Continuous Improvement and Showjumping: Getting 1% Better at Jumping Clear Rounds

 

JumpClear analysis enables approaching showjumping training through the lens of continuous improvement, aka, the 1% Improvement Rule. Under this approach, we would use JumpClear Fault Source Analysis to set measurable, achievable goals for progress based on incrementally reducing our most common faults.

I first read about 1% Growth in a biography by Valorie Kondos Field, the former coach of the amazing UCLA gymnastics team who compared the philosophy of getting 1% better day after day favorably to one of striving for - and falling short - of a standard of 100% perfection. She writes:

"The philosophy I do embrace is getting 1 percent better...Imagine an athlete one day getting 1 percent better in technique, form and mental discipline. Then getting 1 percent better in technique, form and mental discipline the next day. And the next day. Wow! The compounding effect of such incremental improvement would reach near super-hero status, but it is also absolutely achievable."  

Takeaway 1:  set measurable, achievable goals

Takeaway 2: such goals add up to big results 

James Clear explains this theory further (and adds some math) in his book, Atomic Habits, Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results. Clear cites the effects of simply improving 1 percent every day and calculates, if you were to improve at an activity 1%, you would improve results by 37 times in one year! 

How does this relate to showjumping?  

It's actually kind of hard to align showjumping with a 1% growth approach.  

While the outcome of a round itself is clear - we have a score and placing - what we often understand as the drivers of success and failure - the things that we chip away at daily - aren't measurable.  (Am I 1% better at shortening my reins?).  As a consequence, regardless of level - and especially if we've been in the sport for a long time - progress towards goals can feel really amorphous.  

JumpClear was designed to add a layer of quantifiability to some of the things which go into jumping a clear round - and while we can't measure improvement in rein length, Fault Source Analysis delivers a data-driven understanding of a horse & rider's most common faults.  In doing so, we aim to give riders a tool to see the goal of jumping more clear rounds through the lens of measurable, achievable components, i.e, focusing on and reducing specific fault areas.