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Physical Qualities of Athleticism

This is an excerpt from Train Like a Pro by Matthew S Ibrahim.

When we talk about athleticism, we think of strength, power, speed, and agility. But what do each of these qualities really mean? Why are they important and how are they related to athleticism? The answer to those questions ultimately comes down to how you view yourself and whether or not you truly believe that you are an athlete. Every single human is an athlete—keeping that at the forefront of our minds helps us to paint a clearer picture of why we train.

Strength

Imagine building enough strength to feel confident in your ability to produce or resist force, without hesitation, at any time. Carrying groceries from the car to your house, lifting heavy boxes when moving to a new home, or moving furniture in your office are abilities related to your overall athleticism. When it comes to strength, the real goal is being strong enough. We aren’t necessarily chasing maximum strength here—instead, the aim should be enough strength for whatever you’re tasked with on the court, in the field, or in your daily life. Beyond building muscular strength, it is also crucial in athletic performance to have strong bones, ligaments, and tendons, all of which are important support structures in your body. Building strength to produce and absorb force is one of the main components of athleticism. Producing force relates to how powerful you can become, and absorbing force relates to how well you can harness and control power. This leads us to the next component: power.

Power

Power is a physical quality that allows us to exert and absorb force quickly. You can think of power as simply using your strength rapidly. The cool thing about strength and power is that these physical qualities have a ton of overlap in training and in life. Power is a hallmark trait of athleticism, and we should never lose sight of it in training. Explosiveness lives in dunking a basketball, kicking a soccer ball, spiking a volleyball, taking a slapshot, and many other feats of athleticism that we see demonstrated across a broad spectrum of sports. In daily life, maintaining and even improving your power throughout the lifespan makes physical daily tasks much easier to perform. If strength is the hammer, then power is the nail gun. They both get the job done, but power is faster. This is a very simplistic way to view these physical qualities, but can help you understand the rationale behind building them. Power is a quality that, once harnessed, can allow you to do some pretty cool stuff both in and out of the weight room.

Speed

Have you ever heard the phrase “Speed kills”? Think of some of the fastest people in the world: Usain Bolt, Ali Krieger, Tyreke Hill, Shell-Ann Fraser-Pryce. When you watch them sprint, regardless of which sport they play, it might appear as though they’re gliding above the ground. Fast people make speed look really easy.

The “speed kills” phrase is right on target. A difference in speed that seems tiny on paper can make a world of difference on the court, in the field, and even in the game of life. In other words, if you are even just minimally faster than your competition (or than yourself from the past), this will help to boost your overall athleticism.

Strength and power, both intimately related to the application of force, are also closely related to speed. Each physical quality builds off the previous one—if you train to develop power, you’re developing speed too. This means improving your overall athleticism might be easier than you originally thought.

Agility

The last component in athleticism is related to your ability to be reactive. Think of Barry Sanders when he would fake one way to the defender and then run in the opposite direction. Think of Caitlin Clark when she jab-steps and then launches a three-point shot into the net. Reacting to a defender trying to tackle you at game speed is what we call agility. Being agile—able to change directions with precision and efficiency—is a way to show off all the previously mentioned qualities (strength, power, and speed) all at once. When you break down each sport, you’ll begin to see how often each athlete has to react to something. That could be a ball, a defender, a reflection, a change in possession, or one of many other things. It’s clear why the quality of agility is important to becoming more athletic. But agility isn’t exclusive to competitive athletes at the high school, collegiate, semi-professional, or professional levels. Agility, along with strength, power, and speed, is truly for everyone. In daily life, moments that require you to react quickly happen all the time, which is one of the reasons it’s beneficial to improve in these areas. Quicker reactions equal more overall athleticism.

The real question isn’t whether building strength, power, speed, and agility are right for you. Instead, ask yourself whether you’re ready to build them the way an athlete does.

More Excerpts From Train Like a Pro

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