Quick Fixes
We can admit it, we’ve all been there…
…..sitting on the toilet - or your throne of choice - mindlessly scrolling through Instagram. A gem emerges from the cacophony of memes and other kitchen swill, tempting you with a promise:
“Struggling with [insert fault here]? Do this!”
You feel SO SEEN! You’ll finally be able to fix that pesky early arm bend that you just know is holding you back.
Pardon my sarcasm. To be clear, I don’t have an issue with these tips in principle. I for one appreciate it when coaches and athletes share anything that has helped them.
But herein lies the issue…
I’ve talked to so many athletes that do this every. single. week. One day they want to work on early arm bend. The next day they it’s an early pull. The next day they are working on anterior shoulder saddle stability, whether they know what that means or not. It gets hard to get better because they’re spending a majority of their training sessions trying to master a complex. They never integrate the movement into their lift. This creates a tiring and de-motivating cycle:
Learn new thing
Practice new thing
Fall short of goal
Curse the gods
Look for new new thing
Well, given that you are likely reading on some throne or another, allow me to share some not-so-novel reminders that we share with our athletes.
1. You have to learn how to do “this”
Athletes that work with us will be familiar with the phrase: “There are no solutions, only tradeoffs.” Simply having access to tips from world-class athletes, coaches, and mentors is wonderful, but if don’t know when or how to apply the information, it’s all for naught. The biggest tradeoff with technique changes is that you’re no longer thinking about just doing a clean or a snatch or a jerk. You’re thinking about staying balanced, taking a breath, staying over the bar, whatever. Oh and you’re doing that all within 1 to 10 seconds depending on the lift. So the game really becomes learning how to minimize or eliminate that tradeoff by practicing it so much that you don’t think about it anymore. This brings me to my next point…
2. Change takes time
“How much time?” you ask. We see that it takes athletes around 12 weeks to improve a specific skill. Research backs that up. To put it differently, that generally means that you’ll be focusing on one, maybe two skills for an entire macrocycle. So much for the quick fixes, huh?
3. Getting better is so much simpler than a “quick fix”
All you have to do is practice your sport. You want to get better at basketball? Play basketball. You want to get better at football? Play football. You want to get better at weightlifting? Do weightlifting. Banded glute bridges might help you strengthen your glutes, hamstrings, and lower back. But do you know what will help you hit a heavy clean? Yup. You guessed it.
And remember, if you read this 10 times before every workout, you will be able to [insert goal here]!
Just kidding…but if you’re interested in working with us or having a little chat, feel free to contact us, buy a template, or sign up for coaching!