In the move to evidence based practice are we shooting ourselves in the foot once again? So much “evidence based practice” is questionable, inaccurate, fraudulent or flat out wrong. I put my stock in practice-based evidence that I can support with good science where I can. In 45 years of coaching I have found that where it is necessary to produce results coaching (clinical) significance trumps statistical significance. I have yet to see a doctor or a scientist innovate a training method or a technical modification. So much of the time the scientists tell us what can’t be done Talk about barriers and limits) and then coaches and athletes go out and exceed the limits and break though the barriers and records are broken!
Here are some resources that will make you rethink or at least look at evidence based practice in a different light:
How to lie in sports medicine using statistics by Rod Whiteley mhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMZTc-99xQc
Why Most Published Research Findings Are False by John P. A. Ioannidis PLoS Med. 2005 Aug; 2(8): e124. Published online 2005 Aug 30. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124 PMCID: PMC1182327
If you don’t want to read the above then read this article on Ioannidis:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/11/lies-damned-lies-and-medical-science/308269/
If you want to dig deeper into this and stop following the flock I suggest you read these two books.
Above all think critically and don’t be afraid to slay the scared cows of conventional wisdom that stifle innovation and hold us back!