They just turned up and did it all differently. They introduced practices that were laughed at. They were radical. They challenged every assumption. They sought marginal gains. And they were vindicated.
No. Not yet conductive education but Team Sky in the Tour de France and especially the Team Sky General Manager Sir David John "Dave" Brailsford, CBE.
"They did not just turn up and adopt the status quo in road cycling; they transformed the culture.
"They brought in warm-downs after stages, and were initially laughed at by rival teams. Now everyone does it. They created a space-age team coach, designed for maximum comfort and recovery.
"They talk about a mastery of detail, a focus on small aspects of performance overlooked by other nations, and about a culture that is streets ahead of the competition, not least through the work of the psychiatrist, Dr Steve Peters.
They use sophisticated performance algorithms; they even vacuum every hotel room before each rider arrives, to cut down the risk of infection. They are ahead of the curve in almost every way.
This was Matthew Syed writing in yesterday's Times (£ - but you may be able to access it as part of a trial). With Dave Brailsford, Team Sky (and before that British cycling, top of the medals board at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games) didn't do just what the other teams did only a bit better; their approach was radically different.
Brailsford himself in 2012 said:
"The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improved it by 1%, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together".
To which Wikipedia adds:
As well as looking at traditional components of success such as physical fitness and tactics, Brailsford's approach focused on a more holistic strategy, embracing technological developments and also athlete psychology. He is noted for his emphasis on constant measuring and monitoring of key statistics such as cyclists' power output, and developing training interventions that target any observed weaknesses.
Conductive education is a radical system that deals with the whole individual, through constant observation "developing training interventions" to achieve incremental gains towards a goal.
Is what Team Sky are doing so far from conductive education or conductive education so far from Team Sky's methods?
