Basics - Fads - foundations - master your craft - drills - technique

Every couple of years, there’s a new best way to train, methods usually named after a country promising to revolutionize performance. But while training methods evolve, the basics in each sport remain constant. Mastery isn’t about chasing what’s new; it’s about perfecting what’s timeless. The highest performers always go back to the essence of their sport, and do everything else to know the rules and dominate the basics.

Ironically, it’s often the less experienced athletes who obsess over complex, highly specific routines. They chase marginal gains while skipping the fundamentals. Meanwhile, the best athletes in the world—those at the top of their game—are the ones constantly returning to basics.

I don´t like being self referencing, but when I started swimming I mainly focused on speed and time, not emphasizing at all on technique. Obviously, I rapidly hit a plateau. I started swimming more and more but my times were the same. There, I met our university triathlon swimming coach. We went to practice our swimming, not just to train. Lou was from the philosophy of using every moment of the session to practice and become better swimmers, not just fitter swimmers (shout out to his book). That was when I realized that I could not muscle my way to swimming, I needed to learn and practice as much as I could the most basic skills. Constantly.

And just like that, I finally started to improve again. I swam better and more efficient, all because I stopped trying to outwork my inefficiencies and instead fixed them. The basics weren’t just a starting point—they were the path to became a decent swimmer.

This idea isn’t new. Tiger Woods, one of the greatest golfers ever, famously rebuilt his swing multiple times during his career—even after winning the biggest tournaments. He was willing to step back and revisit the fundamentals because he knew that long-term success depended on them. As he once said, “No matter how tough you are, you can't be too proud to make changes. You have to be honest with yourself and keep improving.”

The same principle are transversal to all sports. Bela Karolyi, the legendary gymnastics coach, built champions like Nadia Comaneci by focusing on balance and precision. Nadia was known for spending hours perfecting basic routines. Karolyi believed that the fundamentals were the backbone of success, saying, "It’s not the complexity of the skill; it’s the consistency of execution that builds greatness.”

Complicating things is really easy—we often think the more elaborate the method, the better the results. We should learn from Taoists, that propose that progress comes not from adding more but from removing what’s unnecessary. As Lao Tzu said in the Tao Te Ching: “The wise reduce what they have, letting go of the unessential to focus on the essential.” In training, this means dropping the distractions of fads and returning to the foundations of the basics.

This doesn’t mean going back to basics comes at the expense of fitness. Terry Laughlin, in Total Immersion, talks about incorporating technique work into every session. Warm-ups and cool-downs are perfect for drills, and even during hard sets, there’s room to stay mindful of technique and basic mistakes. Refining the basics doesn’t replace fitness—it enhances it.

Returning to the basics isn’t a step back—it’s the foundation for moving forward. When you feel stuck or overwhelmed, it might not be about working harder or trying something new. It might just be about doing the simple things, and doing them well. So, when was the last time you revisited your basics?

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