Bigger, Stronger, Faster (the BSB).

These are the primal advantages. If you got ‘em you may not even need to use ‘em. The intimidation factor is so large. It’s a common strategy to fake them to, many animals puff themselves up to psyche out a rival or predator. Winning or surviving without the risk of violence is a good strategy. It’s also a fantasy that distracts and inspires as the modern super hero genre continues from the ancient gods and animal spirits of old.

So question number 1 is how do you get them. How to become the BSB. Yes it’s obvious train. Resistance training commonly with weights is a common method as a fitness method but previously as part of manual labour. Mistakes are made first is not persevering with training. Most strong people have had several years practice. Now with intelligent training much can be gained reasonably quickly. But a tip is to start training like you are going to train for a number of years not achieve all in 6 weeks. Body-builders specialise, well in building the body and they have specialised so that very large defined people might not be that strong as the training needs are different. The strong ones are the power-lifters. Who aim for max. strength in three lifts. Olympic weightlifters also go for strength in some other lifts. If you want basic strength development one or both of these will fill out a 3 year plan easily with steady gains. A good coach will help you with technique as injury does not strengthen you! They also can help round problems and plateaus in progress. Powerlifting and weightlifting are also related to speed development to produce power where force is used quicker. Here less force is used, but quicker increasing the impact. Other methods can use only bodyweight training where resistance is built up by changing angles and creating a harder position to work which is higher resistance as opposed to a larger weight. Gymnastics is a classic example using apparatus as wel as the floor.

Sports are full of strength, speed and power methods related to general and specific actions. Finding a good guide is key to develop a good plan of exercises progression and results. An alternative approach is to better use what you have. This is included in developing good skills and technique having the body correctly aligned and coordinated can double strength and power to start with giving competitive performance. Still the time spent on technique is best high to gain consistent higher level skills. Basic ideas of using the body more effectively is joint position. Shoulders on the ears is not a strong position for the shoulders and will decrease force produced and increase injury. Shoulders need to be down in their socket. Arms are stronger closer to the body, heads need to be in line with a straight back. Knees and toes need to be in line. Joints need to be not too bent or too straight. These ideas are true for almost all skills and actions from sport and the physical world (see mechanics). After time methods such as Tai chi and others have learnt this potential performance is best aimed for straight away and time is spent on aligning the body and relaxing unnecessary muscle action to produce ‘internal’ power which allows the chi to flow and the mechanical lines of force to be all lined up. The same pattern is found in Immersion swimming and the Pose method of running and Tai chi running of course. Most top coaches also have come to rediscover or have been taught the technique essentials to performance. A key tip is to get the technique right first then build up your physical abilities (strength and speed) to reduce injury and improve performance. Very good technique may be all you need and lasts much longer (to old age).

So you’ve done your preparation or you have found yourself in a situation where your opponent is bigger, stronger and/or faster than you! Now this is the big challenge. You still want to win (survive), so to how beat this intimidating, fear provoking, pressure filled situation? Well if you are not the biggest, strongest or fastest then you have to use something new in the physical world it’s a brain. The words for this method are tactics and strategy. The glamour, emotion and hormone fueled, jump in and get stuck in is not totally wrong but the brain is the difference between destruction and regular success. Now the brain is here emotion is also directed so what we’re after. The cortex the outside part of the brain that separates us from other species.

So thinking starts with the question how do we get a better result against a BSB. The aim is to not play their game that is to their strengths. It is intimidating to stand in front of a BSB and perform a thought out plan so steady progression of practice of a plan is needed. The plan needs to be to avoid their strengths and attack their weaknesses. Now if they are just bigger or stronger the trick is to remember where you are strongest if your limbs are stretched out or closed up they are weaker than in the middle. So you need to position’ (see previous post) yourself close or far away. Also we are strong in front of us, it takes practice to get strong at any other angle so get to their side or back (there is still some danger so investigate and compensate). So get the opponent into a position of low strength with too much or not enough space, outside their effectiveness (running away is better then being pummeled!) or close inside their strength and to their side. From here keep them off balance and/or attack their week areas (same as yours).

The faster opponent is slightly different their advantage works better with the space to ambush or to reach or move in and out. The trick is to control the space and opponent keeping them under control stopping them getting started. A common phrase is to keep them off balance so they cannot use their speed (or strength). This decreases how effective your opponent is. Another is to bait or feign, too draw an action that is predictable, this is a classic hunting trap where you guide your prey into a disadvantages position so you can attack from a position of advantage.

So I hope you can see the problem of beating the BSB (sorry Big Son of a B...) is older than humanity and has been achieved in many ways. Nature is full of bigger stronger and faster creatures that use their advantages. But the key for the others is to have superior thinking with tactics and strategies to avoid the others advantages. You can look at nature to copy some ideas but also much has been written down in advice for specific situations of competition such as hunting, war and sport. Hopefully the above is general so that you can transfer the ideas to any field where it’s you against another what ever the form. It can be individual or group (e.g. team) situations, only your imagination limits you well there are some laws of nature perhaps. Just work out how cooperative or competitive the situation is and look for a weakness of the opponent or a situation that gives you massive advantage and then how to set that up.

Another approach may be to be indirect and to work where the larger opponent cannot. Seth Godin in the bootstrappers guide attempts to point out that large organisations have their weaknesses that means they are less able to react and adapt to change where a smaller operator can be first and/or fast. The mistake is as a small guy to take on a big guy head on. Do not meet force with force. Use your strengths against weaknesses.

Positioning.

Positioning as a concept can be applied across the whole of life. Good positioning means that the next action or stage will be easier (or possible) than from bad positioning (or impossible). The best advice from any film is ‘best block not be there!”. Miyagi (please original Karate Kid only) has hit the nut on the head here. If you do not want to be hit do not be where you can or will get hit. General self defence training starts with awareness of where to be (positioned). You can avoid many places, people and situations that minimise the risks, this is obviously a life lesson too. The other overt element here is to hit well you need to be in a good position. So if you want to be effective in an action you need to get good positioning. In the physical world you need to use footwork to get into good positions and out of bad. Here it is described partly by range, how close you are and there are various weapon ranges of peck effectiveness. Artillery can be a long way away but spears have to be the distance from the tip of the spear being behind your opponent (probably safe to call them an enemy here!) with you holding the spear two handed in front well you get the idea. For a punch you need to be closer to the target, within a straight arm away to hit but closer for maximum power. Find a teacher to get more comprehensive instruction. Throwing a punch two arm lengths away does not work!. Positioning also would include facing the right direction and the position between you and your opponent if you are behind them it’s much easier to attack then and harder for them to defend. All physical skills have best positions to be effective, once you get good at positioning the other skills are much easier, and much more effective. A good position does not involve over-stretching or being cramped up. As in tennis you may hit the ball away where they cannot reach or right at them so they cannot get the racket there. Your position in tennis is where your stroke can be performed easily to produce a good (position improving or winning) shot back.

For most sports and martial arts getting the learners to practice positioning is a challenge to move them towards the effective methods rather than the glamorous, obvious and ego boosting elements. Additionally those that have natural advantages like being the biggest abuse those advantages making it hard for others but also limiting themselves for when others learn to beat these natural advantages (by positioning). Also the abuse can lead to dead ends and injury. Also others get upset and a re-motivated to take your advantages away by increasingly severe means. Being ready for change so that you can adapt requires a ready position. Like the not getting hit approach to positioning the same skill can be applied to avoidance if you cannot resist the temptation then remove it somehow. If you cannot keep your hands out of the cookie jar then do not have a cookie jar at home. If you have fallen into an addiction then find the triggers that make you want to feed it and try to avoid it.

Positioning is not just physically being in the best or better space and time to do anything is a goal and a performance enhancer. So timing your actions for when you are in a good position to both do them but also capitalise on the next moment. Some examples of good lucky positioning were all the Oil barons who were the right age for the boom time. The billionaires (opr oil workers) before were not oil Barons and the billionaires (or oil workers) after were not either. The same happened with the technology billionaires all around the same age for when the opportunity appeared. One aim is to be in a good position to take advantage of any opportunities. In society being rich is a good position, being from a good family, going to the right schools etcetera gives many advantages. There are opportunities that can only be taken advantage of if you are in a good position already. Others you have time to get to a good position.

The general lesson is to be in good positions as often as possible. So the punching example is to get into a position where you are right in front of a target with no defences and close so the punch should not miss (see any blooper real for how misses are still possible). The position for the punch will also help for the next situation where your punch has or has not landed. If you jump in to hit then jump out again you cannot do anything else! Expand this concept to other ideas of positioning in time or in social situations.

The next lesson is to plan to be in the best position in fact failure to plan is about position. You need a long term plan to be as often as possible in good positions. Life is better if you are in a position of good health, better education and friends with the right people. For most things in life it is already known whet the good positions are you need to plan for getting into these. Maintaining health is relatively straight forward and known. Education can be gained in many ways. As well as finding the best positions and planning and then acting to get to them, being realistic about which positions you can get to. Many people want what they cannot have. Here you have to recognise it and choose a different path where you can get into good positions.

Good habits are trying to start well as as Kelly Starrett says about squatting it’s like you enter a tunnel as you start to squat and to change to a good movement to a bad is easy but going from a bad movement (knees in duck feet) to a good is at least unlikely if not unknown. So a good set up is vital. This extends universally, so to achieve your goals get into a good set up position and do not compromise. So if you want to get a job find the best position and get into it, if you want to learn a skill set up a good position to learn it. Compromising by trying to learn the basics in a pressure situation does happen but the vast majority fail and are not remembered and those that succeed usually have paid a price that dooms them later. A good example that is analogous to many others is that any one who is overweight can lose weight but few do. Out of every 20 children who are obese 19 become obese adults. The trick is to stop the obesity before it starts. Poor education follows the same poor health pattern. Anyone who beats the long odds often finds it hard to cope with the new situation.

Gaining good position is a worthwhile tactic to make life easier but nature also gives a hand. With lucky birth you may be in a better position for a lot of things and genetics may have given you better positioning for some areas which can be seen as talent. As well as physical dimensions and attributes, mental abilities make some things easier and others hard. Some realistic assessment of what these factors mean towards different skills or activities will help see if getting a good position is likely when another has advantages that are unlikely to be surmounted. Then it’s time to get creative and see the bigger picture and look for a more suitable (likely to succeed) goal or approach.

Planning is a key element as luck and panic management later rarely works beyond survival. Developing skills (under progressively more stressful conditions) and moving to better positions in peace time means war is less likely and you are more likely to not lose (at least!). And then hopefully to thrive in the peace.

Find What You Want.

Finding the information and guidance is much easier with the informational revolution through technology. Starting with the combination of book printing and reading education to the newest internet blogs and vlogs. The information is there the problem is now too much dis-information. Some is deliberate, some is accidental. Sorting through this information is a major skill of these times. People are biased (and so are you presuming you are a person reading this!), the previously discussed biases and fallacies are a place to start your education and an aid to sorting the information. There are many distractions that can divert you from the purpose of gaining the needed information. Presentation works in attracting attention like a flower to an insect. But you are not flying round waiting to pass a flower you are looking for specific information (going off on a tangent and just exploring are OK and have their place but not when you are after a specific understanding or result).

The paradoxical question is how do I find a good teacher or info source? The paradox is you need a good teacher to gain the experience and attributes to choose a good teacher. For a long time this has been a ‘catch 22’ situation but fewer people have read that book or seen the film. The foundation must be to be the best student and researcher you can be and make use of the easy information and teachers you can access. The process is to question and practice that questioning. Question everything, now not every one wants to be questioned, for many reasons. So this might often be solo but others are vital when any questioning can be done to use the wisdom of crowds and others experience and perspectives. Once you have developed your (or your children’s) learning and questioning skills then you need a strategy and tactics to use them effectively. The general form can be simple plan-do-review where you ask first what do I want to know/be able to do or what ever the first question should be? Then it’s what do I need to know to develop my knowledge/abilities? Then the question is who or what can help me get the information and when I have that information then who can help me do my plan and last who can help me review my plan and action?

The trick is to learn what a good source of information is. Many fall for the trap of asking a performer who may or may not know. The person to ask is obviously the coach or teacher of the successful performer (preferably more than one). They are the ones who got the information and planned and reviewed the plan the athlete may of just done as they were told (not common) or something close enough. Over time you need to learn better what the best sources are finding out the commonalities and idiosyncrasies of the knowledgeable and able. Science as an industry producers lots of useful information but is not perfect. The scientific process is not full proof. At university level you learn to read scientific journals and may see what the research actually found rather than what it is reported to have been found. Many other distortions can misrepresent scientific findings and although there are checks and balances there are many mistakes made, some accidentally on purpose. Also the other key point is what has not been researched or reported, sometimes this is where the answer lies. Practice with science is needed and it’s a lifelong (and centuries old) process.

Another good source is experienced people. Most of life’s situations have been experienced before so borrowing others experience is useful. The care here is what the experience or any expertise actually is rather than what is reported. Care for bias and fallacies are always needed. This experience of many people is empirical and general patterns can be found (and have been already). Picking an experienced person may be by who has been perceived as successful. Care here needs to be taken as to what they were successful at. A champion may have won when every one else was ill. As is regularly reported many ‘champions’ get caught later. Cheating including state sponsored is rife in many areas of life. Other people have massive advantages that help them to ‘the top’. If you do not share these advantages then their methods and experience may not be relevant to you.

A big problem for finding what you want is the cloud of irrelevant information. Much information is biased and in the interests of others. The media is pretty much fiction nothing but entertainment. The search for facts needs constant perseverance and questioning. After a period of time you will find sources that are reliable and valid. And constant self improvement will help you put these in better context. Putting the people factors in your consideration. Life could be modelled by a triangle of a foundational base consisting of knowledge skills and experiences that are the target of the education of youth. The better the foundations the more can be built on top. Then the levels above will be narrower but higher as deeper knowledge of fewer areas can be built. As well as building good the eliminating of the bad is the second major perspective to take. Edison is famed for his approach of learning what does not work maybe a thousand times before he found what did work. Another foundational element is the use of principles and concepts that run through many or all areas. Science is one where once the idea of science and after some practice then most science is accessible in areas outside your triangle at least generally. Another are tools that can be used flexibly these can be physical like multi tools or attributes like speed where speed can be applied in many ways. Also mental tools such as old methods such as the idea of balance or change which permeate everywhere and again science or maths principles that can be used in many areas. Finding and using these patterns can be very useful. Where the pattern may be good sources of information, or the exactness of maths, where it may be yes, no or maybe or cannot be a maybe.

You will approximate rather than using precise or absolute measure. That is essential! Just remember when you are doing it and that you can justify it. Knowing what you are doing and seeing the results so that you can review later is useful. It is about building your triangle and at the same time gaining clarity. A Daoist meditation approach is to let the mud settle so that you can see what has been there all along. It is always good to have perspective of anything. Even the law talks of beyond all doubt and most probable, not absolutes as it is a practical or pragmatic area not an absolute science. Finding information that eliminates some possibilities can be an alibi and point you in another direction. Here we get to Sherlock Holmes where once you have eliminated the impossible, what ever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.’ (Sign of Four) here removing elements can be combined with building other elements gaining clarity and reducing ambiguity.

Now once you have done the work you then need to remember that others have not and may need to be persuaded! Now that’s another project how to persuade.

Other Bias Traps and Logical Fallacies.

As well as bias people have perception issues where sometimes you gain much from rephrasing a question to get better answers. In the Swimmers body illusion the results can be due to selection aspects, born attributes that select the swimmer i.e. long arms and short legs etc. Not just the programme. Copying the programme may not help someone with a different body shape or make up. Of course it may be the training that creates the body too. All the top swimmers for instance train amazingly hard but some events favour certain body dimensions and strengths. A small change in distance or rules can shift the advantages to another athlete.

The order you receive information can lead you in certain directions the anchoring effect is where the first informational elements influence later information due to its precedence. A big number is relative to a small number if you say 1 then 10 can be a big number but if you say 1,000 then it is not. The first number sets up a situation for the second number. So some information is more influential if received first or from certain sources. The young often believe the judgement of their peer group over others. As I have previously mentioned the perceptions of ability and talent are massively influenced by early experiences. Another key time in sports is after a mistake the state of mind for the next action. It is easy to let the mistake take over your thinking and impact performance. One example is in sports like cricket or baseball if you miss one ball you need to have a routine that takes some seconds (15 or so) to refocus so you set up a routine to get your mind into the best state. This set up can use the anchoring effect to a better anchor for success rather than failure.

We find superstition too comfortable, understanding random events can be hard as our brains look for patterns and come up with hypothesis sometimes seeing patterns where they there are not. A common example is the Gamblers fallacy, here you get caught up in the idea that your luck will turn just because you think it should. Sequences of coin tosses are not connected so if a head has just occurred then it is not nature’s duty to produce a tail for balance. Now over a million tosses yes it will be around 50:50 with a fair coin, but vary rarely exactly 50:50. In a list of the sequence there will be many streaks of heads and others of tails but there will not be a head then a tail for the whole sequence (yes that could still actually happen but that’s getting complicated). Understanding what is random and what the odds (with some predictability) are are useful but don’t fall in to the trap of thinking that they are not random and that you have control or nature will balance things up. (freakonomics 17/11)

Fallacies are another set of flawed lines of reasoning and common to the human brain and sport (and the rest of life) is full of them. Examples include the Ad homonym fallacy where the words or actions are from a certain person and who the person is is used to suggest falsehood. The previously mentioned statistics of sports performance was discounted by sports people (and regularly still are) due to their (Geeks?) inability to perform at sports. Even though sport uses the phrase ‘playing the man not the ball’. Some times in competition you make indirect play against the opponent’s mind or an individual you see as a weaker link. This is a valid tactic but if it’s predicted then it may be bait for you. You attempt this and your opponent is ready to spring the trap. The key in terms of truth is to analyse the words not just rely on who says them. Beginners and guesses are sometimes correct so listen carefully and think about them. The defense ‘well they would say that wouldn’t they’ is a rhetorical tactic not a logical truth.

Other fallacy traps include not building up a false case that can be broken down like a Straw-man. Look at opposing arguments for what they say not make up what you think they say. Don’t think things too simply as black and white when lots of possibilities occur in between. Don’t relay on one occurrence or one experience look for more evidence not anecdotal one off occurrences. Also do not fool yourself by hitting the barn door then drawing a target on after words and say you hit the target (Cherry Picking). Being clear at what you are trying to do and the results after in relation to what you attempted to do. There are many more worth looking up!

You need to think before you act whenever possible. To aid thinking the study of Critical theory is a strong start here many fallacies are described and the logic of their inaccuracy can be studied and perhaps you may be able to avoid some!

The first part is analysis where you identify parts of a situation or information. Then you evaluate to see what is true or false and what the evidence actually is and may mean then you can make a reasoned case to make a further argument. This may have to be left to others but the key is for you own thinking's development. Try to be fair minded, active and informed, skeptical and independent. Many sports people become biased emotionally to a team or individual and let this distort their view and actions regardless of the evidence. This is in all elements of their preparation, and performance too. Actually seeking the truth or better ideas and methods rather than passively waiting for them to occur especially if you rely on others who are biased. It is hard and needs concentration to set up these habits but you need to be ready to change beliefs when the evidence points a different way. Sticking in the rose tinted past leaves many people behind the times. You do not set up haste but you have to be quick to acknowledge things as faults. Staying informed of all areas or finding other critical minds to keep up to date and give feedback keeps you going forward rather than settling for passed glories and slow (or fast) decline.

Critical thinking is finding out the facts or high probabilities and working with these to help decisions and actions. Finding the best methods and approaches is now easy as much has been published on what happens most and how things have been done. I find the ideas of principles and concepts that work in or reflect many situations are the most useful. There are less things to remember and help get to a generally good position before looking at details. Scientific knowledge has validity and reliability at it’s core. Proofs through reasoning, mathematics or very strong evidence power their usefulness. Many traditional approaches and ideas have stood the test of time and observing people who have done things already can be useful. Most people who get good at anything practice a lot and overcome obstacles. Delving deeper to find out the commonalities through many situations determining if the patterns are real or not. Not reinventing the wheel when it has been done many times before is a leg up (stand on the shoulders of giants). Avoiding the marketing that courts our fantasies of easy success. Watch out for deceptive occurrences (one offs) and people being deceptive for their own (or perceived) ends. Care for the distractions that appear all the time that may not deceive but pull of track your thinking and actions. Stick to relevant facts and actions and careful with assumptions.

Some Human Bias. Part 3.

Behind the advancement of science has been the general idea of hypothesis and the evidence there is for them being true. Generally scientists will hold that a hypothesis is true if it seams that it is almost certain or there is no contradictory evidence. Many opinions are justifiable with the evidence at hand but a theory really requires better analysis. So the aim of science and critical thinking is to get better information and analyse it till you have a good working hypothesis. This is not how the everyday human brain works. Having opinions you are willing to change if sufficient evidence becomes apparent is healthy. Getting the category wrong of fact and opinion or best guess is common. These traps are well known areas where people perceive things to be facts when they have not much information or evidence and have not analysed much at all. The trick is to collect evidence or look at others and analyse them to develop your own opinions not just to react only when you are under pressure. The difference between a fact and an approximation or ‘close’ varies in how important it may be but they are different and the distinction needs to be remembered and taken into account.

So one question could be the people who ‘succeed’ or the things that happen are they the best or lucky, or is it the only thing to happen or just what you have seen? One bias is Survivorship bias where the people who succeed may have each done a particular action. So it is a key to success yes? Well people who did not succeed may have done the same thing but you did not look at them. This is a biased sample where the winners may have succeeded for other reasons for instance luck and chance. Looking for more information is needed to say whether this action or occurrence is a key factor. Some athletes may win in spite of their preparation rather than because of it. Just blindly copying there methods may mislead. An example is copying the best in the world like a swimmer who actually has a body and physiology unique hence (s)he is the only one. For an average person their technique and training will not work but may get a trip to the hospital.

When you look at the champions of a sport you see the few. Take football in England a million players participate in a weekend but only the top few make millions. These few at the top stand out. These do inspire the next generation and power the emotions of the present generations, but they are the few as are the 3,000 American football candidates for the major leagues where less than 30 get contracts for an on average 2 year career. And then maybe one of those will get a Super bowl ring or MVP award. These rarities distract us from the real availabilities and many fall along the way. The danger is not having a back up plan for not making it. Just relying on the lottery ticket odds of being one of the most successful. Many barriers prevent this path. Knowing the true odds and having at least a back up plan are essential to over come the Availability bias where the rare stands out and we over estimate the frequency of occurrence.

On the whole we over estimate some likelihoods where we are impacted by some events more than others; the defeat in sport can lead to all sorts of emotional responses! The negative hits emotionally harder than the positive. From possible history the predator is more important then a meal. Criticism and results need to be put in perspective to avoid this Negative bias.

For supporters it’s a them and us situation and they surround themselves with like minded supporters they read other supporters blogs and avoid non supporters they tend to go towards people who will reinforce there beliefs/desires. Self questioning in these groups is usually absent and emotions can be high on match days. Star players too can prefer complements over criticism or any reasoned opinion. They may even believe their own hype as to their abilities and performance. When reality hits the ass kissers may have helped build a fantasy rather than any truth. It is hard to find feedback that may tell you what you need to hear and act on rather than what you want to hear. This is required to avoid the Confirmation bias.

A barrier to getting the needed, reasoned feedback is the Blind Spot bias where we believe we are less biased and more rational than we are and than others say we are.

These biases are easy traps to fall into. The main method is to somehow get real analysis. Some people are best leaving it to others and just doing as they are told. Some cannot do or understand the analysis or reasons so need a teacher or coach. The elite level cannot be experts on every aspect of the fitness, nutrition, skills etc. They may need a plan from another expert in some of the areas. Sorting out the right foods and nutrition and shopping and cooking and not cheating is a lot on top of many other aspects such as elite level physical preparation and skills and tactics elements. You need to receive information from a better source, as do we all.