We can all think of the standout athletes on our middle or high school teams. The kids who often won everything with ease. They were graced with speed, accuracy & strength. It was as if winning was in their DNA. If winning by too much was a crime they’d be criminals for sure. If you were doing the winning, good for you big kid.
Fast forward 10+ years & you get the everyday athlete. High school & college are well behind us & the rest of life unfolds. The big kid might be amongst the class participants but that’s just it. There are probably no trophies to be won, money to be handed out or prizes for first during the day’s training. The truest & even encouraging difference between you & them is coachability. Yes. We said it. Coachability. Here is what we mean & why being coachable is a huge asset with Ticker Training.
The first thing that comes to mind during Ticker Training is patience. This means to slow down for running, rowing, biking, essentially all of the movements. This characteristic, although not impossible to master, often gives cause for oober athletes to struggle. In this instance being coachable is being receptive to being told to simply, “slow down.” Pace out the air squats to 1 rep every 3, 4 or maybe even 5 seconds per rep. Slow? Most definitely. Necessary to improve long-term? Certainly.
The second aspect of coachability is loading or unloading the bar to an appropriate weight. This helps us in a variety of ways; the most obvious being with technique. If the bar is too heavy too soon we not only can run the risk of injury but perform the movement poorly over & over again.
Secondly, a bar that is loaded inappropriately can pull the heart-rate out of the desired zone too fast too soon. When trying to train all the metabolic pathways this can cause athletes to train the inappropriate system over & over again, leading to an overtrained/fatigued athlete. The body will then view the activity as overly stressful on a consistent basis, stunting progress at best, leading to injury at worse.
Simply put, being coachable is being humble enough to listen to your coach’s barbell loading recommendation.
A third recommendation for being coachable is cutting your rep scheme down…on purpose. This is where it’s important to recognize your skills as an athlete. If you have double unders that’s awesome. If you cannot do them aerobically, like yours truly, then you’ll want to cut the reps down for the time being. You would then add some back in & gauge what your heart-rate does. If you’re in the right zone, keep it up!!
Another rep scheme cut is assault bike calories. We know, you’re probably jumping for joy. This is typically an all out, or at least very challenging effort. Time & place right. If you are trying to do this activity aerobically you’ll need to slow down. In the event of higher calorie numbers, & not biking all day, we might cap the time you spend on the bike & move on to other pieces of the metcon. Most don’t fight us on it, but it entails being coachable & receptive to suggestions all the same.
Even though our training is a bit different we are thoroughly encouraged by the positive interactions we have with our athletes. Ticker Training has helped us develop a culture of coachability. Our people are humble, kind & receptive to feedback. What’s great is that our style of training is built for & encourages coaching athletes. No more yelling 3, 2, 1 Go & having everything fly out the window. Until next time, Ticker On Friends!
