Yeah I went all fancy with the title for this blog. I often say to coaches and athletes alike that they need to be able to recognize the difference between improving in their sport/event and simply just maturing. What I mean by that will be the overall thesis of this post, of which I could go on for pages and pages but House M.D. is on and I've never seen this episode so I will keep it brief.
One of the main goals of a coach is to help each athlete reach his/her individual potential. Now, potential can be a very broad and general term. For me, potential is an all encompassing word that means their potential as an athlete. This potential will include basic athleticism (depending on their sport that could include strength, power, endurance, flexibility etc) as well as their technical potential for their individual sport and also their specific intelligence in the aforementioned sport. When you really think about all of that, it's quite a bit. For example, if I am coaching a jumper (pick a jump, any jump at all) that means not only do they need to reach their individual level of technical mastery, but also improve in all of the areas of athleticism and conditioning that pertain to that event. This way of training can take years and at first improvements may come slowly (and in some cases performances may take a step backwards initially), but once everything falls into place those improvements begin to accelerate and become more frequent in nature. This, to me, is the definition of "improvement". It's a very beautiful thing.
Maturation is what occurs simply by getting older and more experienced. The best metaphor I have is a basketball player with an awful jump-shot (let's call him Craigg Smit). If he continues to utilize his full body heave beyond the arc on a daily basis, his shooting percentage will increase. He will become more used to his unorthodox style and over time, it will work better than when he started. He did not "improve", his statistics simply got better. This is what I refer to as "maturation". The problem occurs when coaches and athletes mistakenly think that maturing is equal to improvement. Is there anything "wrong" with maturation? No, not at all. In fact, it happens in conjunction with improvement. Along with improvements in technique and athleticism, maturation will add even more. However, without improvement there will be a diminishing return on performance. So how does this all come into play with long term development in this day and age? Well, there's good news and bad news...
Unfortunately, our society has gone competition crazy. There is an overemphasis on competition and long term athletic development has taken a back-seat. Improvements alone aren't the only thing suffering as a result. A lack of proper development has lead to an increase of injuries due to poor deceleration technique, landing mechanics, bad quad to posterior chain strength ratio, etc etc. With an overemphasis on competition, maturation is becoming misconstrued as improvement more and more. A coach or athlete will see an increased statistic or performance and immediately think an improvement took place and assume, wrongly,that their training was sound. From there it continues until the athlete finishes their sports career never truly reaching their full potential, and potentially having a few serious injuries along the way. OK that was a bit of a downer...so what do we do?
Well, from my position, I receive athletes later on in their careers, once they are becoming adults. Many coaches in my position fall back on the old tired platitudes of "it's too late at this point, let's work with what we've got, can't teach an old dog new tricks". These cliches say more about the coach than they do the athlete. With a systematic approach and proper planning and programming the athlete can still improve. Will they improve as much as they would have if the process had began in their youth? Well no, but as coaches I feel we have a duty to the athlete to make sure they are on the path to reach their potential in whatever current state they are in when you receive them. So to the coaches an athletes out there, recognize if your performance increase is due to improvement or maturation, and if it is the latter, come up with a plan to take the next step in your athletic development. Set up a plan with a few things in mind...
1. The plan is based on evidence
2. Are practices geared toward development over a period of time in a number of areas...
a. General Prep
b. Training
c. Competition
d. Recovery
3. Is the plan systematic with both long term and short term development in mind
4. What is the ultimate end result.
Every coach can't be an expert, and specifics in training will vary based on philosophy as well as limitations that each athlete and coach face. However, each coach owes it to their athlete(s) to take the time and consideration to plan for their overall long-term development. And now, I have to go, Dr. House just said something witty and I missed it.
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