Too Busy To Learn?

A few weeks ago I gave a free talk at Nytro here in San Diego, on swimming. This is a very well attended talk I give, and I always get great feedback from attendees on it. I have really worked hard to modify it and make it a great learning session for athletes. So many athletes don't know and understand the actual concept of swimming, and what they're supposed to accomplish. Many just think it's all about throwing one arm in front of the other. This is why the talk is called, "Learning and Understanding the 3 Most Important Technical Aspects of Swimming".

As per usual, I asked for RSVP's to the event, since we serve food, have chairs we need to prepare for the people, and more. One RSVP response was rather interesting, and went something like this:

"I have to get to a swim practice at the pool, and would need to leave early. Would it be worth attending for the early part of it?"

I have no intention of embarrassing this person, (don't even remember who the person was), but this email really clicked in my head, and got me to see the real problem. Let me explain...

This person clearly felt a need to get help with their swimming and to understand it better, but was worried that one swim practice session was more important than actually learning about swimming conceptually. This is the real problem with athletes and training in general, not just swimming. Most athletes are too busy trying to figure out how to train to actually stop and LEARN HOW TO TRAIN.

So ask yourself, "Have I stopped and tried to figure out what I should be doing, or am I just doing things blindly? Am I maximizing all the work, time and energy I'm putting in, by doing things correctly?"

Imagine if we applied the "Too busy to learn" thinking and methodology to our jobs and daily lives. What would your life look like if you took this approach? Is that what you want for your training and performances?

Coach Vance