Lessons from Tottenham Hotspur's youth team

Swim like a fish, run like the wind, fight like cats and dogs.

I love a good similie.

And so does Tottenham Hotspur’s youth academy it seems.

In a new study, 20 players aged between 14 and 15 were given different sets of instructions ahead of sprint training.

The results showed that “accelerate like a Ferrari”, “jump like the floor is lava”, and other analogies that focused on the environment around them encouraged the players to run faster than the usual demands such as “extend your hips” or “drive your legs into the ground”.

The most powerful phrase – sprint “like a jet plane taking off into the sky ahead” – produced an instant 3% increase in speed, an improvement that would normally have taken weeks of training to achieve.

Dr Jason Moran, who carried out the study, said that "It's better to direct an athlete's attention to the environment around them" than for them to focus on their bodies, because this distracts them from performing as well as they could.

Well, that’s good because it’s what we try and encourage clients to do all the time in financial planning – ignore the noise and short-term distractions and focus on the end goal.

But similies are a win:win because using everyday experiences and relatable analogies give us the opportunity to move away from something I hate almost as much as football: all that nasty financial jargon.

More elections than you can shake a stick at

This year is the ultimate election year, with 64 countries holding them. Speaking to advisers over the past few weeks has shown that some clients are wondering what the outcomes of the US and UK elections might have on their portfolios. So this might be a good a time as ever to whip out a similie.

Something that reassures them that elections are just a small component considered in the overall financial planning process – a bit like a tapestry perhaps? The election is just one of many threads you've prepared for — it alone doesn't define the entire pattern. No single event can unravel the careful planning and strategic diversity you create.

I needs work, but I like this because it reminds people that a financial plan is not reactionary but proactive and designed to withstand the ebb and flow of various events and market fluctuations.

It also shows you can have a simile that's not sports related!

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