Fail to Succeed: My experience learning how to Pistol Squat

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been interested in athletics. I grew up playing basketball, baseball and soccer. It’s because of this background I have developed my coordination, through practicing different skills for each sport. So whenever I am showing a pattern or skill to a client, it sometimes seems effortless. Part of it stems from my athletic background but also from my desire to always improve. However, I do have my own physical dysfunctions and limitations. A perfect example of a pattern I struggled with was the pistol squat (1 Leg Squat).

If there is a challenge or competition, there will be failure at some point. The question is, how that failed experience defines you. Does it stop you from trying or are you the type to be motivated to overcome adversity?

“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why, I succeed.”

-Michael Jordan (Chicago Bulls; NBA Hall of Fame)

First off, don’t be afraid to fail. I believe if you haven’t failed at something, you haven’t tried (please remember, safety comes first, so with regards to exercise use progression to gauge whether you are ready for a new skill). For me, learning to pistol squat was a lot like learning how to ride a bike. In the beginning, I fell off my bike frequently. However, through those failed experiences, I eventually learned to ride it by practicing and staying patient. I think we sometimes forget that failing is not a bad way to learn. Failure bred success and ultimately we can appreciate the accomplishment. If anyone watched me practice a pistol squat, they probably saw me fall down…a lot!

To me, the pistol squat is one of the most challenging patterns to perform because it is an impressive feat of strength, mobility and stability. Mike Perry, owner of Skill Of Strength (S.O.S) in Chelmsford, MA, assessed my ability and helped design a program. Surprisingly, I found the difficulty I experienced was learning my body. I discovered I had 3 areas I needed to improve in mobility and stability:

1) Tight right ankle

2) Counterbalance: hips and upper body position

3) Valgus collapse in the knee

Sounds like a lot of dysfunctions and an impossible goal but if it were easy, it wouldn’t be a challenge. It wasn’t all bad news, the strength portion of squatting up was the easiest part of the move for me.

It starts from the ground up, so my right ankle was the first dysfunction I needed to address. Mobility in my right ankle has always been a problem and will never be perfect due to a lot of injuries playing sports. However, whatever little gained mobility goes a long way. Next, I practiced close leg squats. My body needed to learn how to position itself. Finally, I moved to stability drills. My body got a heavy dosage of Single Leg Deadlifts, and various squats using a Cook Band.

I later realized another dysfunction I needed to address:

4) Decreasing tightness in my elevated/extended quadriceps

After sitting back and evaluating my progress, I realized the tightness in my quad could be corrected with a couple of exercises using a Cook Band: Active Straight Leg Raise and Arms Extended 1 Leg Bridges. Those two moves helped to decrease tightness and improve movement efficiency.

My goal isn’t to impress you but to impress upon you. Maybe your goal is not a pistol squat but something completely different. I’ve failed many times. It’s a part of being an athlete and human. Anything I want, I practice but when I have it, I practice to become better at it. I think it’s easy to not be good at something and just do things you’re good at. Or, once a pattern or skill is learned, it’s not nurtured to improve.  Sometimes in order to succeed, you need to take a step back, re-evaluate and start at the beginning. Fail to succeed. Best of luck in your training!