There are a few different areas that performance training/programming focuses on. These include your strength, power, coordination, balance, speed, and more.
All of these areas are crucial in any sport and or training. The issue with traditional training/exercise is that sessions or programs often have a very narrow approach to addressing those areas.
Let’s take CrossFit or fitness games etc. If you wanted to get better at one of the Olympic movements (clean / snatch) the most common approach is to do it over and over again. Now, this may seem smart at the start, and if you are being driven with good technique it’s a start, however, it’s one very small part.
A performance focus would address this problem by focusing on strength training and coordination. The goal would be to condition your body so that you can achieve more power during the movement.
Coaches would work on correcting your technique and movement so you can see improvement in that particular area.
In the same way, you look at sporting teams – you don’t see a team playing a game of football/soccer/AFL etc every day to get better at playing a game. They look at the game, analyse what they need to work on, place conditioning and drills into the areas that require it week to week.
The same goes for Crossfit or fitness games, you shouldn’t run yourself into the ground doing WOD’s to get better at doing WOD’s. Look at your weak areas, skills that need developing (and not practising them under fatigue or under load so you can’t move well) and plan your week to get better.
Train hard, train smart.
