I'm starting to come to a revelation of sorts. Aspergers if harnessed pretty much WILL make you a good athlete.
Here's two articles interviewing Russian weightlifters, and I'll quote the stuff I find important.
Vasily Alexeev, The Science of Winning
Leonid Taranenko Interview
Quote:
“I remember, at the time of the championships in Lima, that Reding in
training lifted record weights. He had acquired a terrific strength and huge
muscles, but he lost to me, even though he was physically stronger. Why?
Serge and I had different ways of training. Others thought for him. He
carried out the suggestions of his coach, Dupont. Roughly speaking, Reding
took in ‘the science of winning’ though his ears. And this showed when he was
on his own with the barbell. But, as for me, I thought for myself.
Quote:
You see, the question
is not one of strength, not one of talent. It’s a matter of what’s in the
head. In the physical sense you should, you need to work very hard, but with
the nerves– less . . .”
Quote:
My
advice during training is to think, think, think! …
Quote:
The object of today’s trainers is not to teach an athlete the
correct way to lift a barbell. Most important, he must teach him to reason
and make important decisions independently. Without thought there’s no
creation. And without creation, progress in our difficult work is impossible
I find this to be true, but my problem personally working with coaches, is many seem to hate when their clients think for themselves. My current skating coach is really cool, as I believe he himself has Aspergers, he's one of the few people I know that really really
think about what's going on.
Going for Leonid Taranenko (world record holder in the clean and jerk,) though, he says in some ways, the same thing as Alexeev. He also said he was introverted and that helped him achieve what he wanted.
Quote:
Deep inside, I am a very introvert person, I like to be alone. Now I have to deal with so many people. It empties me psychologically. I have to deal with these "energetic vampires" all day long. In the old times, I was training for over six hours a day and I am used to be with myself. Concentration is very important in our sport. My brother Yury had a great talent for weightlifting - he was fast and had better flexibility than me. But he couldn't concentrate on himself. He was training in the gym and kept looking at the watch. It's like start at five, do what you are supposed to do by seven and be in time with your date. That means that the guy really trained hard but he didn't pass the training through his consciousness. It doesn't give you too much of an effect. I was very focused - that's why I achieved something without extraordinary physical talent.
Now, these articles are about lifting, but I believe the principles apply to any sort of individual sport or activity. I'm sure this is a bit of boring tl;dr thread, but I just wanted to pass this along.
29 May 2013, 2:27 pm
