Posts by stevemagness
Recovery Addict: How overemphasizing recovery creates dependency
On my glass shower door is a message scrawled across in black marker in my distinctly illegible handwriting that says “Look the other way.” It’s not some cryptic paranoid message, but instead it’s a daily reminder to consider other possibilities. I’ve found that, whenever we see everyone jumping on the bandwagon and all nodding in…
Read MoreEpisode 27- Training for the 800
We’re back with a new podcast for 2016! This time we jump straight into what you guys have asked for, specifics on training. For this episode, we divert away from the bigger picture and discuss training for the 800. We start with going through the different types of 800m runners and why it’s an event…
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 MoreA Message to Speed/Power/Conditioning Coaches about Endurance Development
This is likely to be a long rambling and disjointed rant. For this I apologize. How and when you learn something matters It seems like information should be information, after all facts are facts. It shouldn’t matter when we learn facts and theories, as it’s generally assumed they are independent, but this assumption is often…
Read MoreLosing Imagination- Why we all use the same interval sets & the dangers of classification
A while back, during one of those rare moments of inspiration, I took to my whiteboard in my home and began to scribble. The goal was to break down every single way I could manipulate a workout possibly. In the end, I came up with this mess of a picture (and yes, as anyone who…
Read MoreEpisode 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,…
Read MoreWhy you should change your mind: The power of letting your Ego go and cognitive dissonance
A strange phenomenon happens on our journey towards perceived expertise: we get stuck. To figure out coaching, or well anything in life, we take the complexity that is life and break it down into a practical, and usable, one. Or as Philosopher Daniel Dennett in his book Intuition Pumps states, “Oversimplifications…cut through the hideous complexity with…
Read MoreThe Dangers of Doing too Little- Why backing off can increase stress.
Too much stress, not enough recovery and our body is primed for a state of injury, illness, or worse, burnout. It’s a simple, but largely true, way to look at the world of training. We know there’s this sweet spot where we can push our athletes hard enough to where they adapt to the training,…
Read MoreEpisode 25- Part 2-Why we are horrible coaches
In part two of Why we are horrible coaches, we continue down the path of bashing our own ability to coach. Starting with trap coaches fall into when they coach someone fast when they’re young- they now think that this is now the magical formula. We then delve into our worst moments of failure as…
Read MoreDo Movement Screens actually do anything?
In an editorial for the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Dr. Rod Whitely argues that “screening as we now do it is the same as player evaluation was years ago—it sounds like a good idea, but we are kidding ourselves if we think it is preventing injury.” If you’ve been around in the sports performance…
Read More