In all my writings I try to be as explicit as possible. I define each word that may have complex or unique meanings and explain terms that may be misleading or used differently in the literature. Clarity and understanding are two objectives I constantly strive for and for which I receive many compliments.
I expect this in all books that I read dealing with the training of an athlete. But I find it increasingly difficult to find such books. Many of the more popular — notice I did not say most informative or state of the art — seem to do just the opposite. They are written in such a way that the true meanings are well hidden.
They use words that everyone thinks they understand but in reality do not. The more they do not understand, the more they say it is a great book. This is analogous to a study done about 20 years ago to determine how much coaches got out of a particular talk. As they were leaving the auditorium they were asked for the key points brought out by the speaker.
Over 90% of the people could not answer the question but yet they all said it was a great talk and they enjoyed it immensely. Unbeknownst to them was that the speaker, who they said was from a foreign country so that his name would not be not be known to them, was in reality a comedian.
He was given or knew just enough information to talk as though he knew all about the sport and the training for the sport. The coaches really enjoyed the talk mainly because the speaker had them laughing most of the time as he talked mainly gibberish. However, the coaches thought that they understood and knew what he was talking about!
I recall this episode every time I read many of the statements made by coaches for coaches, players and sports fans. Sometimes the terms seem to perpetuate themselves as they are repeated time and time again with no one ever questioning them. I have mentioned some of these in the past on various blogs but it appears that they have a life of their own.
For example, in a few days ago I read about a professional baseball team coach talking about one of his young hitters. After bringing out how the young player was showing good improvement, he stated that his bat speed is improving and he is more aggressive in his hitting.
No measurements were done to measure bat speed so how can a coach say his bat speed is improving? Also, it is never brought out if he means bat speed through the contact phase, the entire swing, or the start of the swing or at the finish.
Does being more aggressive mean he now swings at any and all balls that come his way, or that he swings at the very first pitch, or perhaps has more weight shift and moves into the ball more? As you can see there are many scenarios here. Which one is it?
For more information on this topic read, Sports: Is It All BS?