Tweet from @LeaderQuote: ‘Don’t confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but doesn’t make any progress’ – Alfred Montapert

How often in coaching and sport performance do we confuse the two concepts as mentioned by Alfred Motapert? I sometimes think more often than not.

It is so easy as a coach to see things that aren’t really real. We can perceive things to be showing improvement and progress, however its not really the case. It is rather ‘motion’ like the rocking horse then actually moving forward and showing progress. I also think that in some instances we don’t even realise that ‘motion’ could be symbolising the first signs of regression, something which we don’t, as coaches and athletes want to see.

In a follow up post I will explore how to distinguish between ‘motion, rocking horse syndrome’ and progress.

The key for us as coaches and athletes is to strive for progress, with progress making up the majority of the program and time spent in the sport, even though we have to acknowledge that there may be short instances of consolidation or ‘motion’ the overall picture of training cycles and from one year to the next.

Progress is key, constant progress is the desired outcome.