Most skill sport athletes (i.e. American football, hockey, soccer, basketball, etc…), engage in some sort of speed and strength training. The gains made on the track and in the weight room are not always fully actualized during a game scenario. For example, a football player may max out a 40 yrd in 4.5 sec, and squat over 400 lbs, but during a game situation, he will never run at that time or utilize that amount of force, due to the repetitive nature of the sport. Simply put he can not produce the maximal amount of force, as what he had done earlier, due to the maximal effort extended by the CNS. Once the CNS has been “tapped” close to or at maximal firing capacity, it will take about 48 to 72 hours before it can engage in another maximal attempt, and even with this, it may not be able to duplicate the previous maximums that were achieved. Having said this, during the game scenario, the football player is required to make several plays during a very short window of time, hence they will only be able to maximally access about 80% of their maximum capacity. It is not that they can’t do this, it is because if they did this they would expend all their energy in a single play and only in a single play. In order that they may continue to participate in several plays, they must then become judicious in expending their maximal. So therefore, the ‘nature of the training game’ is to develop maximal speed and strength in the conditioning arena so that roughly 80% may be accessed at any given time. The greater the maximal strength and speed, the greater the “80%” that will be able to be actualized during a game situation. 786
