The best pro in the sport taught me wrong!

The best pro in the sport taught me wrong!

Often the best athletes in a sport don't make the best coaches. I was reading the book Blink the other day and it talked about Andre Aggassi's advice on how he puts so much top spin on the ball. When explaining it to his coach and other coaches he stated that by turning his wrist over as he hit the ball it gave him the top spin. Well the coaches believed this (after all Andre was one of the best players in the world) and started teaching their students this. Well, an interesting thing happened, there was a huge ride in wrist injuries amoung young tennis players. After careful motion analysis the coaches saw that Andre's wrist never moved, the "top the ball motion" was actually generated at his shoulder not his wrist.

Reading this reminded me of all the movements in riding that I now explain quite differently than I did 5-10 years ago. The skill hasn't changed but after years of study I realized that I was often explaining the outcome of doing it correctly but not the actual fundamental skill. Effective coaching involves breaking skills down and being able to explain them to a diverse group of people. One of the best aspects of my job is after 20 years of coaching I am still learning how to explain skills better. The learning of skills continues too, after 11 years of coaching mountain biking I am still learning a lot of little details on how to do skills better/easier/with less effort.

The moral of the story, don't believe everything you hear, even it comes from an "expert".

The Consumption of Happiness

The Consumption of Happiness, Consume, consume, consume

Hey, as cyclists we are better than those crazed consumers who spend every nickel they make on something new to keep up with their neighbors. I wish this was true but I have never seen a sport so obsessed with the latest gadget that impresses your friends but does nothing to improve your riding. Things will not make you a better rider and things will not make you happy either. Sure, "things" can really pick up your mood for a day, week or even a month but then you realize nothing has changed and you return to the same level you were before the new "thing". Then you sink lower and the cycle repeats, buy something, feel good, realize that it wasn't the life changing thing you thought it was going to be, get upset that you spent so much money on a disappointing item and then look for something new to do what this thing couldn't. I am not advocating being a monk with no possessions but a bed roll and a bowl, just realizing that "things" don't make you happy, you make you happy.

Happiness and skill are very closely related, both are results not "things" that you can own or possess. People are too busy searching for happiness and/or that part/bike/wheelset that is going to make them better. I am here to say that "happiness" and "skills" are a state of being not a destination. They both require constant upkeep, change and growth to maintain them. So start the new year by investing your time, money and energy on growing in ways that will lead to living a happy and fulfilling life, not the latest possession that makes you the coolest one on the block (for a week or two until somebody gets a new/cooler gadget).

Create a great new year,

Gene