The issue with microdosing and tech-driven coaching at the developmental levels...

There's this weird paradox happening with young athletes where we don't want training to produce fatigue but we also want them to develop resilience.

I don't know about you, but I'm fairly certain resilience isn't developed without periods of significant imposed stressors that occasionally induce fatigue.

To me, it appears that many coaches don't ever want young athletes to approach their limits, whether that's in maximal strength, volume of a speed development session, or a hard work capacity session.

The issue with this approach is that it's antithetical to what training actually is. Training is about imposing demands that at times approach or (god forbid!!) exceed the demands of the sport. These are specific, not random, imposed demands to elicit specific, not random, adaptations.

If we don't ever impose this level of stress on our athletes, the likelihood that they can perform at a repeatedly high level in competition is not as high as it could be (but still not zero because ultimately skill trumps all).

However, if we're constantly allowing athletes to either a) self-report fatigue or b) relying on timing gates or a VBT device to tell us when an athlete has met a certain criteria for training that day, we're potentially (and almost certainly) UNDER-TRAINING THEM.

And we sure as shit aren't developing the kind of resilience and process-orientation that we so religiously preach...

Resilience (physical or psychological) is about teaching athletes where their limits actually are, occasionally asking them to try and exceed those limits, knowing that they might not be able to, but still actively coaching them in that pursuit. And in this process, establishing new limits (physical or psychological).

The research on resilience, mental toughness and self-determination is clear: young athletes need challenges to their skills to develop confidence through competence; they need to go through the challenges with their teammates or peers to facilitate connection through shared suffering, and they need autonomy through being given the knowledge that they alone control their effort.

There isn’t a timing gate or VBT company, training dashboard or GPS sensor that can facilitate these things. Only highly skilled, highly informed, highly adaptable coaches can facilitate these things.

And I know everyone who reads this newsletter checks all those boxes so don’t fall prey to the quick fixes, shortcuts and hacks being parroted on social media and instead give your young athletes what they actually need.