Philosophy
The Battle Between Sport Science, Analytics, and Intuitive Coaching
With the rise of sports science and analytics, there’s a tendency to hold these fields as bearers of absolute truth. If the science or data proclaim a fact, then who are we to question it? The notion that you need statistical significance or a double blind placebo controlled study to find the actual truth is…
Read MoreThoughts and Lessons from the Olympic Trials
Four years ago, I had my first Olympic Trials as a coach. It came right after my tumultuous time with the company who shall not be named. I had one athlete there who had a shot to qualify for the Olympics, but bombed out in the heats. It was one of the hardest things I’ve…
Read MoreHow Constraints Make You a Better Coach
Coaching is easy when everything is on a roll. You just get in a groove and click it off. It’s magical and easy. However, when things are going well, we always fall trap to what I call default mode thinking. We do what we have always done and continue to do so. In our minds…
Read MoreWhen doing nothing is better than doing something.
I have a collection of physical therapists I reach out to whenever one of my athletes has a problem. If I can’t figure it out, then the next step is to reach out to one of these guys to find a solution One of them is John Ball, the well-known track injury guru out of…
Read MoreWhat Actually Matters- Concepts or Details?
As I sat on stage with several world-class performers, ranging from sprint to endurance, I couldn’t help but feel a little out of place. I was speaking at the Canadian National Endurance Conference in front of some very smart coaches and academics. On stage were guys like Dan Pfaff, Derek Evely, and Nic Bideau who…
Read MoreA Case for Running by Feel- Ditching your GPS because of Ecological Psychology
In his book The World Beyond Your Head, Matthew Crawford outlines why this might be the case. He uses a reoccurring example in the world of modern pop psychology, the motorcycle, to illustrate this difference. When riding a motorcycle, there are two different ways of knowing how fast the motorcycle is traveling. The first is…
Read MoreThe Art of Being a Contrarian
During my search for understanding the history of endurance training, I saw a pretty distinct pattern. There was a constant ebb and flow of popular theories. The all-interval crew would take precedence and then the higher mileage method would come back in style a decade or so later. This swinging of the pendulum back and…
Read MoreScience vs. Art of coaching- What actually is Science?
While reading the Carl Sagan book The Demon Haunted World, which is a classic about science, pseudoscience, and technology, I came across a section in which Sagan essentially discusses how science develops and what it actually is. His argument is that it’s really a method of seeing the world. Science isn’t the rote memorization and…
Read MoreCuriosity and Connection- Why the ‘boring stuff’ in training is the most important.
Curiosity is by definition an interesting subject. It’s that process of how an idea can suddenly pop into our mind, only to open up an array of doors for us to gaze into. The ability to be curious about the way the world works is one of the most underrated qualities or talents that one…
Read MoreMy best books of 2014- Books that established connections and patterns.
As I did last year, I think there is value in passing along my favorite books of the year. Not necessarily because I think I have some great insight into what books may be impactful on you, but instead because the books you read give an insight into how your thought process evolves and changes.…
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