Bad Quotes

I saw one of those quotes turned into an image that people like to share on social media that I thought couldn't be further from the truth. It was, "Everything you are against weakens you. Everything you are for empowers you." by Wayne Dyer. I see his quotes pop up every once in a while. I don't have any personal experience or feelings about the man. I don't really know anything about him for that matter, but this quote really rubbed me the wrong way.

For starters, this quote is contrary to the body of scientific knowledge in exercise physiology. We don't get stronger by going with the flow. We don't lift progressively heavier weights to get weaker. Sticking with a training regimen that is easy isn't going to do much good. It just isn't the case.

Secondly, this quote flies in the face of everything competitive sports stands for. We get better as players by pushing ourselves to try things that are hard. We get better by playing against better competition. We are likely to get worse by playing easy competition. If our backup players aren't competitive with the starters, we need to handicap the starters, or have them play a game that is unfair against them to make practice games a bigger challenge. It is the very act of struggling against competition that drives us to get better and improve.

As a coach and student of the game we aren't going to do ourselves any favors by only listening to and learning from those we agree with. We aren't going to get much better just listening to and believing them. If we hear something we believe, we are going to be better off listening to, and then verifying whether it is true or not. That will lead to understanding. That will lead to knowledge. That will lead to real improvement. When I say I do one thing over another, I can then say with certainty that I do it because I collected data that support the decision. I will not only know what, but why. When someone asks why I have the middle back defender in that position, I can say that 40% of all attacks will go to that spot. Likewise when I hear something I don't agree with, I will get better by collecting data that either supports or does not support that idea. Then my decisions are informed.

The quote just doesn't work for me. I can't say that it is absolutely wrong, but I don't like the ways that it is right. If all I do is surround myself with people I agree with, my conviction to my world view and philosophy will strengthen, but it is the kind of echochamber strengthening that doesn't stand up to scrutiny. It is empowering, but it doesn't make one strong. Embrace challenge. Question, test and challenge what we have been taught. That will lead to understanding and improvement, and that is the ultimate empowerment.