Improving Mechanical Issues & Cueing LESS

I continue to see course footage where people are over-analyzing, over-cueing, and making things far more complex than they need to be. Simplicity does not sell.

There’s a fine line between continuing education and just ingesting any and every “new” thing. Remember the FMS? Remember FRC? Remember RPR? Notice how they all follow a similar path?

Enter –> huge social media buzz –> disappear –> new course

Looks like we are back to our love affair with feet and toes and anything else that hasn’t been touched on in a few years.

If you believe there is a mechanical issue affecting your athlete/client, what do you do?

Do you try to outsmart the nervous system and pinpoint the issue because you’re a terminator that can see inside people’s bodies and read with 100% accuracy? Or…

Do you have them perform the skill with a lesser intensity, which then allows for more volume/practice, which then advances motor skill development…

For example, let’s say someone struggles with max velocity mechanics. There’s many ways to go about this.

You can take the popular approach today, which would be to try and find something that is tight, “dysfunctional,” blah blah, and then do ridiculous exercises to “correct” it.

Or, what if you did

• Submaximal Running A’s focusing on head high & chest high, striking underneath center of mass, driving the knee up, finding rhythm, etc.

Of course you supplement this in the weight room with general training and strengthening of the prime movers associated with the movement. In the meantime, these drills groove mechanics and improve fitness. Often, it IS that SIMPLE.

Let the body solve complex movement patterns without you trying to steer the wheel all the time.

Movement occurs on the unconscious level. 

I’d be lying if I told you that I know how to solve all of these problems, because I don’t. Instead, I try to think logically and put people in positions where they can succeed AND fail, but understand why. They need to be part of this process. They need to know what feels right and what feels wrong.

I also recognize that I can’t force things and they will learn/adapt at their own pace. It’s like leading a horse to water. If that horse doesn’t want to move you can yank all you want, but you aren’t going anywhere. When it’s ready, then you can lead it…

Do you look back on how you used to coach and cringe?

If you don’t, you likely aren’t evolving. I definitely used to over-coach and over-cue. That’s because I thought there were right and wrong movements, rather than understanding the complexity of movement.

Chest up! Knees out! Blah Blah!

What’s optimal for me, might not be optimal for you. You have to be flexible.

It’s actually funny to see how much simpler my programming has become and how much better the results are. Less is more.

I’m really excited for the next time I speak/present at a seminar because I’ve been putting together content that hopefully will change the way people approach the training process…