A ranking system for being a generalist and hybrid athlete
Being average and/or competent in many disciplines is the new superpower
One of the initial criticisms of hybrid training was that people didn’t understand why you would want to pursue to become elite in one area.
‘Why would you want to be average in many when you can be the best at one thing’ people would argue.
Now, people are seeing the power of becoming a hybrid athlete, a generalist, a polymath, a renaissance man/woman (there are many titles, it seems). Having a greater set of skills allows you to have a wider tool box for taking on new problems.
I think we should be thinking more broadly about our skill set. Hybrid athletes focus on physical training in multiple disciplines, but what if you started to include other skills into your approach, such as cognitive, academic, or creative skills.
To be prepared for anything, we must be prepared with a wide skill set.
However, more skills means more time dedicated to working on them. This is fine, but the more skills you work on the slower their progress is.
I think this is fine, but it depends on your expectations on how good you expect to get at these skills.
Years ago I randomly watched a youtube video on James Bond. In it they explained one of his advantages is that he is ‘competent’ in many skills. At first I thought ‘only competent - is that good enough?’. But now I see being competent in many skills as an elite advantage. Competent is no longer an adjective to describe mediocre performance. Being competent in many things allows for elite performance in your idea of a generalist.
I now use the following ranking system to determine how many skills I want to develop and how well I want to develop in them. Let’s use sport as an example.
If I only wanted to be an elite athlete I would aspire to be elite in one sport.
If I was a hybrid athlete I would chase to become sub-elite to two sports.
A Crossfit athlete would aim to be an amateur in multiple sports. Crossfit athletes, for example, can hit 5k run times which other amateur runners can achieve, which is really impressive when you consider all the other sports they also train for. For example, a good amateur runner could hit a sub-19 minute 5k.
If I wanted to train for multiple sports and take part in various competitions, or at least be able to take part in any competition or tackle any situation then I can be an impressive generalist athlete if I am competent in all these sports.
The terms ‘amateur’ and ‘competent’ may be perceived as average descriptors, but in reality they are not. To be an amateur in many disciplines is incredibly impressive and requires a lot of time and deliberate practise, and being competent in many disciplines means you have a huge skill set to approach problems in your own unique way.
Compare this to someone who may be competent in one area, and then average to poor at everything else. Suddenly, competent doesn’t sound that good. Become competent in many areas and then all of a sudden it’s the sum of your parts which make you more elite as a generalist.
I now list all the skills I want to develop and I rank where I believe each skill is based on the above descriptors. I then decide which ones deserve more time and effort to become an amateur or even sub-elite, and which ones I believe being competent at will be greatly beneficial to me as a whole. This will all be based on the type of generalist I want to be.
How do you see yourself as a generalist? Could you use this ranking system? Let me know in the comments.
And if you’re interested in Hybrid training check out my book ‘The Science of Hybrid training’ available from Amazon.
Amazon UK 🇬🇧: https://amzn.eu/d/bD86gIi
Amazon USA 🇺🇸 : https://a.co/d/j3cTnx2
Amazon Canada 🇨🇦 :https://a.co/d/g4HL37g
Keep embracing creativity
Dr Phil Price
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