Latest / The Uplift- with Luke Pollock / #37 - Solo Pod - Why You Need Options
Transcript
- Luke Pollock: Hello and welcome back to the Uplift. It's your host Luke back with another shoulder podcast, my favorite type of podcast, a shoulder podcast. And it's going to be a short one for you today. I'm just about to head to the gym to do a little recovery session. It's Wednesday. we train Tuesday night, Thursday night. So my Wednesdays will normally look like recently it's been like a sauna and maybe a little bit of cold plunge or else just a complete day off because honestly, sometimes that's the best thing you can do is just have it. 100 % rest day where you're just reading, kicking back, doing a little bit of work where fits recording a podcast, maybe writing down something that is what my Wednesdays normally look like. But today I'm meeting up with a brother, going to do some light upper body stuff and then maybe a bit of sauna and ice bath. So I'm looking forward to it. I'm really excited, but I thought I would record this podcast before I go out. And today I want to talk about options and the power of optionality. I it's something I've been reflecting on a lot with the rehab process in general. I hope you like the new podcast setup as well. I'm trying to make it less formal and a little bit more chilled out and just, yeah, as if, as if I'm talking to you, one of my mates, which is, which is the goal as always, but optionality has been something that has. Yeah. Been in my mind this week a lot, obviously when I'm in this new league thinking about who I'm playing against you. you consider the teams who are most difficult to play against other teams who aren't just good at one thing, but they can hit you from many different angles. And in rehab, that is the goal. We're getting players back to the position on the pitch where they have multiple options. And in life, it's nice to have options, right? And whether that's your work, whether that is where you live. Often we choose where we live to keep the options open. So I live in London, so I could... work privately, I could work in the NHS or I could do my own thing. And at some point you have to cash in in your options. We're going to talk about that a little bit later. So I'm not saying just having loads of options and never picking anyone is the way to go. But optionality is really, really powerful. And if you think of the best players in the world, whether that's footballers, rugby players, rugby is my sport. So let's talk about that. The best rugby players in the world can perform multiple different movements at high level. So you never know whether the You never know where they're going to go. let's take like a winger, for example, who's very, very fast, like a little resum. He also is very powerful, has the option to run over you. He might chip and chase you, or he might step you and work around you. So the power of options in sport is incredibly, unique. And I think people often hone in on like one super skill. So for some, it might be like his speed. But actually it's a lot of those softer skills that will keep the defender guessing and the power of options really. So when we are getting players back in terms of rehabbing them, we want to give them options. We don't want them to feel like, I'm not really confident on that right side yet. So I'm only going to be a left sided stepper. That's going to really, really limit their game, limit their chance of getting selected, and then limit their chance of making money or progressing in the world. to have... To be successful at our job, we need to step into the player's world. Giving the player options on the pitch is the best way of doing that and giving yourself options off the pitch as well. I just think options are really, really great, but we need to cash in on them at some point. So to go back to my analogy, a winger is no use if he has the option to chip and chase. He has the option to step off his right or his left, but he never uses them. He consistently just takes contact. That is not a good player. A good player is a player with options and he regularly utilizes those options. The same with the team. A good team is a team who have the ability to play wide to wide and they regularly do that. In the same breath, sorry, they can maul you, they can scrum you over the line. Okay, so they utilize their options. And I think our generation are concerned with keeping options open and... I might, I might use this in future, but they never actually cash in on options and that is still making a decision. So not making a decision is still making a decision. So if I hesitate on the rugby pitch, I have chose to not make a decision. Okay. Rather than, I was just hesitating to see how the picture unfolded. You've chose to not make a decision in that scenario, which sometimes is a good decision, but it's still a decision. And I think that is the key bit that people get wrong. We need to cash in on our options to utilize them well. so that is my tangent for today on options. And it's something that I want to incorporate into the performance side of my rehab a little bit more and my own self as well. So when I'm training, I want to be able to utilize options or skills that I've been working on on the pitch as well. But it's easy for rehab professionals, S and C coaches to say, yeah, it's really important that we get you back better than you were before, but get you back feeling better than you were before. But what does that practically look like? Yeah, they might be feeling great, but they might be moving terribly. I think it's a really good goal to have. want to give to get you back to a place where you feel like you can perform multiple options on the pitch and you can pick one and perform it very comfortably and to the highest level. So you're not limiting that player. A player that never comes back the same. What does that look like? Maybe they don't look confident in their decision-making. Maybe they are hesitating. Maybe they do one thing and they're a one-trick pony now. And that might be because of injury. Maybe injuries keeping them from stepping off that left side, striking with the left foot, head around the ball comfortably. We just don't know. And wouldn't be until you really unpicked that player's injuries in their career and talk to that player, would you dive a little bit deeper? But if you're a performance coach or an S &C coach or a player yourself, I think it's important that you get back to the place where you're comfortable, that you've got many options to choose from in different scenarios and that you're comfortable executing those options. So put yourself on the page in, in rehab, put yourself there, put yourself in a one V one scenario and explore different options that you might have. think a sport like Jiu-Jitsu, I interviewed Jiu-Jitsu guy, my first episode of the podcast, like second episode of the podcast. And that sport has taught me so much. went to like three sessions last year. And it's taught me so much because there's multiple ways to submit your opponent. And if you continually try to submit your opponent in the same way, they will just defend it and block it. And the same is true in sport and rugby. If you have one good game doing one thing. So I'm quite like comfortable running a hard line in rugby. I'm an outer end hard line. But if that's all I did, a team would just preview that and say, okay, well, we knew he's going to do this. So that's Eliminated it for my game and that has happened. I've had to explore. How can I get around defenses differently? It's the same in jiu-jitsu and martial arts This player is now blocking that not move because they know I'm comfortable and it's my more comfortable move executing it So how am I gonna get around it and you need to learn more moves get more options and then be comfortable Executing these options and it's the exact same sport and then rehab and in life I could talk about that as well and in life we need options, but Options are no use if we don't execute them. So people want to keep the relationships like very open because you never know what might come around, but then they end up never actually following through and executing on something. so then they just will, they'll die knowing, yeah, I've kept my options open, but that will be, still making a decision. So keeping your options open is still making a decision. If you don't make a decision and pick one, I hope I'm not losing too many of you, but anyway. I've just finished this book, bird by bird by Alan Watt. me, let me hold up the camera and show you. think I've talked about it on the last three podcast episodes. I'd literally just finished it before recording. 200 and yeah, over 200 pages, near 300 pages. And, I obviously didn't just finish it today. I've been reading it for the last few weeks, just slowly make my way through it. And I love this book. It's instructions on writing, but just change writing with any creative act. really, whether that is doing a podcast, creating on the internet or like playing music, anything that you do creatively by yourself, replace that with writing if you don't write. And yeah, you'll really, really enjoy this book. And this quote, I read a quote from this book last week, but this quote also really reinstated me. And I was thinking about it today when I've been thinking about the journey of the page and how things are going and where we go with this and where we go with the podcast and stuff. And I think Sometimes the way you find out where to go is go through. And one of my clients actually said that to me on a message. Well, she's not my client, but we were meshing back and forth about how rehab is going. And she said, I understand there's lots of different ways I could go and the options I could take, but I feel the best way for me to go is through. And I was like, wow, this is poetry. I'm reading poetry right now on my Instagram DMs. I love it. And this, this quote by E. L. Doctoro. but it was made famous by Anne Lamott because she included it this book, which was published in 1994. I did look it up because I didn't know last week, but he says, writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. You don't have to see where you're going. You don't have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you. This is right up there with the best advice about writing. or life I've ever heard. I think that is so true. Life is kind of just like turning the headlights on in the car and driving at night. You don't have to see the whole way, but you just have to see a few steps ahead. And sometimes the way forward is through. Sometimes the way forward is picking an option and backing that option. Those are the most successful athletes. The most successful creators and writers. Imagine if Anne Lamott had the option to write this book, but she never did. And I would never be reading this quote to you because I wouldn't know who EL Doctoro was because she made the quote famous. You have to cash in on your options, but optionality is key. And if you don't feel like you have options, explore that, see how you can create more options. I felt like in my last job, I didn't have options. I wanted to give more time to my sport. I wanted to give more time to my rugby. And I didn't feel like I could, I didn't have options in that case. So I created a new path for me. I turned on the car, switched on the headlights and thought, okay, we're going to go down this Instagram. this Instagram, right? I'm going to really dial in and see him learning a lot more about ACLs. I'm going to see how many good results I can get while working. And it worked out. So we need to cash in our options. If you don't have options, find a way to get some more and read books. It will, it will change your, it will change your view on things, but this is a short podcast. if you've listened to this, I just got a message today from a guy who listens to the podcast. And he just said, I listened to your last three solo episodes and I loved them. And it made my day because yeah, a lot, a lot of obviously friends and family listened to it, but I don't know this guy and it's really, really cool to hear people are listening and enjoying the podcast. It's my little passion project. I love it. so yeah, I'm going to start a new book today. and I will probably talk about that one as much as I've talked about this one. If, if you read this book, if you pick it up, let me know. and if you've got any opinions or questions about options and how to keep them open, then shoot me a DM and I'd to talk to you about that because I think it's really, really powerful and it's changed how I live my life and how I also view myself and my clients as athletes as well. We want to give ourselves options on the pitch when we're in those moments so we can execute multiple different things at once and we want to, well, we can execute multiple different options throughout the game and we want to keep our opponents guessing. That is the goal. So yeah, thanks for listening again. This has been Luke on the uplift and I will see you next Wednesday for another episode. Thank you.