January 23, 2023
January 23, 2023
The philosophy – aggregation of marginal gains – was proposed by Dave Brailsford, a British cycling Performance Director.
It refers to the goal of making tiny, marginal improvements in everything one does. In the context of improving a cyclist's performance, Brailsford 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 improve it by 1 percent, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together.”
On their quest to find 1% improvements, they tested different types massage gels for faster muscle recovery, hiring a surgeon to teach riders the best way to wash hands, finding the best pillow and mattress for a good sleep, redesigning the bike seats, riders wearing indoor racing suits etc. As a result, the British Cycling team won 60% of available medals in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Similarly, the LA Laker improved their performance by getting slightly better each day under coach Pat Riley in 1986. He created a system called the Career Best Effort (CBE).
