W.I.N. - What’s Important Now
Written by Conquer Athlete Coach Ryan Bucciantini
Whether you’re a coach being paid to help an athlete improve or an athlete looking for the next thing that's going to help you push the needle of performance, it’s easy to do what is popular or trendy right now.
Ice baths, sauna, and Zone 2 work all come to mind as trendy bullshit as of the writing of this article. Now before you kill the messenger, I’m not saying those things don’t help or aren’t beneficial, again, don’t send me an Andrew Huberman article, I’m just saying those things are probably not the low hanging fruit that's going to help you WIN.
To me, winning requires you to do the thing that you NEED to do, not the thing you want to do. Yes, there is balance between those two things, but the need needs to outweigh the want.
Speaking from a coaches perspective, when I think about determining “what’s important now,” it all starts with a conversation with my athlete. When setting up training, I always want to hear their opinion on what THEY think is the thing that is going to make them better and help them reach their goals. Every athlete has the key to success inside of them, some are just better at articulating it than others, and the better the questions you can ask as a coach the easier it will be to find W.I.N. (What’s Important Now).
Great conversation always helps me gain so much insight into where my athlete is at mentally, how they interpret the demand of their sport, and where they think they’re weak relative to the field - all very helpful information when structuring training.
When you know W.I.N. for your athlete, it gives you a blueprint for training because now all you need to do is look at the status of the underlying systems and build as needed to help them reach their goal.
So, if you need to improve your snatch mechanics and your mobility sucks, implement W.I.N. If your engine sucks but you don’t do any energy systems work, implement W.I.N. Your ego may take a hit and it may not be what you want to do, but a short term sacrifice is worth it for a potentially huge long term gain.
If you have any questions or want to learn how we work with athletes with our fully customized Individual Design coaching, email help@conquerathlete.com. Or, check out our website www.conquerathlete.com and set up a free discovery call.