Hello everyone and thanks for tuning in to today’s blog! Today I am going to be talking about the Excel Training Model, a sub-model within the Excel Performance Model I created that focuses on the training aspects of performance.
Remember, the Excel Performance Model boils down to this, performance potential and individual performances are based on a combination of the Four Facets of Performance: Training, Mindset, Recovery, and Nutrition. In order for an athlete to reach their ultimate potential, they need to balance these four facets. It simply doesn’t matter how hard you train; if your body isn’t recovering, your mind is in a negative space, and you fuel your body with crap, you will never be able to reach your potential.
As a reminder, here are the Four Facets of Performance and the Four Factors they get broken into, today we will be focusing on Training:
Training: Power, Technique, Coordination, Metabolic Conditioning
Mindset: Motivation, Attention, Emotion, Confidence
Recovery: Mind, Body, Sleep, Fuel
Nutrition: Fats, Carbs, Proteins, Hydration
To increase skill level in each facet, the athlete must learn how to properly balance each factor within that specific facet. In previous blogs I talked about an athlete’s Graph-X, a visual representation of performance potential by individually assessing each skill within the Performance Model. The same procedure is used within each facet. An empty Training graph is depicted below. Again, this graph shows performance potential as well as strengths and weaknesses.
The size of the graph correlates with the amount of potential the athlete has, while the shape correlates with their strengths and weaknesses. For instance, the athlete that favors Power is referred to as “The Thrasher.” Strong, but technique and coordination are lacking. They’ll often swim the 50 free and die after anything longer than that. A swimmer that favors Technique is referred to as “The Dancer.” Most beautiful stroke you’ve ever seen, no splashes, perfect pull pattern, but lacks any sort of strength and speed. Then we have “The Energizer Bunny,” no power, no technique, but Conditioned so their heart never dies. This is your high-tempo distance swimmer that looks like a learn-to-swimmer but just keeps on cooking! Lastly, “The Syncro Swimmer.” Their Coordination between their upper and lower body is perfect, turns are great, start and underwaters are phenomenal, but they lack pull patterns, power, and aerobic conditioning. Below you will find example graphs of each of these athletes.
Obviously, there can be a combination of these types of swimmers. There are athletes that favor a single skill, a couple skills either adjacent or opposite, three skills, or all four skills. Examples of these graphs are shown below.
But now I want to focus on the main topic within this blog, showing how working on weaknesses increases your overall potential more than continuing to focus on strengths. Below you will see a picture of two graphs. Each graph is the same athlete, meaning their Graph-X is the same (the white shape marked as 33 units squared, that is the size of their graph which correlates to their potential). This athlete seems to be strong in the Metabolic Conditioning factor, but equally poor in the other three factors.
The first graph, the one with the red background, shows the performance potential increase if the athlete increases their Metabolic Conditioning by one unit. This increases their performance potential from 33 units to 36 units (again, the size of the shape dictates the athlete’s performance potential). On the other hand, if the athlete increases their Coordination by one unit (depicted by the green graph), their overall performance potential increases from 33 units to 38.5 units. The difference between these options is 2.5 units of potential after working on a weakness versus a strength (in this specific scenario).
Not to mention, it takes more time and effort to increase skill level in something you’re already great at versus something you’re not as good at. To understand this, look at the above graph and simply look at how long the lines are to generate the new graph shape. The longer the lines, the more difficult it is to improve that factor. It’s easy to see that the two new lines in the red graph are longer than the two new lines in the green graph. I can dive into this theory more in another blog.
This same theory applies to the Graph-X within the Excel Performance Model and each corresponding Factor Models (Training, Mindset, Recovery, and Nutrition). While working weaknesses can be frustrating and difficult, the benefits clearly outweigh the cost. Figure out your own athlete Graph-X in each category and identify your weaknesses so you can start to Exceed Your Potential!
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