The zone

I am a lucky man. I am part of an organization that is proving to be an amazing learning experience.

In order to truly learn, you have to be taken outside your comfort zone. This is certainly true in may case since I started at the Center of Excellence for Sport Science and Coach Education, and took the big step to study for my PhD.

My previous comfort zone:

• Working with soccer athletes & coaches that had limited scientific understanding (and thus unlikely to challenge certain points)
• Quasi-scientific monitoring of training

Now however the atmosphere here at East Tennessee State University demands more:

• There are undergrads in the program that have more lab experience than me
• Everything is analyzed, and challenged
• Evidence has to underpin what we do
• My professors use me as a check on class understanding (as in if I understand it - everyone else will)

As the diagram suggests - the learning zone exists outside the comfort zone. However, if you get stretched too far from familiarity, it is easy to become overwhelmed, or may even get defensive about what you don't know (panic zone). In the past 6 months, I have experienced both. In this situation, you have to hold your hand up and acknowledge your weaknesses and realize that you cannot accomplish the world overnight. Instead little steps, or forays into the learning zone are needed.

Your athletes also need to be pushed outside what is comfortable for them. This is a key part of the overload principle. It does not mean, however, that everything should be hard or very demanding - just that they need to be "stretched" the right amount, at the right time, and for the right reason.

Battling with Carlos Tevez last season. 

Outside AN's comfort zone? I think so!

I, like may of you reading this, may be more of an "applied guy" when it comes to training, yet science and fact should always drive what we do. Be (constructively) critical of what yourself and your colleagues do, and let the learning continue.