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By Josh Martin, Two-Brain Mentor Note: Our Two-Brain Coaching Group on Facebook is public! Add your coaches!   My favorite check that I write each month is to the lawn company that takes care of our yard. And while the size of that check grew when we moved to our new house, it still puts a big smile on my face.   Growing up, I did lots of yard work. I hated every single second of it.   But when it came time to earn some money one summer, I literally went door to door with my lawnmower and asked everyone if I could mow their grass for twenty bucks. I heard plenty of no’s, but some took pity and appreciated my hustle, and at the end of that summer I bought my first pair of skates. That was the beginning of my speed skating career, but that is a post for another time.   Mowing lawns was actually not that bad if I’m being honest. The worst part was pulling weeds in the garden. It seemed never ending. And when we got done with one flower bed, it just looked all tussled about, bare, and a bit pitiful.   As a gym owner, losing members is the same way. Making tough choices for the betterment of the business can even be a catalyst for some to leave on their own or to start questioning if they still fit.   It never feels good when it happens. Even if it’s someone that is choking the life out of you or your staff, it’s never fun (or easy) telling someone that you think they’d be better served elsewhere.   Like the garden, when the weeds are gone, things can appear quite bare. You start to wonder if the choices you’ve made are the right ones.   But just as pulling weeds in a garden are necessary for growth of the beautiful ...

In “Supertraining,” Mel Siff makes a case for “imperfect training”: occasionally varying the balance of loads, stances, speed and others to better prepare an athlete for sport.Older coaches will remember Paul Chek’s “balance” training for the “core” in the early 2000s. For years, parents visiting my gym would cite the value of “training the little muscles in the core” while talking about their kids. Heck, “core” is STILL a buzzword in training circles of lower educational average.Obviously, the nature of sport is unpredictable. But can the training room best prepare an athlete for that unpredictability? Is the scope of unpredictability different for each sport, and therefore trainable only on the field or rink?“Imperfect training,” in my mind, can be spread across a broad spectrum:– inherently unsafe, with little value (risk > reward)– inherently unsafe, with moderate-to-high value (risk = reward)– inherently safe, with moderate-to-high value (reward > risk)– inherently safe, with little value (risk + reward = 0.) It’s irrelevant to our purposes to discuss activities which create no reward. But all training carries an element of risk. Small “injuries” – including muscle tearing, elevated blood pressure, glycogen depletion and exhaustion – are necessary to spur super compensation. In that light, where is the line between “small injuries created on purpose” and “small injuries that are a side effect”? What about small injuries that cause no real limitation or long-term damage, like blisters? “Imperfect” training raises the risk associated in training. BOSU balls were popular toys (but not with Siff, nor with me) for years. The unstable surface of a BOSU ball was argued to create more stability around the ankle and knee joints. Higher risk for a reward or arguable value. Where do box jumps fit into the risk/reward picture? Low-rep box jumps done from on high? High-rep box jumps done from a medium height? Where is the “safe” line in either scenario? The common answer is, “It’s the duty of the ...