Embracing Chaos and Imperfection in Building Athlete Performance

Today’s podcast features strength coach, Zach Even Esh.  Zach is the founder of the Underground Strength Gym, and has been a leading figure in creative and adaptive strength training means.  He is also the host of the Strong Life podcast and the creator of many educational resources in the realm of human strength and performance. As the world moves forward, the world of training has become an interesting place, accelerated by the changing club sport scene, technological advances, social media, and more.  At the same time, the actual human being performing the training hasn’t changed, and human beings have far more nuances to them than simply being based on the same concepts that a machine, such as a car, does.  In many ways, human beings are being trained less and less like actual humans, and more as machines.  Cones and ladders have replaced playing basketball or soccer.  “Speed Training” has replaced running track, playing other sports, or racing friends on the playground.  This isn’t to say that our collective intelligence hasn’t created a substantial leap forward in understanding training frameworks, but at the same time, increased intelligence doesn’t automatically equal understanding how to create the richest possible environment for an athlete. On the show today, Zach speaks on the importance of imperfect, and chaotic elements in training.  We talk about how these elements are not just important with respect to the chaos of sport, but also in the level of how we are meant to adapt to training in general as human beings.  He talks on the power of a nature-based training system, his menu-based training days, as well as what we can learn from training that “breaks the rules” or would be thought to create “sub-optimal” adaptations.  Finally, Zach hits on the important elements of community in the world of sport, and the modern plague of business that has enveloped the schedules of kids, as well as society in general. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com Find out more about the the online course, Elastic Essentials, by heading to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 3:23 – The branding of “underground strength” versus “speed” when it comes to marketing, and what sports parents are familiar with in performance 8:07 – What a ideal world of play and movement would (and does) look like for a uyoung athlete 15:48 – The nature of preparation based on nature and chaos, versus things needing to be neat 28:19 – How kids are doing more now days, with more coaches, yet accomplish less 38:13 – Keeping training as “rich” and dense as possible, so athletes can spend less total time in training, yet hone human qualities to a maximal level 42:13 – Zach’s menu-based workout system for his athletes 48:01 – The power of nature based, variable training to improve an athlete’s power outputs and general adaptation 1:10:23 – The value of community in one’s training environment as well as the value of training equipment with a history behind it, and the inspiration of using that “He’s playing soccer… that is speed and agility” “Sport has no absolutes, so when they are training, I want their body to feel comfortable in awkward positions” “That’s something software hasn’t brought to the table, kids learning how to compete” “My gym is located across the street from the park, so we’ll warm up with a game of ultimate football, and how do you get to the park? We partner up and you carry kettlebells or a heavy medicine ball; then we’ll segue into jumping and hand walking and crawling then we do a 5-point game, and then carry everything back” “We carried to the park, played,