With cold weather here, its hard to get outside for sled dragging (If you want to know more about sled dragging, check out earlier posts).  Therefore, I have created a way to do some dragging inside (I don't have access to a turf field or anything like that right now).  I took a dipping belt, looped the chain through some plates, grabbed on to the end of the belt and started rollin.  Don't use to the cold as an excuse to slack on your conditioning. Check out Mark finishing up his workout!  Disregard the music,  it was not my choice. :)

        Take two cars.  One has a v4 engine and one has a v8.  Which one is going to perform better in a race?  The stronger, more powerful one with the v8 of course!  Now, take two athletes.  Both have equal talent and abilities in their sport.  One has a 200lb max squat and a 135lb max bench press.  The other has a 400lb max squat and a 275lb max bench press.  Therefore, one is much stronger and probably more powerful than the other.  With equal talent and technical ability, which one do you think will perform better?  The stronger one of course!
        Getting stronger is like putting a bigger engine into your body.  Strength is the starting point for almost all physical performance qualities. It can be defined as the ability to overcome external resistance by producing force or to oppose it through muscular effort. The stronger you are, the more potential you have to be faster, more powerful, quicker, etc.  All you need to do is look at the equations for different qualities.  For example, power is basically producing force rapidly (forcexvelocity), and the stronger you are, the more force you can produce.   So, now that you know that you have to get stronger to perform better; lets look at another scenario. 
           Say the weaker athlete from above gets his squat up to 350lbs and went from a 20inch vertical jump (good measure of explosive strength) to a 30inch, and began performing better in competition.  He then gets his squat up to 400lbs, but his vertical stalls as does his performance.  In this case,  he needs to work on developing his explosive strength and rate of force development.  This way, he can use the new strength that he has to produce force faster; thus increasing performance. 
     All qualities of strength must be trained to develop optimal performance including max strength, speed strength, strength speed, explosive strength, etc.   I'll discuss the different strength qualities in more detail in a future post. 
   Thus, if you are an athlete and you aren't already lifting weights and training outside of practice, you are really limiting your performance potential.  Do you want to stick with your v4 or would you rather upgrade to a v8?  Get to work!