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Things appear perfectly well adapted to the present until something or someone creates a new paradigm

For decades the straddle method of high jumping was the only method that led to records being broken. Prior to 1968, the record for the high jump had stagnated at 2m28. Valerie Brumel had achieved this record 5 years previously in 1963. The Fosbury flop challenged this status quo with a methodology that was first condemned as unsafe and dangerous. This technique actually starts by jumping backwards from the point of take-off. The men’s record held by Javier Sotomayer is now 2m45. People kept trying to jump higher without questioning the fundamentals and were as a result constrained by existing methodology that was no longer optimally addressing the goal.

 The straddle method required leg strength in order to start the jump with the force needed to clear the high jump bar and therefore only the naturally strong were successful at the high jump. This “best practice” was constrained by a truncated line of thinking. The Fosbury flop challenged this thinking.

Best practice should be exposed to questioning the existing way of thinking in order to increase performance. The new paradigm must be questioned to ensure that it fulfils its’ promises. Mostly it is condemned and resisted due to fear of the unknown.