Stop “Getting Ideas” From Social Media…
We see it all the time. Assessment day comes and a new athlete will begin to get ready for their pen with us. I typically stand back and observe the new players routine while trying to understand why they might be doing certain things to get ready. The player does a back bend, then grabs a wiggly stick to go through some odd gyrations, then he’s on a knee throwing plyos and finally its onto “athletic catch play”.
I walk over and open the dialog up… “Question for you, can you walk me through your routine and tell me what you are targeting there?”.
A long pause usually ensues, “uhhh well I do this drill because of (insert mechanic problem) and that stretch for (insert make believe mechanical problem) and ummm well I saw this drill on social media and uhh well honestly my routine just comes from some stuff I picked up when watching YouTube”.
I quickly gather the facts and realize this athlete is just doing things because they were influenced by the most relevant video to hit their feed in the last few months. No objective measure that actually diagnoses what is wrong, no understanding of the actual subject matter, no goals for the actual implementation and no understanding for how much to actually implement. Just, “it looks cool” and “I was told it would help”.
Todays athlete faces the constant allure of “staying up with the times”. Coaches today face the same problem and are influenced by this as well. It’s a vicious cycle.
Let’s talk about social media.
Pick a social media platform. When is the last time you saw a common lunge posted of an athlete doing less than 80lbs? Can’t think of one right? Thats because if someone does post an athlete doing a basic exercise it doesn’t get traction. People scroll right past it. The algorithm to these social media platforms won’t reward any accounts for posts that don’t garner a response.
So what does it take for a response? What does it take to get attention? It takes controversial or reaction provoking posts. Its a guys doing a run and gun to pull down 105mph, its a banded single leg rotational med-ball throw, its anything that makes you go “woah that’s dumb” or “woah that’s interesting”. Combine that with a title “how to fix….” or “how to gain…” and boom someone somewhere is interested.
Often we assume these coaches know something because their social media post “looked cool”. We feel that maybe there is something about this content we don’t understand. Maybe it looks funny but the material is useful. Quit being influenced.
Players. Stop “getting ideas” from social media.
The reality is that no matter how advanced content sounds, no matter how advanced content looks, you don’t know the knowledge level of the coach providing it. Worse is when athletes ask for help on social media. Players ask for a mechanics breakdown or recommendations to their training programming. Athletes somehow aren’t connecting the dots. Just because your page has interesting content doesn’t mean you are a good coach. Just because someone chimes in on Twitter and says you need to do “insert mechanic change”, doesn’t mean you should listen.
A few years ago I went into our 3motionai dashboard and downloaded 3 players 2D video and posted it to Twitter asking what people thought about these players and what they would change. The answers were hilarious.
From stick figure videos people were throwing out general insights. “Get deeper on the back leg”, “this players arm action isn’t good”… etc.
Well the one thing I didn’t tell everyone was that all 3 players were MLB players and throwing 100+ mph. Ooops.
Watch this video to hear the whole story…
The point to this blog? Careful what and who you trust on social media. Simply put, you don’t need a bosu ball banded lateral single leg elevated med ball rotational throw. You probably need to show up regularly to the gym, be consistent and really good at the basics. Training doesn’t have to be complicated.
No individual aspect of your training should “go viral”. You want to “go viral”? Be the best in the game. Build yourself into someone people talk about. To do this you need to find a great coach you can trust to guide you and be consistent with you. Again, it’s about the basics. The basics, the basics, the basics.
Put the phone away for a bit. Stay consistent on a reliable program, set difficult goals and become a great athlete over time. 1 day of a velo program won’t gain you 5mph. No single exercise in the weight room will “add velocity to your fastball” today.
Quit falling for the marketing. I’ll say it once more. Go become great at the basics.
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