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Brilliant article. Definitely thought provoking. Well done Billy for spotting it and posting a link.

Worthwhile reading for everyone, coaches (face to face or virtual), trainers, those in a training program, athletes (budding or established at whatever level)  and/or weekend warriors and those just in it for the enjoyment. 

My reading is that Andy Kirkland is pointing towards and advocating a 'no fear' culture in sport and something I'd recognise as psychological safety, probably physiological safety too - given he is talking about sport and the likelihood of injury, overtraining and unfortunately abuse (in light of recent reports coming out of gymnastics among other sports).

Being flippant for a moment, does this mean Rule No 5 gets retired?

 

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Although written with a certain cohort of athlete in mind, and I wholly get the point and context of that approach, I think what Andy is saying does resonate across all levels of participation, and is as relevant to the coach/trainer/instructor as much as the coached and other engaged supporting 3rd parties. The paper does raise questions of a duty of care. I don't think that duty of care starts and/or stops based solely on the level of the athlete or the level of competition - although this may be subject to an element of degree.

There was an interesting article recently I stumbled across on over training. May have been in Bicycling - can remember the details. However part of that article addressed the idea that over training in elite program athletes and the impact on their performance was more likely to be picked up in their numbers, due to a higher exposure to comparative analysis of their benchmarks, than those outwith elite programs due to a lack of opportunity to carry out the same comparative analysis and bench marking. Consequently, over training could be spotted and addressed quicker and better in the elite program athlete than the non elite. It went further to suggest that for the non elite athlete, resting would be a less likely suggested solution, even if spotted, due to a prevalent approach of - 'I'm/you're not hitting my/your numbers, therefore I/you must up my/your game', as opposed to WHY am I/you not hitting those numbers. Also talked about external factors - work/study/social/family pressures - impacting non program athletes more than elite program athletes, simply as a result of elite program athletes benefiting from a degree of shielding from such factors. Hence my view that Andy's article has a potentially wider audience. 

Nonetheless, I agree it should prove useful reading to Mul's Jets and their parents.

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