How to Improve Your Athletic Process
Time is a valuable thing and there is only so much time in which we can accomplish things. What we do with our limited time matters a lot. Increasing the effectiveness of our time is therefore a massive thing.
A rigorous engineering process from Elon Musk that can be applied to any process to increase its effectiveness. We will quote Elon Musk and add 2-cents after that.
We will be using the NHL draft combine as an example of how this can potentially be applied. Full YouTube Video from which we took the transcript.
Step 1 - Make your requirements less dumb
First, make your requirements less dumb. Your requirements are definitely dumb. It does not matter who gave them to you. It’s particularly dangerous if a smart person gave you the requirements because you might not question them enough.
What really matters? Do the requirements out there actually move the needle and worthwhile of the time commitment.
E.g. Does the NHL really need the combine before the draft?
Yes. Everyone’s wrong, no matter who you are, everyone’s wrong some of the time.
The goal isn’t to be more right, it’s to be less wrong. What can we do to at least not be an idiot?
Step 2 - Delete the part or process
So, make your requirements less dumb, then try very hard to delete the part or process. This is actually very important.
Less is more. Doing things just to do them is tedious, boring, and takes away precious focus and time.
E.g. It’s been shown that only the jump tests show any correlation to future NHL success. Maybe the max anaerobic output for top prospects too. The rest of the NHL combine is basically a non-predictor. The rest should probably be eliminated.
If you’re not occasionally adding things back in, you are not deleting enough. The bias tends to be very strongly towards let’s add this part of the process in case we need it, but you can basically make “in case” arguments for so many things.
Bias is always to keep something in, but that really just takes away from everything else. Delete to the point where you go back and say “shucks, we need that back in.”
Step 3 - Simplify or optimize
And then only in the third step is “Simplify or optimize”. The third step, not the first step. The reason it’s at the third step is because it’s very common, as possibly the most common error of a smart engineer is to optimize a thing that should not exist.
Only once you understand what elements are needed should you optimize the process or activity.
E.g. Alter the NHL combine’s tests that remain.
Everyone has been trained in high school and college that you have to answer the question. Convergent logic. So, you can’t tell a professor ‘your question is dumb’. You’ll get a bad grade. You have to answer the question. So everyone, without knowing it, has a mental straight jacket on.
Understand your mental bias toward answering dumb questions. Ask first, “are we asking the correct question?”
The classic business school example is how different cultures spend their time solving an issue. North America has tended to lean toward solutions while Japanese companies tend to spend more time defining the problem. This relates back to the engineering loop we are doing - less dumb, delete, then optimize!
Step 4 - Accelerate cycle time
And then finally, you get to step four which is “Accelerate cycle time”. You’re moving too slowly, go faster. But don’t go faster until you work on the other three things first.
Speed is last. Once we are doing the right things in an efficient manner, we move on to doing more of them. “Rep it out,” as they say.
E.g. Give players multiple chances on the tests so there is a better sample size.
If you’re digging, you know, your grave, don’t dig it faster. Stop digging your grave, you know. But you don’t always make things go faster.
Going faster at the wrong thing is always wrong. Stop digging. As the Special Forces say, “Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.”
Step 5 - Automate
And then, the final step is “Automate.”
If we reach stage 5, we can look to automate and not have to think about it for the time being. In sports, this often means sending something of focus into your subconscious. Thus just reacting quickly to the right things and in an effective manner.
Now, I have personally made the mistake of going backwards on all five steps multiple times. So I have to repeat this - yes, multiple times.
We all mess things up. It’s okay. We are all human.
Bonus
Also, whatever requirement or constraint you have it must come with a name, not a department. Because you can’t ask the department, you have to ask a person.
And that person who’s pulling for the requirement or constraint must agree that they must take responsibility for that requirement. Otherwise, you can have a requirement that basically an intern two years ago randomly came up with, off the cuff, and they’re not even at the company anymore.
His example was him asking back and forth between departments. At the end of the day, the requirement was not needed by either. The requirement was in the process due to both departments thinking the other department needed it.
If something is to be done, there needs to be a person owning that.
Following up on our NHL Draft combine example - check out the 2016 Combine Results. Auston Matthews went #1 FYI.
For Players Too
While this piece was geared toward coaches, players can easily translate this into their training regime.
It makes a ton of sense to throw the players’ process and plan through the engineering process to hone focus and maximizing their time.
Engineering Process:
Requirements less dumb
Delete
Optimize
Increase cycle time
Automate
Further Reading
Passing progressions = using processes to quick & quality decision making
Shorting the zone is a defensive strategy that set up defensemen for success
The science as to why short shifts are a competitive advantage
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