The Worst Interview Question

I love interviews. Whether it’s reading or listening to them, I find myself consuming a lot of interviews with coaches and athletes of all sports. As much as I enjoy them, there’s one regularly asked question that I wish we could get rid of. 

“If you could only do one thing/exercise/drill to get better at your sport, what would it be?”

I get where the interviewer is going with this. What they are looking for is a good takeaway for the audience by seeing what the guest’s #1 priority is. It’s a popular question because forcing someone to only pick one thing makes them come up with good reasons for it that the audience might not have heard before, makes them be specific, and it can often lead to controversial answers.

While the reasoning behind their answer might glean some valuable knowledge, the answer itself should probably be ignored. Here’s why:

First, it forces a “swiss army knife approach”. If you asked me, “If you could only choose one tool to use in the kitchen for opening cans, chopping vegetables, and opening wine bottles, what would it be?” The only answer is a Swiss Army Knife. So that makes it the ultimate kitchen tool, right? Absolutely not.

Anyone who has tried to use one of these pocket knives for any of those tasks knows how terrible it is for all of them. Having a normal kitchen knife, can opener, and bottle opener will give you dramatically better results every time. 

Second, just like how no one is limited to owning a single kitchen tool, no one is limited to only using one exercise or method of training. Putting yourself in that mindset can be detrimental. Even the busiest clients I work with have time for a more nuanced approach to improvement.

Look, it’s important to not let things get overcomplicated. Hunting for elegant answers keeps us from getting bogged down with minutia. But when we take it too far, we lose sight of the bigger picture. 

When you hear someone answer the question “If you could only do one thing…” pay attention to what they say and why, but avoid seeing it as a roadmap.