Three Degrees of Planning
Last fall, I decided to continue my triathlon education and become a certified USA Triathlon coach. Part of the certification process involves attending a weekend training including a session on the annual training plan for your athletes. There is a pretty nifty excel spreadsheet where you can carefully plan the athlete’s training from base to race prep. Essentially, it is your athlete’s strategic plan for the season.
I thought about the annual training plan when I read the following articles recently:
Coaching without Periodisation by Wayne Goldsmith
The HERE NOW Method of Coaching by Chuckie V
You Are Off Course by Alan Couzens
As I coach my first group of endurance athletes, I have been reflecting on their plans. I have learned that you can’t plan for injury, acute hypertension and real life. A carefully wrought plan can unwind itself in the turn of an ankle or the illness of a child.
The concept of an annual training plan or strategic plan is great… in a perfect world. The world is rarely perfect.
My first life experience with strategic planning occurred in grad school. I was in a doctoral class in higher education (the professor will go unnamed to protect the innocent). My esteemed professor talked about how strategic plans are essentially worthless once completed. His version of strategic planning intersected with chaos theory. Nothing is stagnant and everything changes by the time you are done planning.
My second experience with strategic planning occurred when I wrote the plan to start my business. Thirty pages later (an attempt to convince myself my business might actually work) I had my vision of the first five years of my business. The third day of my business opening we exceeded my five year projections. My plan was worthless.
My three degrees of planning are now:
- The everything goes fine plan.
- The everything goes to hell plan.
- The everything exceeds my expectations plan (almost as dangerous as number 2).
I use the three degrees of planning in everything; starting a new business, developing strategy for my next race and organizing a family trip. If you embrace the chaos, you can be prepared for all outcomes athletically and in life.
