Listening in on many gym conversations as well avid sports fans using certain terminology to describe athletes I feel that I need to clear up a few misconceptions.
How many times have you called an athlete ‘Powerful’? I am guessing it is too many times to keep count of? But was it used in the right context when we consider the definition.
Is it possible to be fast without being powerful? Just because you are strong does it mean that you are powerful?
Strength is simply the maximum amount of force that can be produced.
Speed refers to how quickly the movement is performed.
Power can then be defined as a combination of the force produced coupled with the velocity or speed of contraction. In simpler terms a combination of strength and speed of movement.
So 2 athletes Squat 130kg to full depth (imagine that they are the same height and have identical limb lengths for simplicities sake), they both produce the same amount of force, but the athlete that completes the repetition quicker is the more powerful.
Why is it important to be powerful?
Both speed and strength are important physical components in most sporting situations as well as in the gym. However neither quality will get you far on their own, the combination of the two is what will make your performance stand out.
It is fairly useless to have muscles that possess a high level of maximum strength unless you can produce it quickly enough for it to have the desired effect, whether this be to successfully execute a Heavy Bench Press or Squat, to riffle a 20 yard shot into the top corner, smash the ball down into your opponents half of the court or to ground an opposition player with a big hit.
A high movement speed will also be fairly useless unless the movement is produced with force.
A typical example of a powerful athlete would be a jumper who must produce large amounts of force to the ground, but they must produce this force at high rate in order for them to take off and gain the height and distance that they need for successful performance.
In a future article I will outline some training methods to increase power.
(Image Source http://www.telegraph.co.uk)