Earlier today, Donnie Thompson commented on one of Dave Tate’s recent blog posts, saying (and I’m paraphrasing here, so Donnie, correct me if I'm wrong): Hey, this is basic stuff. If you need to be spoon-fed because you can’t figure this shit out on your own, you’re missing a huge part of what it means to be a powerlifter.

Brandon Smitley replied (again, paraphrasing): Wait a minute. The basics are really important, and someone learning the basics from Dave-freaking-Tate is going to improve a heck of a lot faster than someone who tries to reinvent the wheel.

The cool thing is that they’re both right, and I think that Brandon and Donnie are getting at one of the huge conundrums underlying modern strength and conditioning coaching and training. Mastering the basics, obviously, is a prerequisite for success in any activity, and generally, you can learn a lot faster from a competent instructor than you can on your own. However – and this is especially true in the strength world – not all knowledge can be written out and put in a nice, neat format.

I explained why this is the case in another blog post (Broscience is More Than Just BS), so I’m not going to rehash it here. And I want to be clear that I lean towards Brandon’s side of the argument.

But Donnie makes a great point. It seems to me that more and more often, lifters want everything spelled out, written down, and tied up with a bow. They want to be given the right answer, and they’re convinced that there is a right answer, even to questions that are obviously very open-ended. Heck, just take a look at some of the (unsolicited) questions I’ve received on Instagram in the past 24 hours:

  • What would be your best advice or workouts to strengthen hips?
  • I’m still having issues with constant [elbow] pain… It’s frustrating as shit, but I want to know if I’m just being a big bitch and should push through the pain.
  • Love you man, no homo (this one actually isn’t a question)
  • When is it appropriate to wear a belt? I don’t really know when it’s absolutely necessary to wear it to prevent injury.

The answer to all of these, of course, is “it depends.” There’s no way for me, Donnie, Brandon, Dave, or anyone else to speak intelligently to issues like these that are highly individual – but, like Donnie said, people want to be spoon-fed instead of learning for themselves.

That sucks, because as Dave pointed out in another recent post, learning to coach yourself is the key to becoming a successful lifter. No one knows you better than you, so if you’re looking to be spoon-fed answers, not only are you going to receive subpar advice, but ultimately, you’re also holding yourself back.

Again, I want to be clear that there’s a huge difference between wanting to be spoon-fed and being eager and willing to learn. One is laziness; the other is the exact opposite. In my opinion? At the end of the day, it all comes down to how hard and how smart you’re willing to work.