500 Words a Week - Nobody knows the answer, everyone is guessing

I’ll expand, nobody knows the answer, everyone is guessing but some people have better and more educated guesses than others. Think of the many types of periodization or planning strategies you learn about throughout university or in your own time, at some level they all achieved results. An issue with how we learn in school (maybe at university also) is that we first receive the lesson, and then have the test. In real world situations, this is the inverse, we have the test and then receive the lesson. It’s probably clear from that statement that I have been reading a lot of Nassim Taleb recently.

When we are thrown out into the world and face our first test without anyone giving us the lesson or answer before it, we panic. Imposter syndrome or paralysis by analysis is an issue I feel many of us as coaches face, it’s something I struggle with. By switching my thought processes from always trying to have everything perfect to accepting good enough, this has helped. What also helped was knowing many other coaches experienced these same feelings, we are all in this together.

How I learn best with S&C is by doing, implementing different modalities and figuring out what works. However, you have to have a clear gauge to figure out how you decide if what you’re doing works or not. For me, that is measuring what matters every week, within football, I believe speed and power are king, therefore every week we are tracking these.

This also goes in-line with another of Nassim Taleb’s thought’s on developing skin in the game - “One should say whatever he wants, but one’s portfolio needs to line up with it”.

I bring this up for two main reasons. First, as an S&C coach whatever you preach, back it up with what you actually do with your athletes. Speak from your actual experience, not hypotheticals. There are too many pretenders in this field. Second, it has become a common theme for coaches to slander academics and discuss how these people have no skin in the game. I recently got a paper published, this took me about 3 years altogether and was not an easy process. For those who argue about academics not helping the field, I encourage them to try and write or research while coaching full time and see how they get on with it.

To conclude, I’m not sure who said it but I remember the saying that “80% of S&C is understanding what not to do”, sure some of this understanding comes from our peers or teachers but the majority comes from trying different modalities on yourself and your athletes. However, while I am encouraging you to be liberal in your experimentation of different modalities, I should state as long as no harm comes to you or your athletes. Making sure our athletes are fit, healthy and safe is our number one priority.