The Destructiveness Of Method And Technique

A human wishes to learn a skill.

Or improve a skill.

Or attain realization.

 

He hires an “instructor.”

Or a “coach.”

 

Why does he do this?

 

Why would he not?

After all, a human does

What other humans do.

 

A human’s behavior

Is created by what he sees

What he hears

What he is repeatedly told

Where he repeatedly lives.

 

He has no choice in the matter.

He has never had a “choice.”

 

This is . . .

Conditioning.

 

If the human is asked

“Why did you hire an instructor/coach?”

He certainly will not say,

“Because I have been conditioned by the world.

Because I have been brainwashed by the world.

Because I am a slave to the norm.

Because I am a product of my environment.”

 

Rather,

He will be dumbfounded by the question.

 

“What sort of silly question is this?

Why would I NOT hire an instructor/coach?”

 

What does an “instructor” do?

He Instructs.

 

What does a “coach” do?

He Coaches.

 

Therein

Lies the fundamental problem.

 

(Few will see it

At first glance.)

 

If one seeks to become great

At a particular skill

In business

In sport

Or in anything . . .

Can he be “instructed”

Or “coached”

Into that skill?

 

It is an innocent question.

And not a leading one.

 

It is a question for a human

To ask Himself.

And explore Himself.

 

One of the human’s most catastrophic diseases

Is Opinion and Belief.

 

Why shall any sensible human

Resort to wayward and insignificant things

Such as opinion and belief,

When he has the ability

To consult The Evidence.

 

What does the Evidence show?

 

Pie charts

Graphs

Statistics

Theorems

And intricate analyses

Are not required.

 

One needs only a basic intellect

A pair of eyes

And a pair of ears.

 

How many instructors are there?

How many coaches are there?

 

One may make it easier upon himself.

How many coaches has the human himself hired.

How many instructors has the human himself hired.

 

The same goes

For humans that they may know

Who have hired instructors and coaches.

 

Did the instruction Work?

Did the coaching Work?

 

If the human deems that it did . . .

If the human deems that instruction and coaching

Made him Great . . .

Then he would be silly to abandon it.

 

And, therefore, the remainder of this discourse

Is not for him.

He may now Leave.

 

How does an instructor, instruct?

How does a coach, coach?

 

Prescriptions.

How-to’s.

Hacks.

Methods.

Techniques.

 

In the world of professional sports,

Things have evolved to the point

That there are perhaps more coaches

Than players.

 

This is happening

In all domains.

 

Business coaches.

Meditation instructors.

Vocal coaches.

Art instructors.

Golf instructors.

Baseball hitting coaches.

On and on and on . . .

 

The coach states How To Do It.

The instructor provides the Method.

 

The student

Attempts the method.

 

The coach watches him perform the method.

Then he adjusts him

Corrects him

Changes this

Changes that.

 

Having contorted the student

Physical and mentally

In accordance with the “proper way”

And the “correct form and technique”

The student is no longer a Human.

 

He has become

A Puppet.

 

Understand this:

Puppets Do Not Become Great.

 

The student has instincts.

But he now bows at the alter of Form

And Technique.

 

The student/puppet has little choice but to ask,

“Is this correct, coach?”

“Am I doing it right, coach?”

“Is my technique improving, coach?”

 

Each time he makes a movement,

He does not consult his instinct.

He consults

The coach!

 

Not because he wishes to.

And not even because the coach has asked him to.

 

But simply because this is the Effect

Upon Any Human

Who has been brainwashed by the Belief

That method and technique

Are the road to Greatness.

 

The notion being . . .

If the form and technique are “correct,”

The results will be favorable.

 

Very well.

 

What does the evidence show?

 

The evidence shows more failures

Than successes.

 

The evidence shows that a professional golfer

A professional hockey player

A professional tennis player . . .

Hits infinitely more “bad shots”

Than good ones.

 

If the instruction and the coaching were sound

Why should this be the case?

 

If the method and technique were “correct’

One would, by the evidence before him,

Be forced to conclude

That the methods and techniques that athletes are being given

Are methods and techniques

To hit Bad Shots!

 

After all,

Bad Shots are the majority of what they hit.

 

One may argue,

That although the athlete hits bad shots,

The coaching and instruction

Made their “good shots better.”

 

This could be so.

But is this a much different result

Than one would obtain

If he “coached” himself?

 

After all,

BEFORE the player sought a coach,

His bad shots greatly outnumbered his good ones.

His failures greatly outnumbered his successes.

 

AFTER he works with the coach,

His bad shots greatly outnumber his good ones.

His failures greatly outnumber his successes.

 

Is there logic in this?

 

There is a rather horrific

And unpalatable Truth

That most professional athletes

(And anyone that has subscribed to instruction and coaching)

Never come to Realize.

 

The reason they never come to realize it

Is because they have been so busy

Being coached.

 

Perhaps it is in an individual’s best interest

To never come to this Realization.

For the pain

Is difficult to bear.

 

It is the Realization that

For that last 20, 30 or 50 years . . .

The human has Not been devoted to Himself

Or to his Greatness.

 

For that last 20, 30 or 50 years . . .

The human has been Enslaved

To correcting

The technique

And pleasing the coaching establishment!

 

Oh how many potential Artists

Are being destroyed each day

In all domains

Around the world . . .

 

Talent and potential

Are a terrible thing to waste.