Are you getting better? What makes you better?
I believe the biggest mistake that athetes make is working on things that they are already good at. What they should be doing is working on their weaknesses. That is the only way that the weaknesses will ever go away. It’s often very difficult to try to fix things that we are not good at. It definitely takes more work.
When I was a gymnast as a child, I loved to work on balance beam. I was really good at beam. It was fun and I did not have to put the same amount of effort for beam as I did on the other events, especially bars. The uneven bars were the toughest for me. I struggled daily on skill developement on bars. Every chance I got, I would practice my beam skills. I got better and better on beam. On bars, I stayed the same. I never made the improvements on bars that I made on beam. I didn’t work my weakness enough. This truly is my greatest regret of gymnastics.
Do you avoid your weaknesses to work on your strengths? Are you really getting better?
Be Stronger2day!
2 comments
Al says:
May 24, 2012 at 10:02 am (UTC -5 )
Thanks for your coaching yesterday. MADE ALL THE DIFF IN THE WORLD ON THE T2B!
I continue to make the same mistakes re power cleans. Found this advice online:
Common Power Clean Errors. Chest up, shoulder-blades back & down, weight on heels, looking forward & engaging your hips will fix most Power Clean errors. Other things you can do wrong:
Pulling with the Arms. Your traps & upper-back pull the weight, not your arms. Use the hook grip and relax your forearms.
Low Elbows. Focus on throwing your elbows higher. Do lots of Front Squats to learn the Rack Position. Stretch your wrists & triceps.
Pulling Back. Power Clean by throwing your hips forward, not by pulling with your lower back. Use your glutes. Do glute activation exercises.
Falling Forward. Keep the weight on your heels and the bar in contact with your legs. Pull once the bar reaches mid-thigh level. Try to touch your chest on the way up.
I really think all of these are in my “wrongway” kitbag. I need to reduce the weight, get the form perfect and then re-add weight. I’m trying to add weight, and when I get to the failure because of wrong form, I don’t fix it. Thus, when I use a lighter weight, I’m STILL using my forearms (but don’t fail, and don’t recognize that I’m doing it wrong, either). Starting now, I’m going to. I think that before I do cleans, I will do a number of squats, so that I activate my hips and stretch out my wrists, and keep my elbows up. The advice above on “throwing your hips forward” really made sense. I have been treating cleans like squats, and trying to throw myself backward. Also, I might improve by “jumping it up” (like a wallball) — that concept helps me do things more explosively. The last two cleans yesterday were “jumped up” and I found them easier, probably because my movement WAS more explosive.
Rise says:
May 24, 2012 at 4:34 pm (UTC -5 )
Your assessment of yourself is correct. It takes a true desire to get better to do the things you want to do. I think we all get “wrapped up” in the weight sometimes and forget that perfect technique is how we will become efficient and eventually, after much practice, become strong enough with our technique to really get better. I am inspired by your constant effort to be better. I will try to help you reach your goals in any way I can. You always impress me with your work ethic too! This is more than a destination; it is a journey. Sometimes you need to take the road less traveled. You really need to allow the magic of crossfit to happen.