a time fast enough to qualify for the meet. 5,000 meters is
approximately three miles, and in running those three miles at the Open New England Championships, Fry
earned a personal record—they call it a “PR”—beating her previous best time by ten seconds.

As you can tell, numbered places rarely represent just how much these athletes work and achieve. Track and
field is layered, and different from team sports although the team as a whole is scored. Unlike team sports,
accomplishments cannot be quantified with win or lose, because there are so many wins and so many losses
happening within one meet. Therefore, while I want to go through and list how each member has been
focusing on their own improvement, reaching goal after goal, it is more realistic to look at a variety of events.
Every team member trains to fit their own progress, so this little guide made by a non-track and field athlete
could be called incomplete at best, but it’s a start. If you want to know more, there are 26 members of our
Track and Field team right now who would likely love to share.
THE SPRINTERS:
The sprint events include the 400-, 200-, 100-, and 60-meter dashes. 100 meters is only run outdoor because it
is the distance for which the track is straight, and the 60 meters is only run indoor for the same reason.
Sprinters do exactly what you imagine in practice: they sprint. However, in order to improve, they do more
than run the same 60- to 200-meter sprint. They often cross-train with biking, elliptical, and aqua-jogging, in
addition to perfecting their running form and weight lifting.

Camille Coklow in the 200-meter dash

Play Video
THE HURDLERS:
Hurdle events are either 100- or 400-meter with 10 hurdles in the 100 and 10 hurdles in the 400. Similar to
sprinters, hurdlers will do smaller sprints as well as longer, cross-training, and weight lifting. They also
develop their form throughout the season, not only in sprinting but also in actual hurdling. Each hurdle is 30
inches for the 400-meter run, and 33 inches for the 100-meter.

Similar to hurdles is the 3000m Steeplechase, which requires running and jumping, but the jumped things do
not fall if an athlete should brush against them. Therefore, instead of “hurdles” these are called “barriers.”
Steeplechase is popular as a spectator sport due to the second to last barrier; after this barrier is a water pit,
which is impossible to avoid getting in, and sometimes impossible to avoid falling into. Of the five barriers
constructed (including the one with the water pit), competitors must jump over each of them seven times in this
almost-two-mile race, meaning they jump 35 times before finishing. Therefore, steeplechase competitors must
train as distance runners do, but add in hurdle drills.

THE THROWERS:
If you were beginning to think that simply every event in track and field meant running, let the throwers show
you the alternative. Part of the “power athletes” as termed by MHC head coach Tina Lee, throwers work
primarily on throwing drills with supplementary weight training. Drills are specific to each event. Throwing
events inclu
de shot put, javelin, discus, weight throw (indoor) and hammer throw (outdoor), which are all different shaped
objects, requiring different technique. Throwers do not often compete in more than two of these events due to
the significant muscular exertion.  
Jenny Spicola competing in the hammer throw

Play Video
          
THE JUMPERS:
Jumpers do less sprinting than sprinters, of course, but do need to have sprinting in their regular routines.
Those regular routines can include cross training, sprints, jumping drills, and weight lifting. While some days
jumpers will do up to 30 repetitions of their event—long jump, triple jump, or high jump—other days will be
focused less on repetition and form, but more on increasing height or distance, like a mock track meet.

THE DISTANCE RUNNERS:

The distance events in track and field range from the 600 meter race up to 10,000 meters of running around the
track. Indoor tracks are usually 200 meters all the way around, while outdoor tracks are 400 meters. This
means that for the 10,000 meter race at an outdoor meet, athletes will run 25 times around the track.
Fortunately you do not need to appreciate ovals that much to be a distance runner. As you have probably come
to understand by this point, track and field athletes spend a lot of time in the pool, on a bike, on an elliptical,
and in the weight room, as well as on the track or field. Distance runners are no different, and often have a
certain “mileage” goal for each week. This means that they will do at least one truly long run—six to fifteen
miles--per week. Mileage is tailored to fit the individual, so of the twelve distance runners at Mount Holyoke,
there might be twelve different mileage goals for any given week, the shortest being twenty miles and the
longest being seventy miles.

BUT WAIT—THERE’S MORE!

The heptathlon is by far the longest event in track and field, taking two days to complete all seven events,
which are composed of other events in the meet. The events include 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200m
run, long jump, javelin throw, and 800m run. As you have hopefully already concluded, these athletes cross
train, lift, and sprint, intentionally improving form through drills for each event. Normally, these athletes build
up

Runners can also work together in the 4x100m, 4x400m, and 4x800m relays. Each of the four competing in
these events runs 100, 400, or 800 meters depending on the event. This is the one event that can bring together
teammates in a single quantifiable result.

IN CONCLUSION:
While it is difficult to follow in numbers, because supporting the team means more than watching one ball be
moved around for an hour, rooting for the Mount Holyoke College track and field team can merit great results.
Beyond our headlining athletes Camille Coklow, Dana Fry, and Amber Legare, our classmates and their
fellow athletes have been consistently pushing themselves to personal records; Gargi Mishra beat her best
time by seven minutes, Hannah Gershone beat her best time by at least five minutes, as did Mia Barnes, and
these are just the first-year distance runners on a team of athletes with diverse abilities and ages. Improvements
in sprints are smaller, tenths of a second rather than ten seconds, or minutes. Just this season, Shante
Henderson has shaved off more than four-tenths of a second on her 200m sprint to 29.34 seconds, besting
over half of her 70 competitors in the Jim Sheehan Invitational.
As you can tell, track and field is not the most cohesive grouping of sports. Few athletes compete across the
types of events (as in, few distance runners jump hurdles, and few sprinters throw as well), so the team
atmosphere is less dependent. Through this, however, athletes who work best pushing themselves alone can
shine, and coaches can provide individualized routines that help these athletes reach their peak performance
ability. In case you find yourself with a free Saturday next year, and in case the winter takes its leave a little
earlier, MHC track and field will host another outdoor meet. Come! Support the athletes who work day after
day, for at least two regular sport seasons a year.

Click here for an inside look via video at the indoor track & field season.
For more information, visit www.ncaa.org/about/division-iii-week-2015.
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Behind the Scenes with the Mount Holyoke Tennis
Team

Welcome to the start of Division III Week as the MHC Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and the Sports
Information Office teams up to bring you a variety of stories and features from across Lyons Nation in
celebration of Division III Week. Today's opener features a Q&A by MHC swimmer Claire Beckett '18, who
sat down with members of the Lyons tennis team to talk about the season and their thoughts on being here at
Mount Holyoke! Enjoy!
BEHIND THE SCENES WITH THE MHC TENNIS TEAM: A Q&A

AS = Aldo Santiago - Head Coach

MC = Michelle Cai '16
MH = Margaux Holloschutz '16
KS = Katherine Schumacher '18
Every Mount Holyoke student-athlete's experience is different in a number of ways. For the Lyons tennis team,
the 2014-15 season has brought about a plethora of outstanding memories and realizations! Here is an inside
look at some of the highlights!!
 1. How was the training trip to Puerto Rico? Did
it have a special significance to you, being from Puerto Rico?

AS: The trip to Puerto Rico had been done in the past for 14-15 years in a row. But this is the first time in quite
a while. It has a great significance for me because I can show the team where I come from and they get to meet
my family. The main reason is TRAINING! They work very, hard—train and compete, get up early in order to
make sure they have time for fun, going to the beach, and some for touristy things. It’s great because the team
gets to know me and the assistant coach (Eric Cestero, who is also from Puerto Rico) in our own environments
and get to experience the country from a non-tourist’s perspective.

KS: It was amazing! It was very fun but also very exhausting too. I feel like I need a vacation from my
vacation after it! We worked really hard down in Puerto Rico putting in two-a-day practices and 3 matches (2
official and 1 unofficial). It was hard practicing and playing with it being so hot, but if we can play in that, then
we can play in anything! Along with having fun practicing, we also did a lot of fun activities like kayaking and
swimming in the bioluminescent bay (which was one of the coolest things I've ever done!) at night, hiking in
the rainforest, and paddleboarding in the bay as well, so it was a nice balance of tennis and other fun activities.
Since Aldo and Eric are from Puerto Rico, we got a really local and personal view of Puerto Rico, which was
really cool.

MH: The training trip was amazing! It couldn't have gone any better than I thought. We played at least 2 hours
of tennis everyday, with 2 matches (which we both won!) around the island. We also did tourist trips daily,
such as going to multiple different beaches, see the National Rainforest, El Yunque, and see the
bioluminescent bay at night. This trip was very significant to me because, as a captain, I felt that I needed to
hear the other player's opinions about going on a spring training trip and if they were willing to fundraise
throughout the year. I heard nothing but positive reactions about a trip, and it made the organizational and
planning aspect of the trip with Aldo and Eric really fun!
  

2. What are some of the benefits and drawbacks of playing/coaching a split-season sport?

AS: The national championships are in the spring, while the conference championships are in the fall.
Whoever wins the conference in the fall represents the conference in the spring.  Spring is still a competitive
season with matches, but I am able to focus on development. I can try different things to develop the team and
the players.

MC: It is a big commitment in terms of time and energy. But I like the fact that we have two seasons because it
really keeps us in shape all year round. It also gives us more time to bond with our teammates. As a matter of
fact, practices in both fall and spring make us a closer and better team.

3.  Tennis is interesting because it seems to be both an individual, and a team sport at the same time. (You
compete as an individual for an overall team score). What are some challenges and benefits of the sport being
like that?

KS: I think that tennis being both an individual and team sport makes it even more rewarding! You get to play
by yourself or in a doubles team and experience a win or loss that's all from you or from you and your partner.
And you also get to be part of a team, which is like a family to me, and contribute to the overall result, so
everyone's match matters. However, it can also add a lot more pressure when you're playing by yourself
because it's all you and you have to figure out what you have to do to win, and to know that your result could
influence if your team wins or loses the match.
  

4.  What is the best part about coaching/being a Division III athlete?

AS: I’ve been at the division I (as an assistant coach at Ohio State), division II (as an athlete in Puerto Rico),
and the division III level now. This is a great division because it allows students to have a good balance. It
treats student-athletes as both students, and athletes. It treats student-athletes as any other student in the
classroom. It provides a well-balanced perspective on both experiences. I try my very best to find a balance
between academics and tennis. It’s important for be to find the balance between academics and tennis. If you
have an academic conflict, you are 100% a student. It’s important to know that when you are in Kendall (for
practices, matches) , you are 100% an athlete., and when you leave, you are 100% a student. I expect a high
level of commitment, I demand, encourages, and expect that you give 100%

MC: There is a good amount of seriousness in the sport, but at the same time, it doesn’t require us to put the
sport before everything else, such as academics.

KS: For me, the best aspect of being a division 3 athlete is the fact that you can be an athlete while focusing on
your academics and pursuing other interests as well. At Mount Holyoke, academics comes first, which Aldo
stresses, so he's always understanding if you have to miss or be late to a practice because of an academic
commitment.

MH: The best aspect about being a Division III athlete is that I am able to play a sport that I love but also study
something that I am just as passionate about.
  

5. What do you want the rest of the campus to know about Mount Holyoke’s student-athletes?

AS: They are committed to both the student and athlete aspects about being a student-athlete. We gave them a
good program to develop leadership skills. They care a lot about representing the college. They’re very proud
of being student-athletes. They love their sports and they want to excel in them. That’s also the case in their
academics. We all do our best to represent this great college with our best effort.

MC: By all means, if you play a sport/sports well, try out for the varsity team. It’s a great learning experience
itself and it’s a lot of fun, too.

KS: Just because we're Division III athletes doesn't mean we aren't good! The tennis team, and all of MHC's
teams, are all very good and competitive and we're passionate about our sports!

MH: I want the rest of the campus to know that MHC student-athletes are driven, work just as hard (if not
harder due to their competitiveness) in the classroom, and motivating. We really are a community in the
athletic department, and I think it would be great to have more non-student athletes be a part of that bond.