In our Collective chat, we had a profound conversation on velocity-based training. My take on it at first was skeptical, but I have since come around. I was quoted as saying, “Weightlifting is about timing, not being timed.” My rationale for it is that if we focus on the rate or quantity, we will be distracted from the quality.
How does this apply to momentum? Part of my rationale around the quote is a slow first pull to have a violent second pull. I don’t want a high average velocity; I want a high peak velocity at a very specific point: at the top of the second pull. How does that apply to momentum? It means we need to be intentionally slow at the beginning to be fast at a point where it matters. Momentum here is both a metaphor and a literal representation. We need to be conservative and calculated so we can be strategically fast and aggressive.
I am going to cite three examples in the rest of the blog: Calendar, Career Development, and Learning. Stick with me, I will make this metaphor stick with each of these topics.
Calendar
Have you ever heard the line: It is better to stay in shape than it is to get in shape? It’s a great line, but I do think there are flaws with that logic. One flaw is that we typically rush the process and limit our exposure to more necessary things. It is hard to have clarity on what is needed when we are that closely removed from the end of the last season. It is also hard to have clarity when we are far away from the next season. A foundational aspect of periodization is working generally before specific; we often lose sight of that in place of rushing into specific too quickly. Periodization is a plan for something that will not happen till the end.
Postseasons are tricky. There is a recency bias of what was missing when you tried to reach a goal, but came up short. This is a very powerful bias. This applies to everything in life: failed relationships or failing a test. The urge to rush back into things and repeat what you were doing previously, only with more effort, is human nature. We tend to try to fix things that went wrong with a more amplified approach. We know this is misguided thinking and ultimately will leave us with the same, if not worse, result. The reason we do not get what we want in spite of our intentions is that we are not pausing and reflecting on what is needed. Getting back to work is noble, but it could be for not if not well understood.
There is a model called inversion that is appropriate here. Start at the end, or at the outcome that is desirable, and work back to the beginning. Clarity on what is wanted is important. Clarity is more important than simply working hard. Another metaphor to think about is sprinting. Sprinting fast is all about capitalizing on the phases of running. Acceleration is associated with longer ground contact times. We are, in a sense, spending more time with each step to gain the necessary momentum to transition to top-end speed. If we came out and just took a lot of steps, we would miss the critical window to reach top-end mechanics. You can visualize that because you have coached it. Now you want to think that way with the calendar year.
Where do we want to be when training transitions into competition, when it’s all said and done? What do we need to instill or develop to achieve that? I worked with swimming at USC; we were really good. Top 5 in both men’s and women’s. Gold medalists were walking around everywhere. I asked the question of what is holding us back from winning the Pac-12 and then the national championship. The athletes were focused on who was ahead of them or faster than them, and trying to replicate that. Coaches were focused on what other teams did and who they had on their roster. To me, it was obvious. The thing holding us back was that 90% of all injuries occurred outside of the pool. Sprained ankle while skateboarding was a common occurrence. I trusted our athletes and coaches to know what was best in the pool, but lacked the perspective that to do that, they needed to be able to get in the pool. My role was to improve balance and coordination to prevent unnecessary injuries.
The point of that story is to illuminate that we are susceptible to making choices that require more of what we are currently doing. It is rarely the thing we are doing that is holding us back. What is holding us back is typically what we are not doing or what we are not doing well, and therefore avoiding. There will be a time and a place to double down with focus on a specific action. That specific action is compounded when it is built on a foundation of what needs to be done.
To return to our sprinting metaphor, we want to be slow and methodical to be fast when it matters.
Career Development
Your career prospects are only as good as the size of your network. I mean that. I reached head S&C for Division 1 football, which would be most coaches’ dreams. I come from meager beginnings in terms of S&C. Over three years of volunteer work, I did 4 internships, lived basically out of my car, and started as the lowest guy on the hierarchy wherever I went.
I’ll shut up on my hero story. What I don’t mention when I bring up my rags-to-riches career arc is that every one of those volunteer internships I was offered a job. I will not lie to you that I had this grand plan, doubling down on building my network by turning down these jobs to take another internship. The truth about why I kept going on internships was a lack of confidence that I would get an offer. I would beat my employer to the end by finding another unpaid job. I lacked awareness that I was coveted because I didn’t think there was another option. But something happened in this lack of awareness in myself as a coach: I built a vast network that blossomed into long-term exponential growth of my career in S&C.
I wanted that head job as quickly as I could get it. If anyone asked my career aspirations between the years 2005-2014, I would respond with great tenacity, “I want to be a head strength coach.” That much clarity can blind you, developing the most important requisite to get what I want – knowing the right people. Not on that, but when the time comes, you get a chance, you have people advocate for you. There are a lot of coaches who will throw names around, but not a lot would get on a table and vouch for you. That is the single difference between getting the job or not. If you walk into the interview and the right person says the things that will help you get that job, your chances go up exponentially.
Where does that vouching come from? Any idiot can work for free. I was one of those idiots for a long time, but not everyone can make an impact. That takes time and consistency. Are you coming to work and consistently contributing? That’s how you will earn respect. The adage of luck is when preparation meets opportunity is the key behind any internship. Is putting in the work each day is most important question? Being there is not important. Doing things that others do not want to do is somewhat important. Stepping up and delivering when asked by being prepared is the only thing that matters.
Every single internship I had was met with something I was not very good at. Velocity sports performance, no background in speed drills. Harvard, not experienced coaching teams, by myself. Georgia Tech is not good at coaching Olympic Lifts. Ole Miss, scared shitless of team reaction drills. I remember losing sleep over the feeling of being asked to do the thing I knew I could not do. You have a decision when something scares you: run away or run towards. Running towards is doing something that you know you are not good at and accepting that there is only one way to get good at it. Courage to do the things you are not good at is what stands out. How you get someone to believe in you, enough to recommend them for a highly coveted job, is to demonstrate you are willing to do what is necessary.
The idea behind building your network is about forging relationships with people who value your contribution. You are planting seeds of a garden that will blossom at a later date. Every job out there is one degree of separation from the right person who knows you. Your chances are contingent on the right person advocating for you. Lay the seeds of your career with a vast network of coaches who have seen you deliver consistently high-level work. Never underestimate the power of knowing the right person, combined with them knowing you are the right person for that potential job.
Learning
“If you understood this, you would not need to be in college.” This was the message from my Introductory Analysis Mathematics class professor in college. It was in response to the majority of us struggling with disproving theories that were yet laws but assumed to be true. For instance, infinity is a theory, not a law. It is assumed it exists, but that may be exclusively as a numeral, not in the universe. The counter to infinity existing is the Planck length, stating that there is a finite smallest particle size. Essentially, there is an end to infinity, and it comes in the size of a particle that determines space and mass. To add to that, the universe is expanding, which indicates there is, in fact, an end to the universe because it is growing.
Let us unpack that for a second. We have all sorts of parallels in our lives that we assume to be true based on a lack of conflicting evidence, so we just accept them as true. You and I are all vulnerable to this way of thinking. If we spent our time questioning the truth in everything, we would go insane. You want to get into the weeds on things, Gödel’s incompleteness theorems, which state two theorems of mathematical logic that place fundamental limits on the power of formal axiomatic systems to prove truths about themselves. What this breaks down to is that theories only exist in the world that they directly exist in. If we change a number to a random symbol within a theory, that theory will no longer be true. For context, why Gödel is relevant, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and extreme paranoia, which ultimately ended his life from starvation out of fear that someone was trying to poison him.
I am not going to sugarcoat this: learning is supposed to be hard. We live in a world where we can get the answer without any understanding. That is a dangerous place to be because it stunts the learning process. Again, learning is hard. Learning something new should come with struggle. The Dunning-Krueger effect is based on the people who understand the least, feel as if they know the most. With the advent of information being so widely accessible, we have locked ourselves in this proverbial box of a false sense of understanding. At this point, most of walk around knowing a lot, but understand very little.
Coaches who regurgitate but cannot explain are a clear indication of a lack of understanding of a particular concept. They have not put in the groundwork by compiling countless perspectives along with evidence from both research and anecdotal sources. There is magic in the process of learning. You should feel a sense of imposter syndrome when someone asks you something you don’t truly understand. The opposite end of the Dunning-Krueger is feeling like you know little when you understand more. Part of the success of being able to explain something is the constant feeling that you are doing a poor job of explaining it.
It makes me think of the quote from Heisenberg, “Whenever we proceed from the known into the unknown, we may hope to understand, but we may have to learn at the same time a new meaning of the word ‘understanding.” The paradox of learning is the awareness that we have created a new reality with that increased understanding. We should be patient when we embark on new concepts. Once you have accrued a certain amount of time in thought and application, you will be perceived as an expert. You are not an expert because you know something; everyone knows everything. You are an expert based on your understanding. The ultimate litmus of understanding is being able to explain in a way that makes sense. That takes time with subject matter and experience with attempting to explain to as many people as possible.
It would be bold of me to say I am an expert in something. I get asked a lot, from a lot of different people. Sometimes it is outside of purview, and I struggle not to disappoint. I think most S&C coaches can relate to this feeling. Being well-read, being self-confident, and giving the impression that you have figured things out make you appear to be a unicorn to people in search of help. This is a heavy responsibility that we do not truly appreciate until we are placed in that role and we care about the outcome. My advice is not to rush. Read, ask questions, admit you don’t know, understand when you in fact do not understand, apply, and most importantly, don’t just make mistakes but be willing to learn from them.
How to Apply
The world moves very fast. The first time you attempted a snatch, you probably pulled the bar as hard and recklessly as possible. It was through repetition that you learned the value of patience. The same should apply to most things: the calendar, your career, and learning. Rushing complex things never works out. Pause and take a breath, and zero in on what will matter.