Lindy Training: An Inquiry into Training Principles and Methodologies

In Nassim Taleb's book Antifragile, he describes the Lindy effect, which states that the future lifespan of a non-perishable item (such as ideas, methods, etc.) is directly proportional to its previous lifespan. To make it simple, this means that ideas and habits that have had the propensity to last a long time have done so because they are inherently robust. This same principle can be applied to training principles and methodologies for athletic development, allowing a look forward at the future of training based on its previous history.

Through this appreciation for the Lindy effect, we can look forward by way of looking backward.

Principles and Methodologies: Understanding the Differences

In any discipline, but especially in the world of training, principles are by far the most evergreen way of understanding both the mechanism and its outputs. These principles are often presented in the form of heuristics—simple, general groupings that make understanding complex concepts possible. A great example of this is the simple quantification heuristics of training inputs: volume, intensity, frequency, and density.

The principles drive the

methods, not the other

way around.

Other key examples of principles include Newtonian mechanics and the general adaptation syndrome. These principles make up a base understanding of how athletes interact with the physical environment around them and adapt to the constraints that environment creates. All good training, whether it was 500 years ago or far into the future, has to adhere to these principles and play by the rules they provide.

General physical quality heuristics are also incredibly Lindy. Strength, power, speed, coordination, and mobility are all qualities that have been clearly described and generally understood. The reason that these principles have withstood the test of time, and will continue to do so, is because they are robust and adaptable to a number of environments and situations.

Methodologies, on the other hand, are constantly changing, which can be clearly seen in the progression of athletic development over the last 200 years (especially over the last 40 years as exponential acceleration has taken place). Different training styles have risen and fallen for different disciplines, but careful attention should be paid to the ones that have lasted in any facet. This doesn’t mean something is necessarily right because it’s old or has been done before. It means that some aspect of that method or idea has enough value to extend its lifespan to this point, and that aspect is typically an adherence to hard and fast training principles.

All of the developments in training in the last 5-10 years are clear reflections of this. Biometric tracking, such as sleep tracking, drives home the same point your grandmother told you, and her grandmother told her: sleep is good because it allows you to adapt and grow. Simple. Motion capture to understand the kinematics of a movement and apply the laws of physics to improve it? The same thing that coaches and teachers of movement have been doing for thousands of years with their eyes and ears. As technology develops further, and training alongside it, what will actually make progress is the application of these Lindy training principles with a higher level of both precision and validity.

Simplicity: The Ultimate Lindy Principle

There are many carryovers between training and other disciplines, but one of my favorites to reference is the world of cooking. Everywhere in the world I’ve been, there have been a multitude of cooking styles employed by different cultures, but they’re all very similar at a macro level. A carbohydrate source, a protein source, and a source of fats combined with an assortment of fruits and vegetables that provide vitamins and minerals. The methodologies that different cultures use to adhere to these principles (food preparation and presentation styles) have mainly been driven by the environmental constraints around them. The commonality between all the best food I’ve eaten around the world is a simple dish, containing carefully cultivated high-quality ingredients prepared in a simple way. A clear example of addition by subtraction.

“Good food is very often, even most often, simple food.” - Anthony Bourdain

The same can be said for training styles in a variety of cultures and physical pursuits. The best (and most Lindy) keep things simple, drive basic general physical preparation changes, work around the specific skill being developed (the most important element of training), and provide environmental constraints to drive the necessary adaptations.

All of the greatest training systems in my eyes are brutally simple and applicable to a wide range of sports and disciplines because of it. From Charlie Francis’s Hi-Lo training, Bompa’s yearly periodization calendar, to Daniel Bove’s quadrant system, all are used currently in some aspect not only at Driveline Baseball but all over the world, whether the people using them realize it or not.

This means as our validity and precision of quantifying these training principles improves and becomes exponentially better, the actual application of the training should become increasingly simple, and should continue to closely resemble the quality training of those who came before us in many aspects.