Definitions / Block 1 — Framework
Standardization
Performing each element the same way, at full intensity, every time. Built through imitations — and impossible wherever the purpose of the action is unclear.
Standardization is sufficient consistency in the performance of each element at maximum intensity.
The intensity qualifier is the whole of it. An element that holds together at comfortable speeds and falls apart at full effort is not standardized, and comfortable speeds are not where the event is contested.
It is the second condition of the positive feedback loop. An element that varies from attempt to attempt cannot absorb added physical input, because there is nothing stable for the input to be added to. Simplification makes an element simple enough to standardize; standardization is the work of actually doing it.
It is built through constant repetition of elements in simplified conditions — imitations — carried on until the element holds at maximum intensity. The threshold is described by the Rule of 85.
Standardization also has a precondition that is not physical. It assumes a clear understanding, by the coach or the athlete or both, of the necessity and the objective of each action. It is virtually impossible to standardize a gray area: where the purpose of an action is unclear, repetition produces variation rather than consistency, because there is no definition of the thing being repeated.
The plant is the most fragile element and its standardization requires the most attention in imitations — continuously through a career, at every level.
What it displaces. Repetition counted as volume — repetitions performed without a defined objective, or only at intensities where the element happens to hold together.
The diagnostic use of this term, and how it is applied in coaching, is in the member vault.