Simplification

Simplification means performing each action with fewer motor units involved. It is a property of the model, not a description of the athlete’s level.

A simplified action is more robust and more resistant to changing conditions — including the super-normal spikes of physical performance that occur in competition, which are precisely the moments a complex action is most likely to fail.

Two things follow. The first is consistency: a simple element can be performed the same way repeatedly and at maximum intensity, which is what standardization requires. The second is the positive feedback loop, which cannot be established in a complex model.

Simplification also changes what training is for. Once the model is understood and its elements sufficiently standardized, adequate technical proficiency arrives quickly, and the focus and resources of training shift to the athlete’s physical development.

There is a practical marker for how far it can go. Vitaly Petrov conceptually simplified the model to the point where there was very little difference between performing on a flexible pole and a rigid one.

What it displaces. Complexity mistaken for sophistication, and simplicity mistaken for a beginner’s method. The simplicity here is structural: it is what allows an advanced athlete to keep adding speed without the method coming apart.