So I started this blog last year with the intention of posting once a week on Fridays. I managed two posts and then left it unloved for over a year. In that time I’ve often thought about writing something but more often found excuses not to. To be fair me and my wife did have a baby which was kinda a big deal! So this time around there will be no set frequency with which I will publish but more as and when I feel compelled. But I will write a minimum of 12 articles over the next 12 months to at least have a goal attached with which you can hold me accountable.
Today’s post is one I’ve thought about for a while. This month I started a new role at MVF and the topic which I’m writing about is particularly relevant to the brilliant new team I’m leading. This is the first in what I think will be a series of posts around the topic of superpowers and how we hope they will help us to continue on our mission of building the worlds best performance marketing team!
Training your superpower(s)
The winter Olympics seem a distant memory but today I want to write about Nils van der Poel. Nils broke the speed skating world record in both the 5km and 10km. That isn’t totally unique, people break world records in multiple distance events at summer and winter olympics. But what was unique was the training method Nils employed. As well as the fact that days after his accomplishment he retired and published his 62 page training manifesto online.
His unique view of training, was about leaning into his strengths and focussing only on these. Namely he was a talented skater but he had the ability to train harder and in more volume, consistently than anyone else. These were his superpowers and nothing else mattered.
“The common way to approach the sport seems to me to be to acquire some certain abilities (i.e. maximum strength, VO2max, threshold, technique, mobility, core stability etc.) and as the competition approaches you put all these abilities together..To some extent I approached the sport in a similar way, but I believed that the puzzle only had two pieces. (1) Competition speed capacity and (2) aerobic capacity.
The main idea of my training program was that you will become good at whatever it is that you train. The idea was that whoever skated the most laps of 30,0 during the last three months prior to the competition would win the 10k. My preseason basically had two aims: (1) build the capacity to be able to skate a lap of 30,0 and (2) build a good recovery so that I could skate a 30,0 as often as possible.
Since skating a lap of 30,0 is not so hard for a world cup speed skater, I mainly focused on building a strong recovery.
Some pro athletes say that, since they are professionals and can train as much as they like, they might as well add some weight training, and some stretching, and some core, and some technical sessions, and some training competitions, and some coordination sessions… All training sessions are performed at the expense of other, more efficient, training sessions, or at the expense of recovery after these sessions”
Over the next 62 pages Nils goes into great detail about how he achieved much of this. It gets quite technical but largely, he was a very fit person who was a talented skater - above average but this was not what made him a world record breaker. Ultimately Nils created a huge aerobic base by training for 7hours a day on the bike for 5 days in a row and then having 2 days off (5:2 pattern)
Example week during the Aerobic season:
Mon 7h biking at 260W
Tue 6h biking 250W
Wed 2h x-country skiing + 4h biking at 250W
Thu 7h biking at 265W
Fri 6h biking at 240W
Sat Resting
Sun Resting
I will come back to other elements of this document in further posts but for now I want to focus on the four following quotes.
the puzzle only had two pieces
you will become good at whatever it is that you train
I mainly focused on building a strong recovery.
All training sessions are performed at the expense of other, more efficient, training sessions
the puzzle only had two pieces
This was Nils boiling down to the absolute key parts of what makes someone a world class speed skater. This level of simple obsessive focus can be really challenging. We are conditioned to think more is better and often struggle to get down to this level of singularity. What I love about this is, that by isolating the base principles of what will make you successful, you can totally narrow the focus. Which in turn allows you to dramatically increase the quality of these activities. You’re creating the concentrated version of you.
Exercise: Take your job description and try to boil this down to the most critical parts (aim for 2-4)
You will become good at whatever it is that you train
Choices. Nils understood that he could not train everything and that he would have to make choices. What you won’t do says as much as what you will do. It’s tempting to do everything but to be great you will have to make difficult and considered choices. By making these choices Nils was able to be the absolute best in these specific areas - he was accepting of the fact he would not be in the top 1% or maybe even 5, 10 or 20% for other areas.
This again seems like an extreme example but I believe we can use this way of thinking for our own selves or our teams. Once you can understand what the unique combination of skills you want to build are and how they will help you achieve success (whatever you deem this to be) the sooner you can start training them. Much like aerobic capacity, our strengths compound. Much like saving money. The sooner that you can begin your training regime the more time you have for these muscles to grow!
I mainly focused on building a strong recovery
Why did Nils focus on this area? Well it seems to me that this was one of his natural strengths and something that he enjoyed (some would say oddly). Rather than developing skills in areas where he was weaker and perhaps becoming a more rounded athlete, he leaned in totally to his strengths and trained these to where in combination they would make him the best in the world.
Training you strengths is a known benefit - in the book Now, Discover Your Strengths the authors talk about Capitalizing on your strengths and managing around your weaknesses and that you will excel only by maximising your strengths.
This strength based approach and reading Nils describe it in such simple terms, really resonated with me. If anyone has ever said you are a natural at something, try to think what that is and double down on that skill. Because people are very complex it’s likely that you will be a natural at multiple things. Try to list these out. What comes naturally? You want to be able to take the things that you are natural at and combine them to provide you with your own personal monopoly. You might not think you are a world record breaker but this unique combination of skills may well put you in the top 1% in the world
All training sessions are performed at the expense of other, more efficient, training sessions,
Every single one of us only has 24 hours in day - it is the universal leveller. To be the worlds best you have to accept where to train and where not to - focus on those areas which provide the most competitive advantage. Even if you’re not aiming to be an Olympian you’re probably striving to be the best version of yourself. And so like an athlete you need the right level of rest and fuel. But you also need to find the things that create joy in your life outside of training, whatever these might be. Make sure you’re always giving yourself enough time for these and you’ll find yourself able to train harder. So every activity that you doing during the day that specifically does not train your unique blend of superpowers or create joy or help you rest/fuel has an opportunity cost. In the same way that finding your core strengths requires a level of single minded focus, so does the ability to remove these everyday distractions. For Nils it was training his core or improving flexibility for you it might be attending that meeting, replying to that Slack message or taking on that additional assignment.
To help you think about what your superpowers might be, here are a few of my favourites. I have observed these first hand experience whilst leading a number of high performing teams in various functions over the past decade
Sales (especially those not in sales!)
Copywriting (everyone should be improving their copywriting. EVERYONE.)
Creative Thinking
Technical ability (not necessarily being an engineer but being able to hack a script or scrape a website…)
Hard Work (yep the ability to grind it out day after day is a superpower, Nils would agree!)
Ambition
Positivity
That’s it. If you liked todays post then feel free to subscribe, share or follow me on Twitter or Linkedin - I’m off to drive to Northamptonshire and spend the weekend with my in laws and a slightly grumpy 6month old named Bo!