A Mistake Made By Nearly All Sport Coaches

Covering more miles than are actually best for success

You are an athlete.

Your desire to win drives you to overtrain.

You find yourself covering more miles than are actually best for your chances of success. (Sports are a mixture of peak ability plus endurance, and at a certain point, excess mileage reduces your explosiveness and increases your injury rate.)

It’s all understandable. The overtraining is a correlation with the desire to succeed.

Example:

Cam McEvoy is a swimmer I’ve had some conversations with. He sent me a success story from using the ATG app in 2021, prior to which he was stiffening up and slowing down. He went on to craft his own programming. He really didn’t need my help, but my unusual viewpoints may have added to his overall viewpoint.

Cam went on to win Olympic gold in 2024 and set the WORLD RECORD!

Here’s a recent social media post he made:

Cam learned… but he couldn’t find a COACH to support his plan!

In some sports, you have NO SAMPLE SIZE TO COMPARE AGAINST BECAUSE 100% OF COACHES ABUSE MILEAGE.

Cam’s race is 50 meters.

He was swimming 30,000 to 70,000 meters per week to prepare!

He cut this to 2,000 meters per week, then beat everyone else’s results in HISTORY.

As a non-swimmer, this seems like common sense to me, but if 100% of swimming coaches abuse mileage, it’s not crazy to think the same is happening in other sports.

My sport is basketball, and I’ve never observed a basketball coach who didn’t abuse mileage.

Ideally I would get this down to a measurable formula, but team sports have so many variables I haven’t managed to.

I can at least point out that none of the top players in history abused basketball mileage as they grew up:

Michael Jordan didn’t specialize in basketball early. By age 12 I had chronic knee pain from basketball. Michael wasn’t even playing basketball yet at age 12. His first two years of high school he was on the JV team. He got serious around age 16.

Kobe Bryant didn’t grow up in the American AAU system (mega mileage abuse), and didn’t play just basketball growing up.

Lebron James was an all-state football player at age 16, so he couldn’t have been specializing in basketball till at least 17.

Stephen Curry’s dad played in the NBA but intentionally prevented him from year-round basketball growing up, making him play other sports and holding him out of AAU during key physical development years.

These superstars didn’t succeed “in spite” of lower basketball mileage (compared to your average obsessed basketball player). Lower basketball mileage was PART of their success formula.

If I had to turn this into a formula, I would keep it this simple as a basketball coach:

“We will be on the court as a team three days per week - not five (or more), but with MORE FOCUS. You could still be studying film, strength training, working on your touch, etc., on low-mileage days.

“I’m not saying to play less hard. Michael Jordan was playing HARDER than his opponents, but had LESS MILEAGE than them.”

No basketball coach educated me whatsoever on this subject when I was growing up.

I had chronic knee pain and then surgery when I should have been in the prime of my youth.

Being prevented from full range of motion knee strengthening made matters worse, but it’s all a game of Demand v Ability: Demand on your body vs. your Ability to handle Demand.

My biz is called Athletic Truth Group (ATG is also short for a full range of motion “ass to grass” squat), but athletic truth isn’t just strength training.

It’s also true that most athletes have too much mileage to know their true potential.

I don’t have all the answers.

I have three kids age 5 or less.

I have done cheap or volunteer basketball coaching on and off since I was 16 years old.

There is no doubt the majority of my youth coaching is still ahead.

Please keep me posted on your own observations.

Every win counts. Every person you help, counts.

Yours in Solutions,

Ben

For further help with my ATG Basics and Pro Sports programs: atgonlinecoaching.com

To see if there’s an ATG coach or gym near you: map.atgforcoaches.com