I’ve been coaching for a long time. Over the years I have realized most people don’t fail to perform how they want to because of genetics. They come up short because they fail to realize what their actual weaknesses are, and thus fail to address them.
Because I continue to see a disconnect between what people think is limiting them and what is ACTUALLY limiting them, I created this framework to get people to dig down and see what is hindering their training and performance.
I call this the Hierarchy of Skills. Hierarchies aren’t ordered in terms of time focus, they are ordered by importance. If you don’t have one of the lower layers dealt with, then it doesn’t make sense to start working on the skills above.
You’ve probably heard of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (graphic below). This guy was all about the idea that if your “physiological needs” or “safety needs” aren’t met, there isn’t space in your brain to develop more complex needs such as “belonging and love”, and “esteem.”
The Hierarchy of Skills that I’ve put together applies the same principles of Maslow to training:
If you have poor life skills, and poor training skills, you will likely never reach your performance goals!
At the top we have your performance skills. Performance skills include:
- Technical competence
- Structural strength
- Aerobic efficiency
- Anaerobic power
- Pacing ability
- And many more!
How do you get those performance skills?
Well, you have to have good athlete skills! Athletes skills are the skills of practice. How do you become better at riding uphill (a performance skill)? You need to have good athlete skills!
Athlete skills include:
- Following a training plan
- Knowing when not to follow your training plan
- Paying attention to your intensity
- Staying disciplined in your training intensity
- Reflecting on your training
- And many more
Only when you’re good at those athlete skills can you maximally gain the performance skills. If you’re really bad at following a plan, intensity discipline, or listening to your body, it’s going to take you a long time to get faster.
And what is the biggest limiter to these athlete skills? Life skills!
Life skills include:
- Time management
- Knowing how to cook
- Setting priorities
- Managing stress
- Sleep hygiene
- And many more.
Let’s put this into a case study:
George wants to be able to run 50 miles (a performance skill). But he isn’t able to follow the plan (an athlete skill), because he spends a lot of time on social media, and thus doesn’t manage his time (a life skill) well. As a result, after having a plan for 12 weeks, he doesn’t finish his 50 mile race, instead having to drop out at 30 miles.
Does George have poor genetics? Is he just destined to be a 30 mile runner? Obviously that’s not the case. Instead, George needs to focus on life skills (getting his social media habits under control) so that he can use that gained time to practice his athlete skills (follow the plan), and then he’ll get better performance skills (the ability to run farther).
Alternately, some athletes think they can take short cuts. They think that forgoing life skills (sleep, cooking, friends, and fun) will skyrocket their performance skills. While they may improve for a few weeks, the life skills they are sacrificing for those gains make their training unsustainable. Only with a strong foundation of healthy life skills will an athlete reach their fullest potential not just over the next few days, but more importantly, over months and years.
If you aren’t reaching your goals, I highly encourage you to dig deeper. What is your actual limitation? Why aren’t you able to have the performance skills you want? How are your athlete skills? How are your life skills?
