Re: Steve Hooker
Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 12:40 am
First I would have to say that I certainly agree with the sentiment that there are a lot of assumptions being made here.
I know people here love to analyse things and that's fine, but every now and then I think we all have to acknowledge our limits as outsiders who don't have full insight into what is happening. From observations yes, we can identify that the numbers look wrong or 'x' is wrong because of 'y' and 'z'. But to every situation we do observe as outsiders there are countless compounding factors that we cannot see.
For the subject at hand, we can either think of things the way it has been proposed throughout this thread:
Something wrong with the run -------> the run is bad --------> the bad run causes a whole ton of problems
Or we can think outside the box a little (as others have alluded to) and perhaps we may have:
Something is wrong somewhere else --------> this causes the run to be bad --------> other things are bad because of the run
Just like a bad swing can be a symptom of a run problem, the run problem may be a symptom of something else altogether which may not even be related to pole vaulting! As for what is wrong in Steve's case, it could honestly be a million things especially if we're talking mental problems. You may be able to identify a bad run but you will never fix it until you solve the actual problem. And we could probably logically deduct that if the only problem was a simple run misplacement (in complete isolation) that this problem would have been solved by now! Particularly since we're dealing with Parnov here who is completely in a league of his own in terms of results amongst active coaches (not sure what Petrov is doing these days). Anyway, what is worse is that if you're convinced and don't want to budge on the belief that the bad run IS the problem you then will never even see the real problem in the first place!!! You'll always manage to find whatever it is you're looking for but you'll never find the things you ignore.
If the pole vault happens in a separate universe all by itself then maybe we can discuss things purely in numbers. "Okay, 'x' is a little bit off so the solution is to adjust 'y' and 'z' a little bit and we're sweet." That may be the case in a lot of situations but it may be completely futile in others. Because nothing ever happens in pure isolation you HAVE to keep in mind that things may not be that simple. The problem is not simple, finding the problem is definitely not simple, identifying a solution is painful and carrying out the solution is torture. We love simplicity and we strive for it but unfortunately things just don't cooperate with us every now and then.
One of the things that I know Altius talks about and something that I'd like to bring up is that a coach has a million jobs. Technician, biomechanist, nutritionist, educator, psychologist, counsellor, manager, logistician, physiotherapist... All part of being a coach. Sometimes you have to put away all the mathematical stuff, bring out a comfy couch and play psychiatrist for a while. Because honestly, you're trying to paddle up a waterfall with the run numbers if you don't get to the root of the problem. Numbers are good because they can make the coaches job more accurate and in many cases much more simple, but sometimes there are complexities of the job that require a more conscientious and wholistic solution than what mathematical calculations can provide.
-Andrew
I know people here love to analyse things and that's fine, but every now and then I think we all have to acknowledge our limits as outsiders who don't have full insight into what is happening. From observations yes, we can identify that the numbers look wrong or 'x' is wrong because of 'y' and 'z'. But to every situation we do observe as outsiders there are countless compounding factors that we cannot see.
For the subject at hand, we can either think of things the way it has been proposed throughout this thread:
Something wrong with the run -------> the run is bad --------> the bad run causes a whole ton of problems
Or we can think outside the box a little (as others have alluded to) and perhaps we may have:
Something is wrong somewhere else --------> this causes the run to be bad --------> other things are bad because of the run
Just like a bad swing can be a symptom of a run problem, the run problem may be a symptom of something else altogether which may not even be related to pole vaulting! As for what is wrong in Steve's case, it could honestly be a million things especially if we're talking mental problems. You may be able to identify a bad run but you will never fix it until you solve the actual problem. And we could probably logically deduct that if the only problem was a simple run misplacement (in complete isolation) that this problem would have been solved by now! Particularly since we're dealing with Parnov here who is completely in a league of his own in terms of results amongst active coaches (not sure what Petrov is doing these days). Anyway, what is worse is that if you're convinced and don't want to budge on the belief that the bad run IS the problem you then will never even see the real problem in the first place!!! You'll always manage to find whatever it is you're looking for but you'll never find the things you ignore.
If the pole vault happens in a separate universe all by itself then maybe we can discuss things purely in numbers. "Okay, 'x' is a little bit off so the solution is to adjust 'y' and 'z' a little bit and we're sweet." That may be the case in a lot of situations but it may be completely futile in others. Because nothing ever happens in pure isolation you HAVE to keep in mind that things may not be that simple. The problem is not simple, finding the problem is definitely not simple, identifying a solution is painful and carrying out the solution is torture. We love simplicity and we strive for it but unfortunately things just don't cooperate with us every now and then.
One of the things that I know Altius talks about and something that I'd like to bring up is that a coach has a million jobs. Technician, biomechanist, nutritionist, educator, psychologist, counsellor, manager, logistician, physiotherapist... All part of being a coach. Sometimes you have to put away all the mathematical stuff, bring out a comfy couch and play psychiatrist for a while. Because honestly, you're trying to paddle up a waterfall with the run numbers if you don't get to the root of the problem. Numbers are good because they can make the coaches job more accurate and in many cases much more simple, but sometimes there are complexities of the job that require a more conscientious and wholistic solution than what mathematical calculations can provide.
-Andrew