Strength Training Is All Relativity For Goalkeepers

This training regime focused on strength training is a good little read about how a personal trainer can help you facilitate increased strength levels depending on your sport. If you are looking at increasing strength you can go about it two ways, depending on the sport you play. For goalkeepers who use their body weight to propel themselves the type of strength training that we should focus on is relative strength. Relative strength is described below:

• Relative Strength: This type of strength training focuses on sports that have to utilize their body weight. Goalkeepers utilize their body weight in many different situations, from diving for the ball to attacking the ball at an opponents feet. Relative strength training looks at utilizing the neural power of the muscle. This entails low reps, with heavy weights and longer rest periods.

The article looks at a wave-like form of training that usually looks at reps and sets in the following example:

7, 5, 3,3,5,7 —> This means 7 reps on the first set, 5 on the second etc… with each set you increase the weight, and then decrease to rep out. Please note, maximal strength training needs to be utilized by goalkeepers or athletes who have created a solid base and are training regularly. Don’t think you can just hop into a fully blown strength training regime without first establishing a firm base of training. Now if you have read the article you would have seen that the program was developed for a tennis player.

How does this make sense for a goalkeeper? This is where technique and performance enhancement through exercise differ widely. Goalkeeping technique will be totally different than the technique that tennis players utilize. Performance enhancement looks at the athlete as a whole (regardless of their sport) and aims at enhancing their performance for specific areas that needs improvement. Remember to always look at the specifics of your sport and areas where you feel you need to improve.