“No Battle Plan Survives Contact With the Enemy”
– German military strategist Helmuth von Moltke.
Combat in all forms, whether on the battlefield, the sports field or arena, or the business boardroom is always extremely chaotic; nothing ever goes according to plan.
But just because no plan survives first contact with the enemy does not make the planning process itself unnecessary or obsolete. It is, in fact, indispensable to victory.
In the book, No Easy Day, a first-hand account about the planning and execution of the Navy Seal mission that led to the killing of Osama Bin Laden, you notice 2 important details. The first one is how intricate, thorough, and involved the planning process was leading up to that historic mission. The second thing you notice is that even though the mission was expertly planned and carried out by Seal Team 6, some of the most highly trained and sophisticated operators on the planet, almost NOTHING went according to plan! Yet the mission was a success.
Without the critical planning process the mission would have been doomed from the start!
How Do We Apply This to Our Own Training?
There are 2 main stumbling blocks I see when it comes to creating highly effective and successful strength and conditioning program.
Stumbling block #1 is repeating the same strength and conditioning workout repeatedly with no variation. This creates a plateau from which no progression is ever made.
Stumbling block #2 is the just opposite. (Perhaps it came about as a backlash to #1, but the pendulum has swung too far…) Constantly changing the workout each session to, in some pseudo-scientific way, try to “confuse the muscles” is just as problematic. One of the glaring problems with this type of training is that random training yields random results. It’s difficult to measure progress when the parameters are constantly shifting.
What is the answer?
Following a program built on the Principle of Programmable Chaos.
In essence, Programmable Chaos Training is a paradigm shift combining cutting edge sports science with a little bit of chaos. This provides continued forward progress in all aspects of fitness while completely avoiding the stagnating plateaus of Stumbling Block #1. And because it follows a concurrent schedule of periodization and conforms to the SAID Principle (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand) it can, and does, completely avoid the random results of Stumbling Block #2.
Highlights of Programmable Chaos Video
Remember – just because combat is random and chaotic does not mean your preparation for it must be!
Jon Haas, “The Warrior Coach” has been training in Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu for more than 25 years and is currently ranked as a Kudan (9th degree black belt) under Jack Hoban Shidoshi. He has also trained in Okinawan Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Russian Systema, BJJ, Krav Maga, as well as Internal Martial Arts of Yiquan and Aiki.
He is also a certified Underground Strength Coach-Level 2, an ACE and FMS certified Personal Trainer and the founder of Warrior Fitness Training Systems. In 2008, Jon wrote the book, Warrior Fitness: Conditioning for Martial Arts, and since then has created numerous other online training and coaching programs helping people around the world become the strongest, most capable versions of themselves!
