I have been very reluctant to write this article. I have young kids and I'm not sure how I'd feel if they read this.
However in most of my lectures I end up using this analogy and it works, so here goes.
More times than I can think of a coach will ask a question like “How do I know if they are doing the exercise right.”
My answer is always the same.
How does it look?
Does the exercise look correct?
I think strength and conditioning coaching is easy. We know what proper technique looks like. We just have to get clients to do it.
I often use the analogy of the Shit Test. (I could call it the feces test or the poop test but, I think it is less powerful).
My description is simple. If you had a dog, and you walked in your yard and felt something squish under your foot, you would assume it was dog shit?
You would then look down. If it looked like shit, chances were pretty good that was what it was.
If it smelled like shit? More proof.
What does this have to do with strength and conditioning?
Simple. If you watch a client do an exercise you just do the shit test.
How does it look?
If it looks like shit then the form is shitty? Pretty simple.
If it looks like shit, fix it. Either make a correction or more likely, make a regression.
It's pretty simple.