Episode 26- On BS- Our rant against crazy ideas, gurus, and other BS in coaching.
For our last podcast episode of 2015, it’s time to go on a few rants, call some ideas out, and create a little bit of controversy in our own little world of coaching. We’re going to cover bullshit.
We start off with the myth of chasing perfection. Instead of seeing perfection as the ultimate goal, shooting for perfection is a way to create fragility. It puts us in a place where we are set up for failure, and more importantly, can’t learn it. Branching off perfection, we delve into the BS of norms and how our culture is set to drag people to the middle, eliminating outliars.
Next up, we jump into training models and our favorite topic guru’s. Guru’s are those who give the perception that they have it all figured out and have all the answers. If someone gives off this vibe, run away…fast! If you think that there’s one magical training model that is best, then turn this podcast off as you’ve stopped learning and growing.
From there, we delve into the topic of coaching champions. There’s a myth that you don’t know how to coach a world-class athlete until you do it. If you haven’t coached an Olympic medalist, then the thinking goes that you can’t figure out how to coach an athlete at that level. It’s BS. Coaching people, is coaching people. Coaching someone to near their potential is incredibly difficult, and takes the same skill, regardless of where their innate talent lies. Additionally, while we’re calling out BS, as coaches, we overvalue our impact. And when we let our ego get in the way, and think we have the answers and are the only way that an athlete can get better, we create dependency. Dependency, in any relationship, is a plague, and ultimately will fail.
Finally, we take on one of Jon’s favorite topics: treatment. In the final rant of 2015, we go through how using treatment, such as massage, at the wrong time creates fragile athletes and dependency. It’s about the judicial and strategic use of treatment that matters, not making athletes reliant and dependent on it. Sometimes, if an athlete is just not ready, even if a workout is on the schedule, you have to walk away.
Hopefully, you enjoy our rant to end 2015, and we wish you all a happy new year, filled with less BS, and more growth and learning!
Lastly, if you are a regular listener to the podcast, venture over to iTunes and rate it for us, thanks a lot!
Resources Mentioned in this episode:
Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed
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Once again a great show, and depressingly close to home – the description of fragile an looking for ideal conditions fits me to a T. I do need to branch out a bit, and become more robust.
For once thought I did hear something that surprised me (not that I disagree). Moving a workout for Christmas.
In the UK we had a brilliant Olympic Gold Medallist in the decathlete of Daley Thompson, I think your comparison in both event and media profile is Bruce Jenner (in the heyday, notwithstanding her change). He said that he used to train on Christmas day as he knew his rivals wouldn't. I even heard one quote saying he'd train twice to get an advantage.
Just an interesting difference, but I guess all of it is about getting that edge, however that is – refocussing by having time off, or getting out there and doing a hard session to give you confidence.
AJ