Víctor López Ros trains coaches and teachers, coaches Olympic champions, and has worked at the elite level of team sports. I appreciate that he embodies the very thing he argues is essential for training the professionals of the future: debating and questioning what we so often take for granted… among other things. Now the conversation begins in Catalan. You have the English version in the YouTube video of the episode.

Martí Cañellas | Fosbury Flop

Here you have the video with English subtitles of the conversation with Víctor:

Notes of the episode

Tactical intentions | Claude Bayer

First Steps: How Upright Walking Made Us Human | Jeremy Desilva

The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol 1: Reason & the Rationalization of Society | Jürgen Habermas

The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol 2: Lifeworld & System: A Critique of Functionalist Reason | Jürgen Habermas

Acts of Meaning | Jerome Bruner

Activity Theory of Leontiev | Inter_ECODAL

Philosophical Investigations | Ludwig Wittgenstein

Homenatge als caiguts | Albert Sánchez Piñol

The Empire of Fashion: Dressing Modern Democracy | Gilles Lipovetsky

ALBERT BATALLA | The art and science of teaching

Universo y sentido: En busca del sentido en la inmensidad | Norbert Bilbeny

La evolución táctica del fútbol | Martí Perarnau

Real Coaching | Joel Filliol

Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding | Daniel E. Lieberman

La resistencia íntima | Josep Maria Esquirol Calaf

Vivir no es tan divertido, y envejecer, un coñazo | Óscar Tusquets

Ted Kroeten is the founder of Joy of the People, a non-profit organization that promotes free play as a way to build healthier kids and stronger communities. By simply watching children play, he began to notice what had been lost in the transition from street play to private academies. He discovered the value of free play, how to build sports talent and the secret not of “overload” but of its opposite, “underload”. Fortunately, Ted now shares these insights with the rest of us.

Martí Cañellas | Fosbury Flop

Here you have the video of the conversation with Ted:

Notes of the episode

Joy of the People website

Fitness landscape | Wikipedia

Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture | Johan Huizinga

The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life | Robert Trivers

NATÀLIA BALAGUÉ | Biological Intelligence

Orgel’s rules | Wikipedia

Just respect the essence | Martí Cañellas

Philosophical Investigations | Ludwig Wittgenstein

Universal Play Grammar | Ted Kroeten

Juanma Lillo - El mejor libro de táctica y las probabilidades | Fútbol Práctico

Stephen Krashen | Wikipedia

The Link Between Evolution and Language | Richard Dawkins | TED

Bernardo Silva don’t do gym | Out of Context Football

Why Athletes Don’t “Acquire” Skill—They Adapt it w/ Duarte Araújo | The Adaptable Athlete Podcast

PAU CASASSA | Idea Barça

Andreu Enrich returns to Fosbury Flop, keeping the bar as high as he left it: connecting genuine ideas and philosophers such as Nietzsche, Heidegger, or Foucault with the figure of the coach. Now, the chapter in Catalan begins; in English, you have the YouTube video of the episode.

The first episode with Andreu Enrich here:

Martí Cañellas | Fosbury Flop

Here you have the video with English subtitles of the conversation with Andreu:

Notes of the episode

Unpopular opinion of Andreu Enrich | @martict99

The art of coaching: a matter of walls and slopes | @JordiLieF

Coaching meditations | Andreu Enrich

SMALL-SIDED GAMES: How to effectively train your players in variable and complex environments | Andreu Enrich

Hockey: 50 Tips From Intelligent Players | Andreu Enrich

The Birth of Tragedy | Friedrich Nietzsche

Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture | Johan Huizinga

Man, Play and Games | Roger Caillois

Les estructures elementals de la narrativa | Albert Sánchez Piñol

Fragments | Heraclitus

On Nature | Paramenides

Citadelle | Antonie Saint-Exupéry

Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder | Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Being and Time | Martin Heidegger

Victus: The Fall of Barcelona | Albert Sánchez Piñol

Antoni Gaudí, vida i obra | Armand Puig i Tàrrech

JAVIER CAÑADA | Training between Ulm and Cádiz

The Prince | Niccolò Machiavelli

Pregària a Prosèrpina | Albert Sánchez Piñol

Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison | Michel Foucault

Sport, Coaching, and Performance | Jim Denison & Zoe Avner

Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power | Byung-Chul Han

The Concept of the Political | Carl Schmitt

Fora de classe. Textos de filosofia de guerrilla | Marina Garcés

Phenomenology of Perception | Maurice Merleau-Ponty

From the very first moment I read about design, I was captivated. Moholy-Nagy said that “designing is not a profession but an attitude of resourcefulness and inventiveness”. Miguel Milá, that it “consists of fulfilling a function while maintaining emotion”. Bruno Munari called it “a method centered around problem-solving”. And Don Norman stated that “the goal is to produce a great product, one that is successful, and that customers love”. I kept wondering to myself: “Doesn’t all this speak to me as a coach?” To explore this connection, I chat with Javier Cañada: someone I dare not classify into any label, adjective, or profession. The conversation is in Catalan. The English version is available in the YouTube video of the episode.

Martí Cañellas | Fosbury Flop

Here you have the video with English subtitles of the conversation with Javier:

Notes of the episode

Newsletter: De Ulm a Cádiz | Javier Cañada

Lo esencial: Una guía de diseño para la vida | Miguel Milá

¿Cómo nacen los objetos? Apuntes para una metodología proyectual | Bruno Munari

The Design of Everyday Things | Donald A. Norman

La pregunta | Javier Cañada

Santa Olalla: Una grieta en el destino | Javier Cañada

Ivrea, 1982 | Javier Cañada

Les estructures elementals de la narrativa | Albert Sánchez Piñol

The Book of Tea | Kakuzō Okakura

Lo Barroco | Eugeni d’Ors

Dios lo ve | Óscar Tusquets

Programa Desarrollo Directivo y Liderazgo | Jaime Rodríguez de Santiago, Instituto Tramontana

It’s not you. Bad doors are everywhere | Vox

Like when I had spent my whole life playing basketball and gr…

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13.19: A person asks whether they can help us with anything.

13.20: I address this person the way many “coaches” address their players: “Can you bring me all the books you have related to ‘coaches’ or training? Right noooooow!!!!! Move it!!!! What are you waiting for?” I start, with a voice volume elevated compared to the standard levels of the enclosure, a countdown.

13.22: Seeing that she is taking too long, I activate the function of blowing the whistle, imposing a punishment to correct behavior or maintain discipline, and I shout at her: “Quick, to the baseline: fifty burpees with sprint. If you take more than 2 minutes, you repeat.”

13.23: She shows no symptoms of obedience.

13.24: I begin to reduce the distance toward her while changing the color of my face to “angry reddish”, but before I arrive and say anything, the security guard hits me with a baton that sends me to a location I cannot situate.

13.29: The blow is such a major perturbation that it transforms the nature of my components, their organization and interaction, generating a random change of human appearance.

13.30: Forgotten words from “coach”.

13.31: I raise my head.

13.32: There is a sign above me that says Bookstore —must have been a worker from the competition infiltrated.

13.33: Citcat of Snorom tells me he is on his way but walking humanly very slowly: he wants to explore the idea of being a philosopher.

13.47: No word from Citcat of Snorom.

13.59: Citcat of Snorom arrives. We go back inside.

14.00: The worker of this bookstore, with an expression that shows her interest has been awakened, asks me if we know each other. I have never seen her in my terrestrial or optimian life, but since it seems that on planet Earth it is not permitted to confess that you do not know something, I answer her using a security technique described in the report: I close one of my two eyes for 0.5” and say “from something”, pretending I am sure of something I have absolutely no idea about.

14.02: We address the worker of this fuel shop with a different strategy than before: “Dear Sir/Madam, we would like to buy all the books that have any relation to ‘coaches’ or training. Thank you. Sincerely.”

14.03: She says that, for her, all books are related to the act of training or being a coach.

14.04: We are surprised that this worker does not fall into the human habit of creating categories and taking them as real and definitive without realizing the fuzziness of their boundaries.

14.05: Citcat of Snorom changes the direction of his gaze —he no longer looks into the eyes of the worker and instead looks into mine—, I penetrate his gaze and see that it says: “Not everything is lost yet.”

14.06: She, the worker, continues telling us that she assumes a coach must know about life: just as, when dealing with a husband treating his wife, sometimes the football forward must also give space and not crowd the teammate, trusting him to do what is best for the team. That a coach must know how to diversify the assets that depend on him, with the flexibility to change, adapt, and reinvent in response to uncertain competition, like an entrepreneur and markets. That, for this reason, a coach must know how to create empowering narratives like Cervantes, govern societies like Saint-Exupéry, address and manage conflict like Dostoyevsky, foster an environment that empowers and enables like Jullien or Catmull, design interventions thinking like Moholy-Nagy, and move you by filling you with the will to defend ideals as Sánchez Piñol explains.

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Because the Fosbury Flop —what gives this project its name— was never just a jump.

The protagonist is someone whose peculiar behavioural traits clash with those of the majority. A way of being that prevents him from blending in with the people around him. When his authenticity exposes many to their own embarrassments, he is socially reduced, stoned. That’s why, often, only mediocrity is socially plausible. There are always experts convinced they possess knowledge, ready to “fix” that authenticity —which they themselves call “madness”. This is the story of Dick Fosbury and of many others, like Lubbert Das, another one who suffered the consequences of being an authentic obstacle standing against the advance of homogeneity.

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11.29: We did not assume that the worker who told us that “what we were about to experience today, not everyone can say they have lived it” was saying it from a negative perspective.

11.30: Once Citcat of Snorom and I, Duarf of the Euqinchet, gather enough evidence to certify that his words have indeed come true, we continue in search of “coaches”; we proceed with mission E.C.

11.31: In the first meters of our intentional displacement toward the outside of the facility, the presence of several humans using the athletics track around the grass field catches our attention.

11.32: There is a human with a little belly —we assume that is where he stores inside it the immutability of unfalsifiable human knowledge he speaks from, the levels of faith high enough to obtain the title of “King of the Mediocre” in Optimiam, the conviction in what he says that not even a certain Josep Guardiola i Sala has ever displayed… who tells another human facing a mattress: “No, you can’t enter from the left side and jump with your right foot.”

11.33: The young one opens his arms like that human they have everywhere with a cross behind him.

11.34: The belly-man continues: “Dick Fosbury took off with his left foot and entered from the right side. You can’t take off with your right foot and enter from the left.”

11.35: Instant investigation: who called Fosbury to his dick? Result: turns out he was a “madman” who, without meaning to, changed the sport of high jump. A madman is a person who interprets reality following a logic that is not that of the majority point of view. Reflection: who is crazier, the one who can’t help being so, or the one who chooses to be?

11.36: The young one drops his arms and starts moving his head, looking to the ground, side to side, while another young one jumps; when he lands, he hears: “Very good technique! So clean!”

11.37: The jumper does not share the evaluation and answers that he did not clear the bar. Another young one jumps, and once the jump is done, he receives the comment: “Remember: drive your lead-arm up high! Arch the arm so it is the first part of your body that is over the bar.”

11.38: With no ability to anticipate the event, I observe Citcat of Snorom, fist closed, showing his extended index finger as he raises his arm above his head.

11.39: I analyze his finger. At the same time, the belly-man asks what the hell is wrong with his finger, that the movement he is describing is totally different, and that, please, he should not distract his athletes with insignificant gestures.

11.40: Just as I am about to tell him he is right and to stop bothering people, Citcat of Snorom apologizes for the inconvenience but explains he could not help it, because he had never noticed that —even though it is daytime— Optimiam is visible.

11.41: “What the hell is Optimiam?” asks the belly-man without waiting for an answer. He tells us that, as the team “coach”, we should leave because we are an impediment to the muscle memory process.

11.42: We continue our displacement toward the outside of the coliseum. Instant investigation: what is muscle memory? Result: a symbolic tale of the human collective that does not match reality.

11.45: No word from “coach”.

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It happens often, though, in real competition: the basketball player drives left and finishes with the right hand, and the crusader for the aesthetic values of sport —the coach, I mean— scolds him, saying that if you go left, you must finish with the left. Please, do not be crusaders for aesthetic values. Do not let fear win. You could be mortgaging many futures.

If it were not for people like that, this would not be called Fosbury Flop but De la Quadra Salcedo Style:

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10.05: According to the report, humans label the days of the week following a linear set of rules and a widely shared consensus that remains stable over time: they are “Monday”, “Tuesday”, “Wednesday”… until “Sunday”. This consensus, however, collapses once they enter the sports field. The labels are no longer the same and change from week to week. For example, a “Monday” may be labeled inside the field as +1, +2, -4 or -3… —among other possibilities. These labels correspond to the time elapsed since the previous competition and the time remaining until the next one. (We have already seen that many “coaches” tend to make war —”training”— in order to achieve peace —”competition”.) What is predetermined, though, is what must be done on each of these days. If it is +1 or +2, it must be a light session, and those who played less must exert themselves physically —not to improve or accelerate development, but to compensate for something they call “loads”. On -4 or -3, work is oriented toward the upcoming match and many “automatisms” —as if they were machines...— must be performed. On -1, the match is very close. It is imperative to carry out a playful exercise —can they only have fun on day -1?—, fixed corner-kick or free-kick patterns, finishing drills, and some “small-sided games”.

10.07: From the stands, we observe that the person who demanded our accreditations —and expelled us from the video training room a few minutes ago— is walking toward us, facial muscles severely tensed. In the time it takes him to lift and replant his right foot on the ground, we review the safety protocols from the report. We find two options: (1) to say “Calm down! Do not shoot! I am mentally retarded!” and reinforce it with the sentence: “Israel has the right to defend itself. It is not a genocide but a war.” We hesitate. A similar strategy had previously brought us not safety, but the opposite. (2) To adopt the physical appearance of two human infants —beings who represent innocence and curiosity, rather than adult distrust and insecurity. We choose the second.

10.08: The muscles on the person’s face relax and his mouth describes a turn from convexity to concavity.

10.10: At a distance of 0.5 meters, he tells us to follow him; that what we are about to experience today, not everyone can say they have lived it.

10.11: We arrive at the grass of the field. He says we can sit on the bench throughout the session. We ask if we may ask questions.

10.12: He says that here, the questions are his to ask.

10.13: The curiosity algorithm invites us to inquire about what his players are doing, performing a choreography or executing movements with materials from other sports at really low intensity. We cannot. We therefore assume it is what they call “warm-up”: a supposedly essential process that prepares the body to do what the body already knows how to do: move and adapt. Apparently, it is an organic process of progressive adaptation that they have turned into an artificialized ritual. This process, where the sympathetic nervous system activates and blood vessels dilate so that muscles consume more oxygen, is something the human body already does spontaneously whenever it transitions from rest to activity. Yet it seems that if this is not directed by a “physical coach”, it does not occur —as if this “coach” were the one activating all those processes in their bodies.

10.15: Citcat of Snorom asks me, Duarf of the Euqinhcet, whether I can internally formulate the hypothetical scenario of a hunter-gatherer or a cheetah saying: “Damn, I am really hungry but I can’t chase that prey that I do not know when it is going to appear again because I have not done my ’warm-up’.”

10.17: No word from “coach”.

10.18: It is becoming quite clear to us that humans have a systematic tendency to invent problems in order to become their own saviors.

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With the least common of senses, backed by verified information, the speaker questioned the dominant model of player and team development in Catalan basketball —technique, fundamentals, basics, and so on. Here are some of the doubts he raised:

• “When your junior player goes up to train with the first team, or with the higher squad, do they ask him to score 20 points? No. They ask him to kill himself defending, catch every rebound, and not lose the ball. Then why are most coaches obsessed with offensive potential?” Besides, maybe not in football, but in basketball the time spent attacking and defending is roughly 50-50.

• Basketball is a game of continuous efforts. That is, you perform an action —a lay-up— and then you have to go catch the offensive rebound, get back on defense, or press the ball handler. Many drills focus on training a single effort and repeating it: we do one and either repeat it or rest —we do not chain them. In that sense, the offensive rebound is a huge advantage, but many drills end the moment there is a shot.

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5:32: We start the exploration early. Maybe yesterday we did not find the “coaches” we were looking for because we failed to coincide in space and time with them. Today we have adjusted our timing.

5.33: Just stepping out of the spacecraft we disguised as a terrestrial building, we almost crash into a human using bipedal locomotion with cyclical transfers of body weight between lower limbs and combined moments of flight. Although her displacement velocity remains within the usual margins of a Gaussian normal distribution, the subject is dressed in synthetic fabrics designed to reduce air resistance. On one of her upper limbs she carries a device that emits tiny lights and beeping noises —the report said it was called a “little dictator”. The being covers the end of each of her lower limbs with textile and plastic contraptions they call “trainers”. These people are labeled as “runners”.

5.34: We program her displacement speed and start following her, Citcat of Snorom on one side, and I, Duarf of the Euqinhcet, on the other. We ask what she is running away from.

5.35: She answers that she is preparing for an Ironman —a regulated rite of self-destruction. We assume she is fleeing from something important but ask what this preparation consists of. Simply put, she executes the weekly plan sent by a “coach” she has never seen nor met: distances, training exercises, rhythm —all carried out thanks to the “heart rate monitor”, the “little dictator”. We were not aware that to run you needed a “coach”. From what ignorance must he save you, to what expertise must she lead you? If developing a function generally depends on exploiting it in varied ways.

5.36: These humans have spent millennia trying to maximize efficiency —moving as little as possible to achieve as much as possible to survive— and here we find them doing the opposite: forcing themselves, reluctantly, to move, wasting energy, achieving nothing.

5.37: At the end of each of her lower limbs, the “runner” possesses perfectly capable tools for displacement, polished over millennia by natural selection. We ask why she covers them with textile and plastic contraptions called “trainers”.

5.38: Moving at full speed in the opposite direction, we observe another human attached to a mechanical artifact with two wheels, propelled by his own biological energy —called a “cyclist”. Telepathically, in a millisecond, Citcat of Snorom and I agree that it may be interesting to interact with him. We split up. Citcat of Snorom activates wheel displacement and programs the cyclist’s speed.

5.39: As if nothing had happened, in response to my serious question about the “trainers”, the “runner” reacts with “laughter”, which I interpret as treating it like a joke. I do not understand the fun in disabling your own body; in killing a biological catapult that absorbs impacts, stores elastic energy, and releases it to propel the body forward. They are disabling a long elastic Achilles tendon, a plantar arch, an aligned big toe, an impact-resistant calcaneus, sensory receptors in every foot, a general joint capacity to absorb shock… everything that has enabled them to be a species capable of running and walking long distances. The “runner” points out that she had to buy seven different pairs, taking out three loans, before finding ones that did not hurt. I do not know if this is meant as an achievement that elevates her above others, or as a confession exposing her own foolish behavior. This seems to be a recurring pattern in the human species: create a problem where none exists, invent an object that “solves” this “problem”, and end up venerating it as if it were indispensable, as if it were a “coach”.

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“Sometimes you mix the past with the present and your happiness disappears”, says this monk who —to me, an ignorant— seems Buddhist. What I suppose he tells a traveler …

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17.35: The “coaches” crowd around me, expectant, waiting for me to clarify the pronouncement about the 10,000 hours/repetitions. It seems I have hit something personal, as if I had disrespected something they cherish, something that’s part of them. According to the research conducted in Area 61 on the planet Optimiam, the statement I have just made is clear evidence of progress: it reflects the discovery that to master any skill it is indeed crucial to play, put in the hours, devote oneself fully, and repeat many actions… qualitatively, not quantitatively —as previously thought. We had indications, however, that other planets had reached similar conclusions. Here on planet Earth, though, these conclusions were —and seem to still be— corrupted by social values: those who pee standing up and start flushing before they have even finished still think they can shorten the path to expertise by minimizing the time between repetitions, eliminating all variability, everything that is not “productive”. Then, they end up getting exactly what keeps them from their greedy wishes: doing countless repetitions that are useless because they are done like cows grazing —soullessly. So, that’s it: I assumed that what we —Citcat of Snorom and Duarf of the Euqinhcet, and the rest of planet Optimiam— knew would also be shared by those beings from other galaxies who never stop going on about something they call “intelligent life”.

17.36: They ask me what I believe in if not in the 10,000 hours/repetitions. I answer by asking them whether the best way to learn a game might be by playing it, and if they will allow me to show them with an example.

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Well, after five seasons, I have returned to the role of Head Coach of a basketball team. During the entire first week of training, I kept remembering Jordi’s words. He told me Paco Seirul·lo used to say that every proposal can be traced back to its primary source: it either comes from love or from fear. I did not consciously recall it in order to put it into practice afterward. Quite the opposite: I observed my own behavior and could not help but remember Jordi’s words. It is something I had already learned in Finland, but domain dependence prevented me from applying it to other areas. Like what the tutor of the orphan protagonist in Cold Skin taught him from a young age; that “in this world, there are two kinds of attitudes: choosing life or choosing death. A man could be the humblest of coalmen and choose life; another could be the most celebrated writer of his homeland and his era, and choose the path of death. It did not matter.”

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DAY 293

7.03: (Planet Earth Time) Date: 4Zθ.μ.Γ36. Location: 18° 18′ 0″ N, 64° 49′ 30″ W.
We decide to go out in search of a “coach”.

7.04: Citcat of Snorom has been studying human behavior during a dark period they call “night”. As he tells me that on planet Earth, the only thing that holds authority is prejudice, we consider it wise not to show our true intergalactic appearance and decide to adopt the one of individualized human beings. We consult the Catalog.

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Because no: I do not want my players to become Tarahumaras in that sense. I could not care less about long-distance running. It would be a great twist, would it not? After everything I have preached, to promote decontextualized interventions in isolated environments with a perception-action cycle that has nothing to do with competitive behavior. Selling advice I do not even buy myself. Without skin in the game —apologies, NNT. Criticizing traditional training methods with Natàlia Balagué, John Kiely or Pau Casassa, while I spend pre-season “filling the tanks” doing laps around the pitch and running up hills. But no. That’s not what I mean. That’s something I would have done back when I was a moron —or, at least, more of one than I am now.

I want my players to become Tarahumaras in a different sense: the Tarahumaras do not understand what “training” means. They have no clue about that “modern”, planned, formal notion, separated from the competition, that we Westerners call “training”.

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DAY 01

37.69 (Local Time). Date: 5XΩ.α.Δ34. Location: Area 61, Planet Optimiam, Galaxy KPI-Excellion.
The Interstellar Scouting Department of Planet Optimiam is officially founded. Its function is not yet entirely clear. We had abundant resources, and something had to be done. The Interstellar Scouting Department was simply the least bad proposal.

41.13: After a long but —thanks to technology— brief analytical process, the algorithm named Meritocracy has emitted white smoke: I, Duarf of the Euqinhcet, have been appointed Director of the Interstellar Scouting Department. The Meritocracy algorithm evaluates both the role to be fulfilled and the merits of each possible candidate. This selection process is unique to Planet Optimiam and rather peculiar. The wise voices of our society say that, in other galaxies, the process of selecting suitable candidates includes KPIs such as the degree of friendship between the candidate and the selector —regardless of the level of expertise—, the total number of PowerPoint slides presented throughout one’s career, or the ability to smile without questioning. Honestly, I find that hard to believe. I really do not know how they manage things in those galaxies...

DAY 02

27.81 (Local Time). Date: 5XΩ.β.Δ34. Location: old basement full of junk in Area 61, now with a sign on the door reading “Office of the Interstellar Scouting Department”, Planet Optimiam, Galaxy KPI-Excellion.
We send the first Interstellar Scouting Report.

27.82: Report rejected. Reason: Unintelligibility.

DAY 03

23.59 (Local Time). Date: 5XΩ.γ.Δ34. Location: Office of the Interstellar Scouting Department, Planet Optimiam, Galaxy KPI-Excellion.
We send the second scouting report.

23.60: Report rejected. Reason: Dysfunctionality (we are not sure whether this refers to the report or to our department).

DAY 220

09.11 (Local Time). Date: 3Rψ.λ.Γ34. Location: Office of the Interstellar Scouting Department, Planet Optimiam, Galaxy KPI-Excellion.
We change four words in the report that was rejected yesterday, just so they can’t accuse us of doing nothing.

09.12: Report rejected. Reason: Path-dependence (so many consecutive days of rejection that it has become an institutional habit).

DAY 291

01.13 (Local Time). Date: 4Zθ.μ.Γ34. Location: Office of the Interstellar Scouting Department, Planet Optimiam, Galaxy KPI-Excellion.
The first day that a report sent by the Interstellar Scouting Department passes the quality filter of transmitted information. This report has detected something surprising in another galaxy, on the planet Earth, specifically. The report addresses something that humans call “coach”. They seem to be beings who grant themselves —and society confirms— the ability to transform ignorant individuals and groups into experts. With the little information obtained, we relate this “coach” to something similar to an “alpha male” of a herd of animals. Many of their comments ooze a self-convinced indispensability or high importance, they accumulate a lot of knowledge —some close to wisdom, some just mediocre ones—, they possess the secrets to achieving sporting expertise and an alchemical ability to transform failure into success.

01.14: This figure surprises us, given the few previous studies on life on planet Earth: human beings and their co-inhabitants are agents with a biological intelligence, honed over millennia, fascinating; with even greater adaptive capacities. What is the purpose of this “coach”? What problems do they have that make them so necessary and important? What ignorance do they claim to remedy?

03.01: My imbalance between available and consumed energy reaches levels I tolerate poorly —if at all. I proceed to remedy the situation. The remedy is called a fork breakfast. On many other planets, both in our galaxy and others, beings are required to consume energy even when there is no need. Here, it is quite the opposite.

03.02: I meet Citcat of Snorom, a colleague from Area 61 who works in the anthropology department. To my friends I do not introduce him as a work colleague, but an energy one. Even though we work at the same place, the only interaction we have is during energy rebalancing time. Since we organize ourselves in silos —that is, departments— we end up working for the department we belong to rather than for Area 61. We stay chatting for a while. It is not a problem because on planet Optimiam we prefer living in an eternal playful and collaborative afterwork rather than grinding to climb the ladder —what some call the human or the rat race. Our society is not about maximizing profits or returns but cultivating the playful wellbeing of the community.

04.87: I tell him about these beings we found called “coaches”, but that we lack much information. He tells me that humans use enormous stacks of paper they call dictionaries. They are like collections where the social meanings assigned to fictitious labels they create and sounds they make —also known as words— are cataloged. Best of all: they believe it as if it were true.

04.88: I infiltrate the interconnected human system that allows instant transmission of information —including fake news— emotions, and other absurdities. I find a dictionary called Cambridge and look up the word “coach”. It says a “coach” is someone whose job is to teach people to improve at a sport, skill, or school subject. Meanwhile, I get distracted by its lines and find another word: Iatrogenics. It means problem or harm caused by the healer. Weird. How come humans had to label the harm caused by the professional intervening to heal? Curious. How did the need to describe this emerge among humans? Scandalous. It puts them in a very bad light as a society. Given this scenario… maybe these “coaches” are indeed necessary to lead people and groups out of ignorance. Or… are they the ones putting them into it? Further research is needed.

05.10: I consult previous research conducted at Area 61 —maybe this interdepartmental interaction will make sense after all!— and see that although they created the label “iatrogenics”, they are not very aware of the phenomenon.

05.11: A reflection emerges in myself: if we interacted between departments of Area 61, we would have already conquered the universe. Too bad we prefer to let the department and the role define us, instead of defining how a department and each role work ourselves.

DAY 292

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The first episode with Albert Batalla here:

Martí Cañellas | Fosbury Flop

Here you have the video with English subtitles of the conversation with Albert:

Notes of the episode

JOAN CORTÉS | The coaching genius

Els pagesos | Josep Pla

Vivir no es tan divertido, y envejecer, un coñazo | Óscar Tusquets

Misguided praise junkies | James Vaughan

Efficient foot motor control by Neymar’s brain | Eiichi Naito & Satoshi Hirose

Peter principle | Wikipedia

Victus: The Fall of Barcelona | Albert Sánchez Piñol

Monty Python's Life of Brian | Terry Jones

Yes, there are those who are convinced that the functional behavior of the team depends on them —that without them, the player’s performance is negative—, and there are those who keep their feet on the ground —who ultimately have a greater influence on their team’s performance.

There are those who see the player —or the team— as a robot and act as its mechanic, and those who treat him for what he truly is —and look more like a gardener.

There are those who (de)train consequences, and those who address the causes.

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