Principles vs. Practice

I've said before how lucky I was to learn from one of the best in the business, Lee Taft, to help put me on the right path in this industry, and I'm going to do it again here. One of the many nuggets that have stuck with me is his insistence on teaching principles as opposed to giving a big list of drills and just saying "Go". Learning why and when to work on certain skills has made me a much better coach. I can watch someone perform a drill, and decide if I like it by thinking back to the principles that need to go along with it.

Along these lines, we used to learn to program skills, and not drills. We would decide what skill we wanted to work on that day (so an example may be lateral hip strength) and then we would pick a drill in that category that would fit the athletes. We might have 3 or 4 skills planned, and then we would go to strength. It's a very effective system that I still use and will until the end of my career. I can do this because I learned the Principles first, which transcend time. No matter what changes happen in the future of training, the principles I learned will always be true.

This isn't only true with my field though, it's true in life. One of the most influential books that I have read is 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. He talks about Principles vs. Practice. Essentially, you can't tell someone exactly what to do, have them do it, and consider it "right". Decisions have to made based on sound principles to guarantee success and happiness.

Read it!

If we are taught principles correctly, that sticks with us forever. If we are taught practices we only know what to do in very specific situations. This reminds me of a pretty boring job I had where I was in front of a computer for 7 hours a day with not a lot to do besdies read. I actually taught myself how to solve a rubik's cube (yes, it was that boring) by memorizing algorithms that I found on a website. I drilled these algorithms until I had them memorized, and I could solve a cube in maybe 5 minutes consistently. Only problem was I never really learned the principles that go along with it, so now I would have no chance to finish one.

Back to training...Do you teach your athletes principles (or for that matter train yourself based on them)? I try to make my athletes think through the why's and how's of the drills and exercises we do, so I can be comfortable with them when they are on their own.

What principles do you live and train by? If you can't answer this it's time to sit down and think about it!

Jon

P.S. Anybody going to watch history on Saturday? Rachel Alexandra at the Spa!