Recently I was on a video call with a couple dozen sports performance coaches from around the country.

We were listening to a very successful speaker, an owner of three highly profitable athlete-centered gyms in the midwest.

At one point he started talking about the concept of sport-specific training.

His takeaway was, "We all know it's a joke."

Is it though?

He was trying to say the more you attempt to replicate a sport skill through strength exercises, the dumber your sessions look.

And the worse your results will be.

Which are both true, so he did kind of have a point.

But there's more to it than that.

Certain sports, and even different positions within that sport, require excellence in specific skills.

Softball, hockey and lacrosse need to build rotational power for hitting and shooting in a way that basketball players simply don't need to develop.

Linemen in football should be able to bench press lots of weight in preparation for all the hand fighting they do in games.

Midfielders in soccer and lacrosse need high levels of both speed and conditioning to excel, two things goalies in any sport don't.

Ice hockey players need more side to side pushing power to build skating speed, a different training priority than for those in sprint-based sports.

Then there's localized injury concerns like jumpers knee and elbow pain, which can be mitigated through targeted exercise selection.

Obviously the list is much longer than this, but surely you get the idea.

The sport you play does impact the style of training you should perform.

It's one of the main factors, along with FMS results, injury history and personal goals, that we use when creating custom workout programs for our athletes.

And the speaker during our video call certainly knows this, or he wouldn't be as successful as he is.

What he assumed we all agreed with is the current fascination with making EVERYTHING sport-specific.

Throwing weighted balls to add a few miles per hour to your fastball.

Changing proper technique on a fundamental exercise to match how you move in games.

Doing endless plyometrics to improve your vertical jump.

These kinds of training methods are more than just ineffective.

They're dangerous.

Good training should protect you against the current overuse epidemic stemming from year-round competition.

It targets and eliminates obvious areas of injury risk.

It builds an unshakeable foundation of mobility, stability, strength and power, allowing you to play more effectively.

And yes, roughly the last 10% of your training should target the unique demands of your sport and position.

But that number isn't 90%, or even 50%.

All workouts don't lead to the same outcomes.

Some leave you achy, injury prone, and only slightly better than you were before.

Others can completely transform your athletic career.