Like the title? Did you believe it? Are you expecting to read the next 1200 or so words and depart for your training session to set a new national record during your warm up? It’s probably fair to assume that you started reading not because you took the title to be a signpost to some previously undiscovered secret formula, but more because you’re a curious individual. And if the latter is accurate then I’m pleased, because you’re already half way to becoming a critical thinker…and critical thinking is exactly what this article is about.
 
I should come clean. I chose the title to provoke a reaction, to encourage you to be inquisitive before you even started reading. I wanted to help get you in the right frame of mind. I also wanted to use the type of extraordinary claim that is made in the marketing we encounter every day as athletes. I hoped to inspire you to ask reflexive questions such as: “What claims is this article making?” or “Can this statement possibly be backed up by reason and evidence?” or “Is the author really in a position to make this statement?” In short, I wanted you to employ your critical thinking skills.
 
Critical thinking is not a term I hear used very often in weightlifting. It simply refers to the practice of applying a questioning mindset to information we are presented with. For example, it is not unusual to see products such as food supplements advertised with before and after photographs. These photographs always show significant amounts of change and in and of themselves can be quite convincing. However, with a sprinkling of questions we can easily test the integrity of this visual evidence. Next time you see this type of advert ask yourself the following questions: Is the lighting the same in both photos? Is the subject striking the same pose, or is he flexing in one shot and not in the other? Is hair and make up the same in both shots? Are the photos cropped in the same way? Is it the same person in both photos? If the answer to any of those questions is no, then how can the comparison be fair (or even useful)?
 
I bet that all sounded pretty simple, and it is, but I’m amazed how many of us get caught out by clever marketing.  The fitness industry is one the forums within which I see the least amount of critical thinking (present company excluded, I’m sure). Let me give you a recent example: I was talking to a couple of coaches who had just come back from some training and they were explaining to me how they had been taught not to squat to full depth (only ever to parallel). The reasoning behind this, they explained, was that at full depth your muscles will not be active and you will get stuck. This conversation seemed all the more ludicrous to me because both these coaches regularly train with athletes who squat more a less ass to grass and do not get stuck any more often that athletes with less range of movement.
 
I understand why this kind of thing happens. These experienced coaches are not stupid or uneducated and they are keen to learn. However, they had paid good money to go on a training course backed by a huge brand, led and endorsed by lecturers who have a strong Internet presence and sold with some impressive marketing. They had invested financially, intellectually, and emotionally. They had committed themselves to the belief that some people’s opinions and teachings are infallible because of who they are. In essence, they willingly gave up their inherent right and capability to assess the validity of the information they were imbibing.
 
Please don’t think I walk amongst the platforms making pronouncements and judgments on what is right and wrong within our sport. I firmly believe that we all have an equal right to question the things we are told. Anyone who has ever been a coach will have heard the following: “But coach X told us to do it like this”. As a coach, you have two choices as to how to respond. We can become defensive and demand that the athlete does it our way, or we can ask the athlete to try it as per our instruction and see which way produces the better result. You see if we respond in the more open way we encourage our athlete to engage their critical thinking skills and make an empowered decision. Furthermore, the conversation we’ll have during this process will help us to critically evaluate our own methods thereby enriching our own skill set.
 
Another reason I take pains to encourage critical thinking in my athletes is because of the way it increases levels of trust. When somebody depends on your input for their performance, they place a great deal of trust in you. If you behave with arrogance and refuse to consider other points of view, any mistakes you make will become amplified. If you let them down because you refuse to be wrong, you will fracture the trust you have between you and they will turn from believing everything you say to accepting nothing from you.
 
So will this article make you PR? Technically, no, but practicing critical thinking will. If you commit yourself to not accepting what you hear and read at face value, you will begin to be able to make a basic scientific evaluation of any input added to your technique or programming. To illustrate: I am often asked to give my opinion on squat cycles my athletes have found on the internet. I always respond with this question: What do you think of it? Their opinion is as valid as mine and in some instances they may have a point of view I wouldn’t consider as a coach. Further to this I say things like, “Are you squatting more than you were before? If so, you’ll probably get stronger,” or “We can only really evaluate this cycle’s benefits for you after you’ve tried it,” or “Do you understand the cycle and feel able to follow it with confidence?” or “What credentials and evidence does the source of the information have to back up the their work?”
 
I encourage you to apply some critical thinking skills to evaluating the value of this article, and I encourage you to think more critically in your work as a coach or in your approach to your education as an athlete. If nothing else, thinking more deeply before applying an approach to weightlifting means you’ll waste less time doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons.