Yesterday in three different situations I saw the nonsense of training.
Randomly putting together a series of exercises with no connection to each other and inappropriate for the athlete and calling it functional training is nonsense.
Stupidly trying to imitate sport movements, in this case swimming, outside the realm of the sport is nonsense. By trying to do that you are not preparing for the stress of the sport you are adding to the stress increasing possibility of injury. That is why you train for the sport.
Making everyone do Olympic lifts with the bar is nonsense. Use the Olympic lifting movements and find an appropriate mode (dumbbell, kettlebell, sandbag) that fit the athletes.
It is discouraging to continue to see this kind of nonsense when we should know better. Sometimes I think it is just laziness on the part of the people implementing these things, I hesitate to call them coaches, to think and analyze, to take the time to get to know the athletes and the sport to train appropriately.
Wise words from Bob Marley?s Redemption Song are particularly appropriate:
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
‘Cause none of them can stop the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look? Ooh!
Some say it’s just a part of it:
We’ve got to fulfil de book.
Just because everyone does it does make it correct. Free your mind, break out, dare to think differently and above keep learning!