Supertraining Strength Training For Sporting Excellence

The great strides made in sport during the past few decades are a major tribute to the practical application of exercise science and systematic training. In keeping with the Olympic motto, the human being today is definitely stronger and faster. Plateaus of performance are regularly being transcended and the quest for explor­ing the limits of human potential continues unabated.

Supertraining is a textbook which bore the preliminary title The Biomechanics and Physiology of Sport Specific Strength Training when the earliest draft of this book appeared, a title which still describes its content and aims accurately. The first editions (Siff & Verkhoshansky, 'œSupertraining') emerged from a combination of Dr Verkhoshansky's invaluable contributions from his earlier publications, his extensive research and a lifetime of lecturing and many years of analysis and review of Russian strength science and training, as well as from Mel's personal research, competitive and coaching experience, conference presentations and lecture notes given to undergraduate and postgraduate students in mechanical engineering, physiotherapy, physical education and ergonomics.

This latest edition no longer involves the direct contribution of Dr Verhoshansky, who has now requested not to be involved with this book, so that he can write a series of individual publications on strength science, which he ultimately intends to serve as his legacy to the world of sports training. Consequently, this edition includes a great deal of new research and practical information from a variety of Western scientists and elite coaches. This book is not intended to offer a prescriptive list of special exercises and training pro­grammes for each specific sport, as this is a highly individualised task which depends on close contact between an experienced coach and each athlete. Instead, it has set out to provide the scientist, coach and serious competitor with the research background, a systematic approach and principles which can be applied to suit the needs of all athletes whose preparation in­volves special strength training in their quest for sporting excellence.

Supertraining also aims to provide the physiotherapist and sports doctor with a fuller under­stand­ing of the nuances of musculoskeletal conditioning so as to facilitate the pre­scription of effective in­jury rehabilitation regimes, with particular relevance to the fitness needs of competitive athletes.

In this book, the gender-independent term, \'athlete\', does not re­fer to runners. It is syn­onymous with \'sportsperson\' and refers to anyone who participates in sport or any other form of organised human movement, such as dance. Less familiar terms (such as heterochronicity and conjugate sequence) which are rarely encountered in similar books appear periodically and have deliberately not been oversimplified, because they are de­rived from Russian termi­nology with no entirely satisfactory English equivalent. Instead, they have been defined as new terms for use in the field of special sports training. In some places, traditional terms such as \'aerobic\' and \'anaerobic\' have been retained instead of their more pedantic equivalents, namely \'oxygen-dependent\' and \'oxygen-independent\', simply because the average reader will be more familiar with the more popular words.

This text not only reviews current research into the phenomenon of strength and physical conditioning, but also includes extensive original work. The author is most grateful to Dr Yessis, Andrew Charniga (a former USA champion weightlifter) and Linna Moratcheva, whose indispensable English translations of Russian work made their task considerably lighter. Where a more extensive interpretation of Russian biomechanical terminology was needed, the late Professor S Smoleniec, of the School of Mechanical Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand, gave freely of his time and expertise.

An invaluable background to the Russian methods and philosophy of strength training covered in this text may be obtained from the vast compendium of Soviet scientific articles translated between 1966 and 1991 in the Soviet Sports Review (formely the Yessis Review of Soviet Physical Education and Sports) by Dr Yessis, and in the Fitness and Sports Review International (1992-1995), as well as in Dr Yessis\' book: Secrets of Soviet Sports Fitness and Training. All of this material was used extensively to assist in interpreting many of the unique Soviet concepts in sports training and to facilitate cooperation between the two authors of this text. Had this source of information not been available, the numerous rewritings of this book no doubt would have been increased and publication would have been delayed for a considerable time.

The author hopes that the final product will enable the reader to share some of the excite­ment, pleasure and awe that he has experienced in attempting to un­derstand the complexi­ties and wonders of human strength and athletic perfor­mance. For those who wish to continue with the analysis, application and updating of any of the topics addressed in this book, Mel has initiated a free Internet Supertraining discussion group, which anyone may join at the following website - yahoogroups.com/supertraining
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