No Weak LinksHaving no weak links is important in anything you do. Weak links are basically neglected areas of development due to either laziness or simply not realising that these areas will be called upon at some time. It is a strong fundamental of Personal Evolution to have no weak links. How Specific is too Specific?It is a common theme to be specific, especially in athletic training. I mean having no specific focus inevitably results in diluted results. You wouldn’t send a sprinter on a 10 km run, it’s just not specific enough and will detract from the specificity of their training. But then you can get too specific. Training constantly within the narrow, specific realm of requirements neglects other areas. This may be fine for a while until the individual is required to perform slightly outside of that realm, even if it’s only in training. The result is usually injury or sub-par performance. So training needs to be specific but it also needs to include parameters slightly broader than those used in the specific objective of the training. If a cyclist competes in 20 km races and always trains for that 20 km, he/she will be strong over that distance but anything more or less than that will be an inferior performance. This seems fine but it limit’s the athlete to a very narrow performance where everything needs to go smoothly. All Bases CoveredHaving no weak links does not mean training with diluted methods and training power athletes for ultra-endurance and vice versa. What it does mean however is having strong specific conditioning and a solid base in parameters outside of that. This is what foundational conditioning is. What results from this thinking is a person who can not only perform powerfully in the specific target of focus but also has a strong foundation in order to actually train effectively. The power athlete then has better endurance to recover from repeat efforts faster and hence perform higher volumes of training in a shorter time. The endurance athlete has increased power output and therefore reaches anaerobic threshold later, which results in overall superior performance. PhilosophyThe principle of strengthening weak links is not only an application for athletic conditioning, it is really a content-free, guiding philosophy that should be applied to everything. A business person has a specific area of focus and might face similar challenges all the time. These challenges are easily overcome due to familiarity. Then something else comes up that the business person has no experience with and everything falls apart. Being free of weak links means having a strong foundation in your specific area of focus while also having a secondary skill-set that spans broader parameters and prepares you for more possibilities and a greater range. This applies to athletes and non-athletes alike. It is a theme of Personal Evolution to provide foundational conditioning, both mentally and physically. This always results in solid foundations while not taking away the power of the specific focus. Return to our home page from no weak links |
