Power Training Tip #5 - Keep the Goal the Goal скачать в хорошем качестве

Power Training Tip #5 - Keep the Goal the Goal

Tip #5: Keep the Goal the Goal — Training with Purpose Over Performance We need to have an honest conversation about what's happening in athletic training right now. Scroll through social media for five minutes and you'll see it everywhere — athletes stacking boxes to absurd heights, performing increasingly complex variations of simple drills, chasing clips that rack up views and likes. And look, some of it is genuinely impressive. But impressive and effective are not the same thing. And as coaches, it's our job to know the difference. Cool doesn't mean it's working. And sometimes, cool is actively getting in the way. Let's use the box jump as the example, because it's one of the most misused drills in athletic development. The box jump exists for one reason: to train explosive power production. The height of the box is supposed to be a reflection of how high the athlete can jump. But here's what actually happens when you stack the boxes too high — the athlete stops jumping and starts folding. They tuck their knees to their chest, pull their feet up, and land in a compressed heap on top of a box that their hips never actually cleared. If your hips didn't rise higher, you didn't jump higher. You just got better at tucking. That's not power development. That's a skill — and not a particularly useful one. Worse, it's a setup for a missed landing, a rolled ankle, a blown knee, or a fall off a four-foot box. The risk is real. The reward, at that height with that technique, is not. This is what we mean by evaluating risk versus reward. Every drill, every exercise, every training decision should be held up against two questions: What is this supposed to accomplish? And is the way we're doing it actually accomplishing that? If the answer to the second question is no — or even maybe — it's time to recalibrate. The goal of power training is to move powerfully. That means maximum force production, optimal mechanics, and intent behind every rep. A box jump performed with genuine explosion, full hip extension, and a clean landing on a box at an appropriate height does infinitely more for an athlete's development than a viral-worthy jump onto a stack of boxes with compromised mechanics and a white-knuckle landing. The same principle applies across every tool in your training arsenal. Medicine ball throws where the athlete is just going through the motions. Plyometric drills performed so fast that contact quality disappears entirely. Olympic lift variations that have been regressed so many times they no longer resemble the original movement. If the drill isn't serving the goal, it's just noise — and noise has a cost. Stay anchored to the purpose. Ask yourself before every training session: what are we trying to accomplish today, and is everything on this program actually moving us toward that outcome? If an exercise is in there because it looks good, because the athletes enjoy it, or because you saw it online — that's not enough of a reason. It needs to earn its place. Train with intent. Evaluate what's working. And when something looks cool but doesn't serve the athlete — have the discipline to leave it out. Keep the goal the goal. That's what separates training from just exercising. This is Part 5 in my series on building athletic performance the right way. We've covered Functional Movement, Alignment and Posture, Foot Contact, Proper Progression — and now Training with Purpose. Each one of these principles connects, and together they represent a complete philosophy for developing athletes who perform when it matters most. Have you seen this in your own programs or with athletes you work with — chasing cool over effective? Drop your experience in the comments. This is an important conversation for our field to be having.