Six Blunders
As if just trying to train weren't hard enough.
A couple of days ago I had a really compelling discussion with Climb Strong coach Joel Unema. Joel is one of our busiest and most experienced coaches, and he has several world-class athletes on his roster. The usual training meetings between CS coaches involve programming detail and looking at some specific exercises for athletes. We try to troubleshoot programs and look down the road far enough that we can start planning long-term adaptations before they are needed.
In this particular meeting, we ended up talking about some of his higher-level athletes and the struggles that elite climbers were facing. As strange as it may seem, the elite athletes have many of the same problems that your average Joe athlete does... except because of the level of play, the issues become intensified. What you start to realize is that humans all fall into the same traps no matter how good they are at their particular craft. Here are five blunders that keep coming up for athletes that have nothing to do with their finger strength.
Thinking You Are An Outlier
“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” - George Carlin
Athletes tend to think that they are exceptional. The difficult thing here is to understand how many people fall within the standard deviations of recovery, work capacity, and overall athleticism. Unless there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary, assume you’re average. Average work capacity, average need for sleep, average metabolism.
Pushing Your Luck
Most of us can progress for a month or two with steady overloads or increases in distance. After this point, the biological cost of doing more stuff gets higher and higher until a breaking point is reached. If we are smart about programming, we cycle up and down in the demands on our bodies without hitting a crisis point. A driven athlete is in danger of overtraining or injury at all times. More so toward the end of a training cycle. See point 1, above.
Focusing On Easily Measurable Factors…Because The Are Easily Measurable
Are we training for higher numbers on the strain gauge, or to be better climbers? Just because it is measurable, it doesn’t mean it’s important. Also, the most important factors are often hard to measure.
Three Men Make A Tiger
If one person says there is a tiger in your town, you think they’re crazy. A second says so and you wonder. A third says so, and you’re now convinced. Just because people believe something is true or beneficial in preparation for sport doesn’t make it true. Before buying in on a gadget, diet plan, or new workout, think through it, test it out, and ask a bunch of questions. Novelty is usually just novelty.
The Quantifying Trap (McNamara Fallacy)
This is related to point 3, but the emphasis is that a drive for quantification leads to an ignorance of the subtle qualities associated with progress. I have seen climbers that track what seems like everything, often with little to show for it except anxiety and a lot of time in front of a computer…time I think could be dedicated to better training. I know coaches who avoid programming anything that can’t be easily measured. Digits don’t make strong digits.
The Hedonic Treadmill
Nothing feels as good as we’d like for as long as we’d like. We all know that feeling, and it’s the worst.
These aren’t the only blunders. We’re easily fooled, easily distracted, and hard to teach. Progress in sport requires patience, curiosity, and honest feedback. The important point is this: you can progress if you are willing to let it happen and can get out of your own way.