In the previous piece on this topic, you saw the conclusions my coach friend and I reached about how strong an athlete needs to be compared to how long they need to perform. World tour cyclists were the antithesis to competitive lifters in that way: a cyclist needs fairly little absolute strength compared to the strongest a human can be, yet they need enormous capacity in aerobic endurance.

What you’re seeing now is the amount of absolute strength a sport requires compared to its technical complexity. The more complex the skill to be executed – that is, the more it depends on timing, balance, and fine motor patterns – the less aggression, effort, or arousal you can bring to it.

Either of the Williams sisters is obviously aggressive during a forehand return, but the *absolute* level of aggression has to be managed in order to deliver the ball to a target with appropriate spin. Because of the demands of body, racket, and ball control in tennis, a player can’t get too stimulated before a match, much less stay at a fever pitch for the duration of a round.

In contrast, a powerlifter needs absolute maximum muscular contraction for 4-8 seconds, followed by 30+ minutes of rest. That lifter benefits from supermaximal arousal, hence the use of ammonia smelling salts and psyche up theatrics in the sport.

And just to anchor this whole concept, a chess player needs all their energy devoted to processing and attention. The cognitive complexity is maximal, therefore the physical arousal has to be minimal. To play chess well, you need almost sleepy calm…and it should go without explanation that no meaningful physical strength is necessary to play chess.

So consider your own sport in the context of these two graphs: how long do you need to be able to perform, how sensitive and complex are your sport skills, and how strong do you have to be in order to deliver those skills?

Those three factors are the X, Y, and Z of performance: endurance, arousal, and strength. That’s what effective training seeks to optimize for you. And that’s what I specialize in determining for athletes out to level up.

Have questions about this idea? Send it my way!