Ockham’s Razor- A Coaching principle?
William of Ockham lectured at Oxford in the 14th Century. He is most famous for his theory that when you have two competing theories which make exactly the same predictions, the one that is simpler is the better.
I use this principle in Coaching; if there are two ways of getting the job done, the simpler is the better. There are two reasons for this:
- The athlete is better able to remember what to do and can apply themselves more vigorously to the simple approach.
- The body is better at learning simpler movements and skills and these are more likely to be remembered under pressure (when it counts).
Overcomplicating the Coaching process may seem like you are doing more, but in reality it is achieving little.
Addendum on motor learning.
If a coach gives lots of feedback and instruction, immediate improvements in that task may be seen.
However, if the coach gives less instruction and feedback, but sets up the task and environment to get the athlete to solve problems themselves, less immediate improvements are seen in practice.
Put that into the sporting arena (the contest of changing circumstances) and guess which is the more robust and adaptable athlete?
It is counter-intuitive: less is more!
It’s a nice idea to apply theology to sport and clearly simplicity is best but I don’t think his razor quite cuts it in this instance. By stating that using a simpler method actually achieves better results (in terms of compliance and recall) and therefore a different outcome, you are negating the applicability of the principle.
I think you’d be better of with da Vinci’s statement…
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
Thanks for this, James. I find little nuggets of info like this, related to the work we do, fascinating and I think it makes us more interesting coaches.
I think you could be right. I like the Da Vinci quote.
[…] Instead of “stick backside out, flex hips first, then knees“ I say “sit down“. We need to be able to observe what is right, but we say things that the athlete can comprehend (It is the old Ockham’s razor approach). […]