I have always trained my athletes to be as lazy as possible.

This sounds ridiculous in high performance, but to me it makes complete sense. And after all the research I have done, I will never go back.

Let me explain the oxymoron.

During a competition, the laziest athlete will win. Not lazy in terms of lack of effort, but lazy in terms of efficiency. To be lazy in this context means to do just what you need to win, and nothing else.

Think of it this way. You are in a final. You are the last to go and the scores are up. Your athlete looks at the board and thinks: if I hit everything perfectly I will be 0.3 higher and win. And down he goes. The pressure, the unnecessary comparisons, the expectation he just built in his own head. That killed him. I have seen it too many times.

I would rather have the lazy athlete. The one who goes out and does what he prepared. Nothing more. The rest is my job.

I have always told my athletes that we need to build a level of capacity that is a surplus of what they actually need. On the day of performance, whether that is a competition, sending a route or dancing all night long, their body should be able to do at least 20% more than what they intend to do. That surplus is not wasted. It is the room to manoeuvre when things go wrong.

This is something I always keep in mind when we are setting a goal. Not just where we are going, but how we land there.

I had a conversation in Germany that says it better than anything else.

I was sitting with two senior athletes and I asked them: so what do you need, and what is the goal?

They said: the national coach asked us to score 79. Last time we scored 77, so we added a few skills to reach 79.

And I said: but if you add just enough to reach 79, you have no room to manoeuvre. No extra if something goes wrong. Why not aim for 81 and arrive at 79 with something to spare?

They looked at me like I had said something strange. And then one of them said: no one here has ever thought about it that way.

So I ask you the same thing.

Are you just reaching the goal you set for yourself? Scrambling and climbing exactly as hard as you need to get there? Or are you building enough that you fall into where you wanted to be?