This has been a great week for training at the BRC, even though Spring Break is in session. Sean, our trusty coaching and training intern has been hard at work coming up with class designs and teaching all of the classes on his own (with a little feedback from me). If you were or are planning on coming to class this week we could use your feedback on Sean's performance. This is supposed to be an educational experience for him after all.
This weeks YouTube Episode of Coach CWall: Shortcuts to Thinking deals with a topic that I see all the time in our athletic community. It deals with something called Inductive Reasoning, which basically means drawing a false conclusion from a set of facts. For example, Tom runs fast on Tuesdays. Today is Tuesday. Therefore Tom will run fast. You see where I am going?
Let's take two athletes, Alpha and Beta. Alpha is good at something (pick the athletic endeavor du jour). Beta is new to the game and wants to be good at the same thing. Alpha does/eats/drinks X as part of their training regimen. Beta thinks that if Alpha does it then it must be the right thing because Alpha is oh so good. Obviously this is not necessarily true, as I point out in the video with a rather graphic example.
It is true that many good athletes have a lot of sound advice to dispense to the general public, but this is rare. It is the athletes job to perform, not teach. Very few top level athletes that have become effective coaches. This is mostly due to the fact that it is their job to perform, not to figure out what works for most people. There are of course some notable exceptions, but like I said, they are exceptions, not the norm.
Don't be in too much of a hurry to follow the training regimen of the great ones, or expect to become world class after you read a training article in Outside Magazine. It takes years to make a high level athlete, and chances are there is a lot more to what gets there than you or they think.
Just because someone is successful, it is not safe to assume that everything they do or say contributes to that success, no matter how much they may believe it.
Let these great athletes inspire you. Look at their advice and cross reference it with other research. Short cuts to thinking can get you into trouble, especially with training. Be careful and thoughtful, or the next place you might be seeking advice may be your doctor or physical therapist.
Until next time!
Coach CWall
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