Glen Mills

written by JOSH GESSNER | The Athletter

This is Glen Mills.

The man behind Usaine Bolt's world records.

He taught Bolt a technique that made him the fastest man of all time...

Here's the technique:

Glen Mills knew he had potential.

But he also noticed how poor Bolt's sprinting mechanics were.

"His poor mechanics stood out like a sore thumb."

How did he fix it?

He implemented:

The Law of Reversed Effort.

The more effort you put in, the less reward you get.

We see this play out with Bolt's mechanics:

One reason Bolt struggled was because he tried too hard.

He gave his all, thinking it'll lead to the best times.

In reality: It backfired, and his muscles tensed.

Glen Mills tells him to "Relax".

When sprinters tense up, they:

• Lose range of motion

• Disrupt the fluid motion

• Lead to worse times.

Bud Winter was the first to discover this phenomenon in sprinters...

Bud Winter, a sprinting coach who trained 27 Olympians:

Wrote a book called 'Relax and Win'.

In it, he describes how sprinters should only use 90% effort when sprinting.

Why?

The additional 10% effort caused unnecessary muscles to fire...

Slowing the sprinter down.

We see the 90% rule when Usaine Bolt ran in Beijing:

In Beijing, Usaine Bolt ran a 9.69.

Then he beat his record when he ran a 9.58.

In both races, his time from the 70m mark to 90m is nearly identical.

Why's this so surprising?

In Beijing, Bolt started a celebration at the 70m mark.

Yet - he ran just as fast!

I experienced the law of reversed effort during my professional baseball career.

The times I tried to throw as hard as possible:

I would tense up... And throw slower.

What worked:

Relaxing my whole body throughout my pitching delivery...

And only putting in effort when I was about to release.

All the elite athletes look like this.

They look relaxed, smooth and fluid.

This allows them to play at their highest potential.

The Law of Reversed Effort teaches us that less effort can mean more reward.

Main Lesson:

Instead of trying so hard... Relax.

You might find that it helps you perform better.

That’s it for today, thanks for reading!