This blog post by Scott Berkun really got me thinking. He identifies two kinds of people complexifiers and simplifiers.
Complexifiers are averse to reduction. Their instincts are to turn simple assignments into quagmires, and to reject simple ideas until they’re buried (or asphyxiated) in layers of abstraction. Simplifiers thrive on concision. They look for the 6x=6y in the world, and happily turn it into x=y. They never let their ego get in the way of the short path. When you give them seemingly complicated tasks they simplify, consolidate and re-interpret on instinct, naturally seeking the simplest way to achieve what needs to be done. They find ways to communicate complex ideas in simple terms without losing the idea’s essence or power.
This lost generation of twenty and thirty something “strength” coach are complexifiers. It seems they want to make movement and training mysterious and complex. Don’t they realize that man has been running jumping and throwing for thousands of years? The simplicity of movement is what makes it complex. Learn and know the simple and the complex will happen. You don’t learn this is class or in a textbook, you learn from the people who have lived this for a long time. Get outside the weight room, watch the athletes move in their sport and then train them for what they are doing in their sport. Hint: if they have to move someone or a heavy object they should spend more time in the weight room, if not less time. Also don’t forget dumbbells are very smart, they accommodate to the body, bars do not. Give them strength they can use, don’t abuse them. Be a simplfier!