I just
bought a book (quite expensive I might add) by one of the current guru’s
because I am always trying to learn and increase my knowledge base and it was
highly recommended by a young coach. It was full of marketing, buzzwords, pseudoscience
and general mumbo jumbo. Yet this is one of the current bibles that many young
coaches are going to. Why? Think critically. Know your science, know your
practice, understand and apply sound training principles. Make sure before you
follow someone that there really a there there? Beware of intellect incest, the
phenomenon of passing ideas within the same group without any critical analysis.
Think!
3 Comments
Joe
unless you are willing to name names, blogs like this (though fairly common in the field) add very little to the conversation.
Gjält
Few questions. Which book? In who’s opinion is he/she a guru? How do you know ‘many’ young coaches use this book (which you bought as well by the way, so buying it doesn’t mean considering what the book says as truth)?
Agree you always have to be critical, know how the knowledge was discovered (eg passive 40+ adults vs elite athletes, own experience vs scientific research etc.), the context to apply things to and such things.
MrK
I must agree with the two previous posts. The manner in which you wrote your commentary makes it sound more of an angry rant rather than a useful piece of writing that your readers can learn from.
Even if you did not want to say what the title of the book was, maybe you could have mentioned one training principle that the author promotes. Then,you could comment on whether you disagreed or agreed with the author’s approach and why or why not. That would have been more educational for me, and it would ACTUALLY encourage more thought and analysis of my own programming.