One of my favorite books, The Wealthy Gardener, touched on this concept in the last chapter I read. And it reminded me of how we approached defensive concepts in college football.
We obviously used the score as the ultimate decider in terms of how we played as a team. But when it came to our defensive unit, we used statistics...
- 3 or less (how many times did we give up more than three yards on first down)
- 3rd down conversions (how many third downs did they convert to first downs)
- Under 100 (giving up fewer than 100 rushing yards)
- Red Zone Defense (holding them to a field goal in the red zone vs giving up a touchdown)
- TFLs (tackle for loss)
- Scoring Defense (did we score on defense??)
- Etc. There were a few more, but these were some of the most notable and typically most important factors.
Similarly, the book talked about a time where the author was coaching a high school basketball team. And he made the mistake of preaching 'hustle' and 'work hard' and soon found that his players were playing hard, but not producing wins. They had no focus. They were running around with no purpose.
And I could relate with how we approached each game after implanting this scoring system.
In my head it all made sense. You just broke down the game into smaller battles...
First down - Ok we have to hold them to less than three yards.
Second down - now we're in a position to dictate their play calls.
Third down - GET OFF THE FIELD!!
Fourth down - they punt, we win.
Repeat.
It was amazing how effective we became after breaking down the game, setting those expectations as a unit, and executing on them. So at the end of the day, wins and losses mattered, but even after a win, 'how did we do,' and 'where can we get better.' Because if you've never played college football, the team you play next week has the film, and will spend hours each week to expose ANY POSSIBLE weakness that they see in your game plan or execution. It's really a beautiful and exciting chess match played with massive human bodies when you break it down that way.
What does this have to do with training?
Well, put simply, are you training hard or training effectively (i.e. to produce results).
Most of you reading this are probably not training hard enough, so start there. That doesn't mean kill yourself and crawl out of the gym on your hands and knees every session. But really, check yourself. Are you coasting at 70-80% effort every session, or are you cranking it up like you should be.
On the other hand, if you know you're training hard, but not seeing results, take a step back and set some metrics for yourself. Are you doing enough dumbbell work? And if so, are you going through the motions or are you setting up your weight/sets/reps so as to allow you to make progress week to week and month to month. Are you even doing the right dumbbell movements to address your weak points?
How about posterior chain? Are you targeting this properly? How about your technique here? Are you hitting your hamstrings properly on the GHR or really feeling it in your low back?
What about upper back? Are you really getting enough targeted volume in there? Do you do the same movements every week? Are you actually feeling it in your rear delts?
What I'm getting at is instead of piling on more, do less but be more effective doing it. Train with intent. Train with purpose. It reminds me of Dorian Yates. He used to train for 45 minutes, hit 3-4 exercise, with the last set of each being an absolute max. He was pretty good at what he did. Maybe be more like him? Seemed pretty effective.
