A Simple—but Often Overlooked—Way to Break Through Plateaus

Most skills we are attempting to develop have multiple components. For example, I want to increase my vertical jump. Some of the components involved include my muscle strength, my ability to exert those muscles quickly (my rate of force development), and my jump technique.

When you reach a point in which you are no longer improving, it is because one or two of these components (usually not all of them) is holding you back. But, how can you determine which component?

One simple, but effective approach is to push yourself harder than normal and examine what breaks down. For me, this might mean that I try to jump higher than ever before and examine what happens to my technique. This will provide me a key insight into what I need to fix.

A tennis player may decide to play a better-than-normal opponent and pay particular attention to where things are breaking down. Then the tennis player can work on drills that will build up this weakness. A business manager may look at where things go wrong during busy season. This will point out weaknesses in the company. Someone wanting to type faster might spend ten minutes a day typing faster than normal and then examining which letter combinations are causing mistakes.

Although this approach sounds simple, it is powerful, and I don't see other coaches using it very often.

I got this idea from Anders Ericcson who was a master at helping people continue to make progress!