Ever had a very structured training plan that you were almost certain would come together, but when you did the competition or the qualifier, it didn’t go as well as you’d hoped?

Relying on very structured approaches of preparation for CrossFit is a standard failure mode we find in the sport, coming from athletes and coaches that are pretty analytical.

The problem with this approach is that it can mean you lose a connection to the real world and the sport and not be exposed sufficiently to the challenges you’ll come across in the sport.

In this week’s episode of the Legion Strength and Conditioning podcast, Todd tells a story where he was reviewing the training of someone from his university who wanted to do parkour…but there was no parkour in his training. Todd has since helped out this parkour enthusiast, suggesting that you can’t Stairmaster your way into doing back flips off of a wall and that he needed to do the actual thing.

Listen to hear more of our examples of how people lose their connection to the sport and how we should approach our plans, being more adaptable and learning to fail fast.

Listen Here:

Show Notes:

  • [1:20] Todd’s story
  • [4:45] Over analysing and over-planning failure mode
  • [5:30] Similar failure mode with training for CrossFit
  • [6:20] Rigid and structured approaches versus a managing the chaos approach
  • [8:30] Creating false barriers and prerequisites in the plan
  • [9:20] Building the skill of competing
  • [12:15] Losing connection to competition and the sport
  • [13:50] The importance of failing fast
  • [15:00] How to adjust plans quickly
  • [16:20] Everyone learns at different speeds
  • [19:30] Messy skill learning processes
  • [21:45] Learning through iterative trial and error
  • [23:30] Preparing someone for competition with lots of exposure to the sport

The book Luke mentioned:
How We Learn to Move: A Revolution in the Way We Coach & Practice Sports Skills – Rob Gray