“What If My Coach Makes Me Worse?” | Part 2 (Movement & Skill Advice)
Gollum, is that you?
In part one, I mentioned a few myths, discussed process and results-based strategies, and showed you how little time you have to waste.
Now that you’re here, either you realize your coach makes you worse, or you want to see what else you can do to maximize your career. Whatever it is, you want to create a better situation for yourself and take responsibility for your future. Fantastic.
So, what can you do?
Before we get started, a PSA: Treat your coaches kindly, the ones who deserve it at least. Most of them are trying their best, and have the right intentions, but don’t know what they don’t know. Us coaches face similar problems as you; it’s hard to know who to trust. There are a lot of great marketers selling compelling and awful ideas to us, and research is often so diabolically difficult to digest that it can leave us more confused than enlightened.
It’s supremely challenging for me to give advice that applies to all of you, but I have a handful of essentials to share. In this post, I’ve organized ideas based on movement, skill, and time of year.
What I’ve included below is not an exhaustive list, but it’s a good start, and only one costs money. I kept this list as simple as possible because so many of you are nearing your limit of energy expenditure. Beneath the table are a few elaborations for the points that require it. Let’s get to it, shall we?
The One Thing To Rule Them All
It’s easy to look at this list and want to add many or all of the items because our culture makes you feel like you’re never doing enough. Now, some of you do need to learn the value of hard work, but I’d bet most of you don’t. You have a different skill to learn.
There’s one item that will work for all of you: subtraction. Remove the unessential. Find the fluff and exercise it out of your life. You might stop stretching and foam rolling. You might try squatting with weight through your whole foot instead of just your heels (hint). You might stop bracing your core (hint). You might train one less day per week. You might only do three sets of squats because five leaves you limping. You might stop doing your clamshells and monster walks because you’re unsure of their efficacy. If you’re unsure about something, remove it for two weeks and see what happens. (The world will not end.)
Listen, you have a finite amount of time and energy to use in a perilously short career to do the heroic things you imagine. So invest your time and your energy into things that actually pay off.
If you’re going to try any of these things, I have some rules:
No pain.
For the deep squat, accumulate tolerable intervals until you total five to ten minutes. Do not just sit there for ten minutes straight unless it's easy for you. Try to keep your knees and feet pointing in the same direction. Ideally, forward. Yes, you can hold onto something for balance. Yes, your heels can be off the ground, but eventually, I want them down.
Hanging: accumulate tolerable intervals until you total three to five minutes. Progress to one hand if it gets easy. Oh, and try to keep your hand fully wrapped around the bar—that means your pinky and ring fingers.
The younger you are, the more beneficial it is for you to play other games throughout the year. They don’t have to be in leagues or have coaches. I’d rather you play pick-up and made-up games with your friends and zero coaches. Take a sport you already know and change one rule, or seven, every time you play.
Movement
Notes For Climbing And Hanging:
If your skin hurts, stop. It’s a warning sign, not a badge of honor. Don’t tear a tendon or your hand open because you listened to too many David Goggins interviews. You need your skin intact to keep training. Keep the big picture in mind.
Watch Video Of Yourself:
I know it may be odd to watch yourself walk, squat, jump, or do pull-ups, but it’s one of the most effective ways to improve your self-awareness.
First, just stare at yourself without any intention or expectations. Watch the video several times. See what you notice.
Start to look for asymmetries and oddities. What shapes does your body make, spine, core, etc.? How would you draw a stick figure of yourself? Are you equally weighing your feet or your hands? Do any body parts stand out?
Scrub a few frames back and forth at different speeds. What do you notice? (Example below.)
Initially, you may not notice anything. But eventually, you’ll start to notice details and build your awareness. Awareness alone can improve how you move. I’ve been watching myself this way for over a decade, and I’m still learning things about myself.
Every off-season, Wes Schweitzer learns a new movement-based skill. It started with rock climbing, which became a mild obsession. Then it was several breakdancing moves. Then handstands (at 6’4’’ and 335 lbs). This offseason, he’s learning the mushroom. No, not that kind of mushroom. The gymnastic kind. That link will explain.
Skills
You can get a lot out of ten minutes before or after practice, the moments between drills, or generally whenever your coach isn’t telling you what to do.
Here’s how a Cubs minor league pitcher, Hunter Bigge, has applied my advice. He told me about a game he made up, “Me and a teammate stand 75-90 feet apart. One of us holds up his glove and if you hit it, you get a point. First to 11 wins. However, you can’t throw normally. You have to throw with weird mechanics or close your eyes, or one eye, or get dizzy, or something.” The novelty and mistakes generated from this kind of practice are wonderful stimuli to make them learn. The principles Hunter applied are more important than the drill itself. You can do something similar.
Surely you know what skills and movements are hard for you; explore them. Learn that pistol squat. Figure out that slider. Hit a two-handed backhand instead of your usual one-handed. Try that hanging stuff I keep telling you to do. Impersonate how teammates, coaches, and role models walk, run, or play. (Accurate impersonation actually requires a ton of skill.) Tinker with your strengths in creative ways. Try different techniques and strategies like you’d try on clothes. See how they fit.
If you’re going to try to learn something new, dear god do not look up a YouTube tutorial or look for any instructions. You can do this, whatever it is, without any coaching. Figure it out yourself, at least for the first several weeks. Watch someone else do it and try to imitate him. Do it in your backyard and with friends. You’ll learn so much more. Hey, if you make enough mistakes, you might invent something no one’s ever seen before. Something they’ll eventually name after you and make a YouTube tutorial that swindles other athletes out of such masterful lessons of autonomy, agency, and invention.
Whatever you choose, these endeavors will cause you to become more aware and generate mistakes, which are the goals because they lead to learning.
Taking responsibility for your movement and skills under the watchful eyes of your coach can be a game in itself. See what you can get away with in your skill and movement sessions. Start a creative rebellion. Put on the purple and green uniform of your favorite lovable villain and scheme to advance your skills and athleticism. Be the devilish little trickster who deviates from the norms and upsets the established order just to see what happens. See how observant your coach really is… Whether he curiously joins or chastises you tells you much about his quality and character.
As I said, it’s hard to give specific advice that applies to each of you. But I can deliver principles. In part one, I mentioned results-based and process-based strategies. From that perspective, the creativity and ensuring variability I just described will help you search for and find positive results. Deep squatting, hanging, hiking, and climbing are sound processes humans evolved to do. These things aren’t panaceas, but I’ve found them to be effective means to help you solve the two problems of sports: reduce your risk of injury and improve your skills.
I wrote part three for those who can spend a little money, but it’s still an essential read for everyone, especially parents. It will help you further evaluate your coaches. You won’t wanna miss it.
—AE
- As a reminder, the next online course starts in four weeks and prices increase on March 14th. (Payment plans are available.)