Outcome vs Performance Training and Goals

Categories: Blog May 04, 2016

And now, a guest post from Chad Faulkner, US Army and OS Coach....

 

In this article I’m going to approach a topic that crossed the boundaries of all training or goal setting. It’s a topic that I’ve struggled with as an instructor in the Army as most of the Army’s training is centered on outcome based training. I struggle with this because  I prefer the performance-oriented side of the house.

So what is “outcome based training”? Simply put, it’s when you focus on the end goal. For example, you may want to achieve a perfect score of 300 on your Army Physical Fitness Test, so you train hard on your pushups, situps and running 2 miles. Another goal might be benching your bodyweight, so you hit the bench nearly daily pushing more and more weight.

Now for “performance based training. " In performance based training, you can still have an end goal you want to achieve, but your focus is the process. You work more on the small goals and the steps you need to take in order to get there. When training for performance, you shouldn't focus on the end goal. You’ll get there, but again your focus is on the process.

So what’s my issue with this? Not always, but often people lean too much towards the end goal, or outcome, and don’t focus enough on the process/progress. Another way of saying this would be, people don’t focus enough on the performance. In the examples I gave above, the soldier is worrying more about three simple exercises rather than addressing total fitness and other areas of strength he/she may need. It's the same with the bench press example, the person is focusing on that goal weight on the bench when there may be other areas they should be working on.

In my experience, when you get someone to focus on the process and not worry about the outcome, they perform better. They’ll often achieve their goal quickly and with less stress. Retired Army Command Sergeant Major and Delta Force operator Patrick MacNamara of TMACS Inc and Combat Strength Training often talks about performance versus outcome based training and he and I share the same opinion. I’m bringing this up because I like the way he words this explanation, “when you consider the outcome, it sabotages your ability to perform”. He also says, “the probability of achieving the outcome you desire will increase once you let go of the need to have it.” Pat and I share the same brain in regards to this topic, I just wanted to give him credit for that wording. It’s a great way of explaining the topic.

So how do I apply this for the Original Strength practitioner? Pretty easy actually. Original Strength principles lend themselves to performance based training. We often say, “do what you can with what you have.” If you’re using the RESETS properly, you’ll be training for performance.

Let's look at crawling for example. If you want to use performance-based training for crawling, then you would crawl for time. Let's say you want to crawl ten minutes straight, you would crawl as long as you can and then stop the time when you need to stop and rest. Then you start it time back when you begin crawling again. Each time you train you try a little harder to go longer, but you focus on the performance of making it ten minutes versus making it a quarter mile. When crawling for time, it may be much easier to focus on your speed, your head position, your tongue position, etc... If you were just crawling for distance, you may focus more on the outcome and forget the little things along the way and allow yourself to drop your head, raise your butt, or crawl in such a way that doesn't optimally reinforce your reflexive strength.

If you focus on your performance and let go of the outcome, you just might find you get even stronger and more mobile along the way.

Next time you find yourself setting goals, consider going about it from a performance standpoint versus focusing on the outcome. The greatest rewards can often be found in the journey, not the destination.

Chad Ray is currently a Master Sergeant in the Army at Fort Bragg and an OS Coach. He is also the author of OS for the Tactical Athlete - coming soon to an Amazon website near you. 

 

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