Much of what I’ve said of power sports applies to team sports with some differences as I’ll explain. Anyone involved in team sports needs to increase their strength relative to their body weight. They obviously also need to work on their endurance and through practicing what they do improve their skill and performance. So again, there’s got to be a three pronged approach to training.

Strength training should come from using heavy weights and fewer reps using powerlifting exercises, the squat, deadlift and bench press) to maximize their strength and depending on the sport and specific weaknesses in any one person, other exercises that act as assistance exercises to the three main ones.

Again because anyone playing on a team, whether it’s soccer, hockey, football, basketball, baseball, etc,. the emphasis on their training should be to maximize strength per pound of body weight. Endurance is also important but should not come from using resistance training but is best built up by working on the movements involved in their sport – swimmers should swim, hockey players should skate, etc. And they can also do these movements in ways that will improve performance such as pulling a sled, weight walks, etc,, keeping in mind that the foundation for increasing their strength lies in using heavy weights and training hard on basic weight lifting/powerlifting exercises.

Bottom line, use heavy weights and powerlifting sets and reps to increase strength, and practice, practice, practice your sport to translate that increased strength to improved performance in whatever sport you’re in.