No pain, no gain was a prevalent attitude and philosophy when I began coaching in the late Sixties. Surprisingly it continues to persist today. Frankly I have never been able to understand the appeal of this. Proper training in the weight room or on the field demands that the athlete be periodically pushed to their limits. Some workouts are tough and other workouts are easy. This ebb and flow of hard efforts interspersed with easier efforts is essential allow for proper adaptation. That is the essence of training.
I want my athletes to be tough and ready on game or race day. That should be the goal of training. A thoroughly conditioned athlete who is supremely confident in their physical preparation will be mentally and physically tough. Physically and psychologically an athlete can only go to the well so many times before it will begin to deplete their physical, psychological and emotional reserves. There is no doubt that a good coach can get athletes to train and perform beyond levels that the athletes ever thought possible. To achieve this does not mean you have to inflict pain. Certainly pushing the envelope is uncomfortable. Athletes in training especially at the highest level must get comfortable with a certain level of discomfort but this is a process.
As coaches we are teachers. It is our job to teach our athletes how to train. Training is more than feeling the burn. In fact when you do feel the burn that can be a sign that the training is incorrect. It does not take a genius to devise a workout that can bury someone, that is not training. Training is cumulative, it is more than one heavy session in the weight room or a killer interval workout, it is the cumulative effect of many sessions over a period of week’s and months. Keep the individual workouts in the context of the whole program. With young athletes it is sometimes difficult for them to see the big picture so we as coaches have paint a very clear picture so they can see where they are going and the steps they must take to get there to keep each session in context.
There is no substitute for purposeful directed work. Athletes are like finely tuned racecars. To stay fine tuned they must work with high energy and push themselves, but just like the race car they can not be at red line all the time or there will be a blow-up. More is certainly not better. To negate the no pain, no gain mentality is important to understand progression. Too much too soon without establishing a good foundation of fundamental movement skill will negate the possibility of greater return later on. To make gains it is necessary to achieve a certain stimulus threshold. This threshold is dependent on the individual and the objective of the training. It is certainly more than one magic workout. Willingness and ability to work is a given prerequisite for success, but it must be purposeful, directed and nurtured. There is gain without pain, but it demands patience and a well-executed plan.