How to Increase Your Athleticism (3 Traits)
Look at LeBron James, Cristiano Ronaldo, Todd Gurley, even Mike Trout… These guys have three traits in common. Three traits that, if you develop them, will help you increase your athleticism. Not just in a specific sport, but all around.
It’s true…
All of these guys have superior general athleticism. When I say that, I mean they have traits that could carry over to any sport. They may not have the skill, but they have performance based components that will serve them in another sport.
Look at LeBron. He could be a tight end in the NFL (he was heavily recruited by colleges when he played in high school). He could also be a great volleyball player.
Shift your focus to Mike Trout. He might be the best player in the MLB, but he’s not a one-trick-pony either. He’s got speed and power that could serve him well in other sports.
Alright, enough examples.
Let’s jump into the traits that will help you increase your athleticism:
Stupid Strength
Whether you’re a basketball athlete who wants to finish strong at the rim, a fighter who needs the ability to stay on his feet after a hit, or a football player who needs to break tackles, you need strength.
Now, it’s true that strength, in a vacuum, doesn’t carry over well to the field. However, it’s still necessary for an athlete to develop significant levels of strength if they want to thrive in their athletic career, and be one of the best athletes on the field.
The way to make strength work for you is by training it in a way that translates into power.
I go deeper into this topic here, but for now, know that strength is technically the precursor to power, as the scientific equation for power is:
Power = (Force x Distance)/Time
So, technically, more force can mean more power, which is essential for sport.
But, unless you’re training strength in a way that manipulates your body into moving weight faster as well, you’re not going to see huge power increases by getting stronger.
This is why powerlifters can squat 500 pounds, but can’t get over 10 inches off the ground.
Some things you can do to train in a way that stimulates power are performing limited range-of-motion repetitions, train with tempos, and perform contrast training.
Speed
A quick first step to blow by a defender, a nimble move to dodge a punch, a fast jump off the line – these are feats of athleticism that are essential in sports. Even more, the ability to perform these feats of speed on a consistent basis is even more crucial to your athletic ability.
With my athletes, I utilize mechanics drills, top speed circuits, acceleration drills, nutritional means, and even plyometrics to increase their speed.
There are three aspects of speed.
The first is acceleration. Acceleration is your ability to go from a dead stop to top speed in as little time as possible. This ability is improved by a mixture of mechanics, plyometrics, and weight training.
The second is top speed.
Top speed is the fastest speed you reach in a sprint, and mechanics are a huge help to this. Many athletes get these mechanics wrong due to imbalances in the body, or lack of knowing. Weights and plyometrics also aid in getting a higher velocity top speed.
The third is change of direction.
This is stopping and switching directions on a dime, and it incorporates aspects of both top speed and acceleration.
Again, to develop all of these aspects of speed, you need to work on mechanics, work top speed and acceleration drills, losing weight helps, and don’t forget plyometric training.
Power
This may be the most important trait of athleticism because it carries over to throwing a knockout blow, hitting a 400 foot grand slam, getting your head over the rim, and juking defenders.
Yes, power is at the source of everything explosive.
It’s absolutely essential for an athlete to excel in his sport, and it’s really the first attribute we think of when we think of athleticism.
As I said above, Power = (Force x Distance)/Time, so increasing either of these will increase your power.
I already went over how to produce more force above, but I didn’t go over velocity.
Plyometrics are a big factor in improving the velocity part of the equation, as plyometrics increase rate of force development, or the speed at which you produce peak force.
There are also other things you need to do to increase your power output, such as decreasing your amortization time, utilizing overcoming isometrics, and concentric contrast training.
Your One Stop For Total Athleticism
I went over a lot of methods to help you increase your athleticism, but you can’t use these in isolation. They have to be put together in a cohesive program that helps them build upon one another.
You can search my blog for articles on how to do this,
But doing guesswork can be extremely dangerous.
Leading to overtraining, injury, and missed playing time.
Luckily, I compiled all of these methods into the complete, athleticism developing, program called Athlete Built Savage.
And you came to the blog at the right time, because right now, it’s available for a severe discount.
But only for an extremely limited amount of time.
And last time somebody missed their chance to grab Savage, they emailed me saying:
“Hey Coach, can you give me that deal again? I’m sorry, I was on an 18 hour flight.”
Don’t miss your chance
