Pick a sport. Any sport. Now imagine an athlete with great strength. Imagine the competition with great balance. Who wins? Which attribute is better to have? Which do you want? The answer is both.
We all know an athlete who doesn't look like the way they perform. Sometimes we see an athlete who looks really strong, only to watch them be unable to functionally use that strength. Sometimes we have an athlete who has great balance, but can't generate enough strength to be productive. Sometimes we see a person that doesn't even look athletic, yet they are running laps around the competition. What's the key ingredient? It's both strength and balance, and the way one propels the other.
Depending on your lifestyle and your activity, different proportions of strength and balance will serve you better. Some athletes need to be incredibly strong, and some need exceptional balance. You can't have one without the other though. You can't train only one side of the equation. Becoming too dominant in one area while neglecting the other is a formula for failure.
Everyday you need strength and balance, and everyday you should train each system. We program our athletes to have both during every workout. We also spend time specifically working on one area depending on the needs of their goals, but we don't neglect the need for both.
How do we measure strength and balance? We can use numbers and comparison to see where we are now, where we were, and who we are up against. We can also measure these during performance. It's not as easy as comparing with numbers, but we can see if we have sufficient strength and balance to increase our abilities, consistency, and efficiency. That in turn will produce better results which we can measure and compare. That might be a quicker time, a longer drive, a faster sprint, or a bigger jump.
All our training should be focused on performance. Performance means different things to different individuals in different sports, but it's the one thing that we all strive for when we train. It may be a professional level competition, but it also might be getting around the house easier, walking your dog more, or doing your recreational activity longer. Each person has a different goal for their training, but always included in that goal is better performance. You can improve performance by working on strength or balance, but only by training both together can you maximize your potential while chasing down your goals. #snowbeastperformance