Hi Martin,
“It always comes down to the quality of the work”
So often, when it comes to judging the efficacy of something, we focus only on what the thing is, and not the quality of the thing.
Let’s take sprinting, for example.
More and more in team sports, there is an appreciation of not only the performance benefits that are deceived from sprinting, but also the positive effect it may have in keeping players healthy.
This theory has spawned a catchy heuristic:
“Sprinting is a vaccine”
This has been used throughout elite sport now to justify a certain volume of sprinting per week — to the point where performance staffs often prescribe ‘top-up’ sprints for players who haven’t met the threshold of sprinting volume.
I have a ton of problems with this — including the fact that coaches often base important training decisions on a somewhat arbitrary ‘absolute’ velocity that is considered ‘sprinting’ in many sports [which is almost never actually ‘sprinting’ — but that’s another topic for another day], and — perhaps more-importantly — the fact that an individual player is not the average of the whole team! Each player is unique, with unique capacities, and unique load-adaptation relationships.
I could go on, but what I’m here today to talk about is QUALITY.
Sprinting MAY be a vaccine for some.
But what if you are a terrible sprinter?
What if your sprint mechanics are such that you are placing a ton of undue mechanical stress on tissues that are not in the appropriate position to handle it?
Your vaccine is now a poison.
So, while the ‘sprinting as a vaccine’ heuristic may be an important one, I’ve got another one for you that may trump it:
“Don’t add load to a bad pattern”
[and yes — I understand there is a lot of nuance in that statement. I’ll unpack it in coming weeks]
Thanks for reading. Have a great rest of your week.
Stu
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P.S. Whenever you’re ready here are two more ways we can help you:
1. Starting next Wednesday at 2PM Eastern, we will be hosting ‘Office Hours’ — your opportunity to ask me anything. I’ll do my best to answer your questions, and help you solve your most-pressing problems. —>You can register here for free.
2. We had an awesome response to our first Pocket Guide — with over 250 people so far picking up Stop Dragging Your Toes: a pocket guide to initial acceleration. Did you catch it? If you teach acceleration, I think you’ll find it valuable. It clears up a ton of confusion around heel recovery height, step length and frequency, and individualization.
Maybe the best thing about it?
You can get through it in an afternoon! So you won’t have to wait weeks to apply your learning. —>Check it out now
PPS: Dan and I are trialling a new more concise format in our emails this week. What did you think? Drop me an email if you have time, and let me know. 
