Specificity

Last Updated (Friday, 25 July 2008 18:44) Written by Zak Xander Thursday, 12 June 2008 23:45

What is specificity?

Specificity is the phenomenon where a certain type of training will produce adaptations specific to the mode of training.

For example, in a study performed on male short distance rowers, the sample were split into two groups. One performed seated rows with a deliberately slow tempo, lifting and lowering the weight slowly; the other group performed the lift explosively.

What was found was that the slow lifters improved their rowing stroke off the start line, where they are starting from a stand-still and the stroke speed is slow, but no improvement at the finish line.

The explosive lifters, on the other hand, did not improve their stroke off the start line, but improved their stroke at the finish line, where their stroke speed is the fastest.

The conclusion is that any adjunct training should be specific to the sport, even down to the level of being specific to the particular movement and the speed at which it is performed to have any cross-over benefits.