Puzzles, mysteries and gold medals

What can we learn from past events if we study them with care if not how to reproduce the events, to duplicate the performance. In other words learn from history. It is said that only thing we can actually learn from history is that we do not learn from it. This can very well be true if we choose to accept this generalization as such.

We won't go into great detail about really important historical events such as wars and kings and et cetera. What we are going to do is go deeper in terms of sports and coaching and try to get a grasp of certain important factors about those in light of what we should know and learn. 

Unknown is divided here into two parts: puzzles and mysteries. They may seem similar but in truth they are far from it. The key here is information. The other requires the right kind of information to be solved where the other requires the right analysis of the right information and correct action to the boot. Simple enough stuff. 

At the first glance thing like success is a puzzle - pieces are there, all you have to do is assemble them to form a whole picture. Correct. To a point yes. You can get the same winning coach, do the same winning routine and train at the winning facilities and still be left wanting. Why does it not work. All the pieces are there. No, one crucial piece has changed - it's you, not the previous champ. Does it mean that you suck. No. You might be quite there in all areas but your approach just needs tuning. Puzzle means we have a knowledge of all the pieces required for the whole, we just don't know how to combine them. To do this is basic trial and error. In general, anyone can finish a puzzle. It just takes longer for some. You can achieve things they way you do a puzzle but it seems so simple it makes one wonder why everybody isn't doing it then. Maybe this is because the longer can be really long long time and patience is not a virtue shared by everyone.

Success as a mystery. That feels better from the get go. There are all kinds of successes to be had, things to achieve and medals up for grabs. The most important thing for coaches and others looking for success is the need to realize - there is nothing left to discover. This is the biggest hurdle to tackle, widest river to cross. Let go of the fallacy that success needs a discovery. Quite the contrary. All the information needed to build a champion and gold medalist is already there. Coaches are the arbiters of taste here for what's really good. What is the ingredient your talent graves. Do you recognize it when you see it. Data is in existence. It may not be collected yet - hence the amount of dissertations every year. Possible combinations for all the data and ways to use them is staggering figure. This is the essence of mystery. Analysis of existing information and correct conclusions of this information. 

Analyzing the data bits from the enormous flow is dangerous business. The data can tells us exactly what we want to know, regardless of if it's actually really so. For subjective species the skill of objectivity is no trivial task to master. Interpretation is ever present no matter what we do. We will always see the world from our perspective. We can try to see it from someone else's but could easily end up viewing from no-one's particular perspective, from a phantom view point. The skill is the realize this and be able to separate the actual information from our interpretation to the extent it's possible to do. This is tricky because we interpret what we interpret and so forth. It is possible to know things but caution is adviced. The false holy grail will only cause rapid fall from grace. Be optimistic but always suspect and check and double check. Only certain thing is that nothing ever is certain. Going through data is a task in itself and takes patience and expertise. In the end it will pay off if you know what to do with it. Pieces of information are like building blocks - you can combine them any way you want but only certain combinations turn out master pieces and mind me saying, instructions are needle in a haystack class material.

We have the answers. All we need to do is figure out the quoestions.