Lessons Learned from Beijing: Less Is More

Ashton Eaton’s tremendous world record performance in the Decathlon just underscores how important that less is more. Less is more is almost a mantra for he and his coach Harry Marra. They live it every day! Seldom are any of their workouts over one hour. The workouts are on point and focused, no fluff, no nice to do fillers that make you tired and add undue training stress. It reminds me of one of my simple training rules – No one workout can make an athlete but one workout that is too much too soon can spell disaster and ruin an athlete. Focus on the process rep-by-rep, set-by-set, run-by-run, throw-by-throw and jump-by-jump. Recognize it takes time and that training accumulates from session to session, day to day, week to week, month to month and year to year.  The temptation is to do more, but the risk is not worth the return. One less throw or jump that is quality is preferable to one more that is sloppy.

Ashton’s record does have as much to do with what he did this year as it does with consistent work over the past six years; once again it is the process. A crucial part of the process is communication with the athlete and listening to their input. Harry & Ashton know & trust each other and i are both invested in the process. Before you can ever think about winning a competition you must consistently win workouts. To win workouts demands putting each workout in context of the bigger picture. Always keeping in mind that less is more.