Balanced Athlete

US Men’s Soccer

2008-08-11T17:00:00.001-04:00

Yesterday morning I watched the Olympic soccer match between the US and the Netherlands. Over the years I have grown to really appreciate soccer and the skills required to be a good player. Before the game started, the Netherlands were heavy favorites to win. With literally no time left in the game, the US was leading 2-1. There was a penalty called against the US and the Netherlands were awarded a free kick right in front of the US net. For me, time seemed to slow down. The US team lined up to create a wall in an attempt to block the ball. The cameras focused on the face of the US players. I was shocked as I looked at their faces. Each US player’s face read as clear as a book. You could see the fear and doubt—I could not believe what I was seeing. I leaned over to my son Jimmy and said “Look at their faces. They have already let the ball in the net.” Seconds later, the US players’ thoughts became a reality. The Netherlands scored and tied the match. There was no overtime so the US had to settle for a tie.

Legendary football coach Bear Bryant used to point to the football filed and say, “The game is not played on that field—it is played on a 6-inch field that lies from ear to ear.” Bear was wise beyond his years. The way we think is the way we play the game. I see this time and time again in athletes and in competition. Fear and doubt in the mind produces the outcome of the event. An athlete can train their mind to see self doubt and to see fear for what it is. They can learn to label destructive thoughts and emotions and let them go. They can train their mind to get into the zone and stay there. Without this training the majority of athletes will settle for inconsistent performance and unachieved potential.

The next time you are watching a sports event, watch the players’ faces. You will start to recognize what is going to happen before it does. If an athlete became aware of their thoughts, they would be able to foresee the outcome as well.

Johnny

NSCA National Conference

2008-07-15T14:45:00.002-04:00

I have been involved with the National Strength and Conditioning Association since 1996 and over the last twelve years, it has been an honor to watch the Strength and Conditioning Industry change. The NSCA’s tagline is “Bridging the gap between science and application.” Scientists continue to research and run studies, and the strength coaches continue to work in the trenches on application of the changing sciences.

The Balanced Athlete sessions were incredible and we were well-received. Our sessions were interactive, so attendees had to kick off their shoes and experience the Strength and Conditioning Movement Principles. Most of them had never experienced any barefoot training so it was an eye-opening experience for many. Coach Bradley poetically taught the attendees that their minds were capable of so much power. This was a first-hand experience she was able to share through her work with athletes and the potential a directed mind possesses.

Our scheduled two sessions were completely filled. We had so many people watching and just smiling. I had several people comment, “I can’t believe it—this is great!” I think people’s thoughts and comments come from their preconceived ideas of yoga and what they’ve heard. I find most people think yoga is stretching and after five minutes they quickly reconsider their ideas. I repeated several times throughout the conference that this is yoga through the eyes of a Strength Coach. This is the Balanced Athlete.

The next several decades are going to be fun as I watch the Strength and Conditioning Industry continue to evolve and change. I am honored to be a part of it.

Johnny

What Happens in Las Vegas …

2008-07-08T11:28:00.003-04:00

Johnny and I are off to Vegas to teach the Balanced Athlete Program to Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialists (CSCS) and Certified Personal Trainers (CPT) at the National Conference for the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). This is an incredible opportunity to share with fellow coaches how our program can help their athletes stay injury free and also help them move with more explosion, stability and composure.

This is the third year that the Balanced Athlete has presented at the National Conference. This is the first year, however, that we get to present three hands on morning sessions. Each morning session will focus on movements that help create kinetic connection within the mind and body. We will focus on the feet and teach force transfer principles throughout the kinetic chain. Our intention is to share our experience of working with athletes and the results we have seen through our programming.

Johnny and I are honored to teach the Balanced Athlete at the National Conference. We both believe whole-heartedly that the Balanced Athlete Program can be an integral step in helping athletes build their own optimal athletic blueprint. Stay tuned for more blog entries on our experience.

Peace. Cara

Week Long Balanced Athlete Camp Insights

2008-06-16T13:48:00.002-04:00

I just finished teaching a weeklong Balanced Athlete camp for high school athletes. It was a 5 day camp and only one athlete missed a day. The first day, I told them that I thought at least half of them would drop out and not finish. I told them I was using reverse psychology. They proved me wrong. These athletes represented multiple sports. What amazes me time and time again is the ability of the Balanced Athlete program to quickly create strong and safe movement patterns. These athletes changed dramatically in just 5 days. I will list the major insights:

Distraction – Most of these athletes did not have very good focus on Monday. Their eyes wondered a lot which is typical for beginners. They weren’t observing other athletes, just staring off into space. They were very lost in thought. By Friday, their eyes were not wandering—they were focused!

Disconnect –There was not much bodily awareness (kinesthetic awareness). I can strongly relate to this. I never really stopped to pay attention to my body until I began the practice of yoga. By Friday, they were very into their bodies and paying attention to the movements. They used the mirrors to make adjustments and follow my cues.

Feet – I spent the first 15 minutes on Monday explaining the kinetic chain and the interdependent nature of the mind and body. I believe this made a huge difference as they progressed through the week. They began understanding the importance of the feet and engaging the muscles of the legs from the feet.

All of their feet began working better and one girl who came in with a stress fracture in her shin started to connect to her foot and acutely changed the functionality of her foot, making her shin feel so much better. She also now knows her weak foot had something to do with the stress fracture.

Hinging from the Hips – This was another big improvement. Not one of the athletes was hinging properly from their hip. The first day we used broom sticks and hinged back and forth over and over until they programmed it into their bodies. Why is this so important? The hip chain represents the bridge between the lower chains and upper chains. When an athlete, or anyone for that matter, doesn’t hinge from their hips, energy does not transfer effectively from lower chains to upper chains. There is also increased stress placed on lumbar and sacral spine areas. Experiencing injury is only a matter of time when this lack of functionality persists.

Shoulders/Arms – They significantly improved their ability to raise their arms straight over their heads, but this still needs work. This imbalance and lose of function with the Shoulder and Skull chain is primarily due to prolonged poor posture and tight, weak muscles around the shoulders and neck.

Hands – None of the athletes had ever directly trained their hands. At the beginning of the week, their hands were very weak. By the end, they had strong awareness in their hands and improved strength.

Conclusion – Most of these athletes were previously working out in gyms using weights. I believe this is putting the cart before the horse. Strengthening and Conditioning an athlete begins with training movements and not muscles. Unless they are being guided by a Strength Coach, the majority of athletes will move in the gym with poor habits, making them susceptible to injury and unachieved potential. Incorporating the Balanced Athlete Program in conjunction with the weight room can develop a superior athlete. After what I observed this week, it’s hard for me not to believe that.

Johnny

A Directed Mind has Limitless Potential

2008-06-09T10:29:00.003-04:00

“A distracted mind has no power, a directed mind has limitless potential.”

~ Rolf Gates, Meditations from the Mat.

I am really passionate about this quote, really passionate. I think that the reason I use it so much when I train athletes is because I m certain that, had I been aware of the power of my mind when I was a collegiate runner, I would have met with more success and I would have suffered a whole lot less!

In my last entry, I wrote about the first half of the quote, “A distracted mind has no power”. As homework, I suggested that you try catching yourself 10, 20, 100 times a day in various states of distraction. It’s often hilarious to notice just how far away we will go from what we need to focus on now!

Get in the habit of catching yourself in being distracted. You’ll quickly learn how to “reel yourself back in” to a more directed and focused state. This sort of “checking in” with your mental state is the beginning of your mental strength training program.

Remember that when you are distracted, whether on the court or in the classroom, you are in a weakened state. When you are directed or engaged, whether on the field or at work, you are in a much more powerful and effective state.

Being focused in this way has been coined by sports psychologists as being in “in the zone” or “in flow”. Wikipedia describes this concept as follows:

Flow is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. This concept was proposed by positive psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi the author of the ground breaking book, Flow.

Wikipedia continues:

The legendary soccer player Pelé described his experience of being in the zone: "I felt a strange calmness.. . a kind of euphoria. I felt I could run all day without tiring, that I could dribble through any of their team or all of them, that I could almost pass through them physically.

Simply put, when an athlete is in flow, his or her focus is so intense and play elevated, they’re unstoppable.

Whether you call it being in the Zone, in Flow or being Directed, it all boils down to the same results, being unstoppable. Sound enticing? We’ll continue to review how to become more directed using the training methods of yoga and meditation in the next few entries.

Peace. Cara

A Distracted Mind has no Power

2008-05-20T12:27:00.003-04:00

A few years ago a sentence popped out from the page of Rolf Gates’ book, Meditations from the Mat. It read, “A distracted mind has no power, a directed mind has limitless potential.” I read the sentence, I wrote it in my journal and for the past five years, I have repeated it every time I train an athlete.

It’s very simple. You become distracted when you start thinking about something other than what you are doing at the moment, whether that be on the field, in the classroom or in the car. Distraction comes in many forms. You become distracted when you start thinking about the past or the future or start day dreaming. You become distracted when you start to doubt or judge yourself. You become distracted whenever you interrupt your mind from staying in the present moment.

Here is the take home point … when you are distracted in any its forms, you will be in a weakened mental state. You cannot read this sentence and fully absorb its meaning while thinking about your next vacation. You will most likely not be able to execute a penalty kick or free throw successfully while doubting your abilities. You may get lucky once or twice but champions are crowned by being consistent and mentally focused.

A few years ago, I was watching an NFL playoff game with my daughters, both athletes. The game came down to a field goal attempt with less than a minute to play. As we watched the kicker walk onto the field towards the football, I commented, “He is not going to make the field goal”. My girls questioned how I knew this. I said to them, “Look at his eyes, he is filled with doubt and fear. He is distracted not directed.” Needless to say, he missed the goal and his team lost the game.

Your mind is like a muscle that can be trained to be directed and more focused during key moments of intensity, like a field goal attempt, a free throw or a race. So let’s begin our mental strength training program.

Is your mind always somewhere other than where it should be or continuously filled with fear, doubt and judgment? If so, then you are living and playing from a weakened mental state. For now, my recommendation to you, whether you are a competitive athlete or not, is to start by asking yourself a few times per day, “Am I distracted or am I directed?” You grow stronger every time you catch yourself in a distracted state and are able to bring yourself back into a directed or focused state. It is that easy. Let’s start there…

Stay tuned. Part 2 of this blog, will cover the latter part of Rolf’s sentence, “a directed mind has limitless potential”.

Cara Bradley

A Mental Strength Coach is Born

2008-04-29T11:21:00.003-04:00

In the spring of 1984, my world was rocked during the course of an 800 meter race. Having plans to transfer to New York University in the fall, I knew that I would run for the last time as a University of Delaware Fighting Blue Hen. I was an average but consistent mid-distance runner for UD knowing deep down in my 20-year old body that I had underperformed my entire career.

Feeling somewhat melancholy before the race that day, I separated myself from my teammates. I thought about the upcoming foot surgery that would end my college track career. I reflected on my past wins and losses and I firmly committed myself to running my fastest time or setting a “PR”, Personal Record in this, my last race. I repeated over and over, “personal record”. I knew that had nothing to lose. Little did I know that I was clearing my mind with my very own made-up mantra.

I stepped onto the starting line that day in an unusually calm state. In other words, I didn’t feel that normal throw up feeling. The gun shot and off I went. Funny, I didn’t feel my legs burn and I didn’t hear that voice of doubt in my mind. I remember passing UD’s best mid-distance runner. That is when my one and only thought came into my mind. I thought, “Man, she must be having a bad day.”

Having crossed the finish line in third place, my teammates jumped on me. They celebrated because I had shaved 5 seconds off of my PR. 5 SECONDS! That is HUGE in the 800 meters. I set a PR that I had never dreamed of.

Elated for a minute, I quickly sunk into disappointment. Thoughts flooded my mind. Why couldn’t I have done this sooner? How could I have waited until my last race to tap into my speed? How could I have allowed doubt and fear to block my potential for 6 years?

It was on that day that I began my quest to study the mind and how to use it in sports. It was years after that race that I found the practices of yoga and meditation I knew right away that I had found my mental training tools. I now consider myself a Mental Strength Coach. I am committed to helping athletes learn how to use their minds in order to tap into their speed, power and potential and not wait, like I did, until their last race or game to figure it out.

Cara Bradley

Deeper understanding of a Banged up Jock

2008-04-25T10:57:00.001-04:00

Eight years ago, when I committed to Hatha Yoga as a practice, I was in a fair amount of pain. The pain was not caused by running, ice hockey or weight lifting. The pain was caused by an imbalanced body. No matter what I did, I was experiencing some level of pain by just moving my body. Imagine the structure of your body as the tires on your car. If the alignment of your car is poor, your tires will wear out faster in certain areas. From a performance standpoint, the car will also not drive to its capability. Eventually the misalignment will not only affect the life of the tires, but also the brakes and other elements that make up your car.

My body was not aligned properly. It stemmed back to an injury I incurred as a youth. I went on a roller coaster 10 times in a row. I was such a snapper-head as a kid! I was a skinny runt and was thrown around in the Salt and Pepper Shakers having a blast. Well, the next day I could not walk and wound up in the hospital with doctor after doctor coming in to try and put the pieces together. Eventually I was discharged and sent to Physical Therapy. I woke up one morning shortly after starting Physical therapy and it was a miracle. I could walk. I was healed—not really.

Imprints are left on the body and mind that hold accidents and other traumas within our structure. The fascia is where these injuries are stored. It can take years for them to resurface as pain. This leaves us scratching our heads wondering why we have pain. In my case, the impact came from the left side leaving the fascia on the left side rolling inward while the fascia on the right side rolled outward. The easiest way to see this within my body was to watch how I stood, walked and ran. The left leg turned in and the right outward. Neither I, nor anyone else in my life ever noticed it. It was subtle and not noticeable unless you were really looking at my walking gait.

I didn’t notice it during my first two years of practicing Hatha Yoga. I remember the day I started becoming aware of the patterns in my legs. It was still another two years before I pieced together the childhood accident with the imbalances. As my awareness of my body and mind grew, I began working with my feet and retraining my legs to be balanced so they were not being held inward or outward—just neutral. As I worked with my legs, it was amazing how my hips, spinal column, and shoulders changed. Over the past 8 years, I have felt first hand within my body how interconnected everything truly is. Neck pain does come from the feet, hip pain from the shoulder and knee pain from the lower back.

About a year ago I began running again and lifting weights pain free. I have a lot of friends who are orthopedic doctors, and runners are keeping these doctors in business. Running is getting a bad rap. Running is not the problem. Running on an imbalanced structure is the problem. Presently everyone is dealing with a story like mine or imbalances that are slowly creating problems. Think about incorporating some yoga into your life. It will allow you to keep enjoying the things you love to do for the rest of your life.

Pulley System

2008-04-25T10:56:00.001-04:00

The easiest way to see how the human body moves is to extend your arm straight out in front of you. Bend your elbow making a muscle with your bicep. The bicep shortens while the muscle on the back of the arm (triceps) lengthens. Newton’s third law of motion states that every action has an opposite and equal reaction. This law is very evident in the human body. When one muscle shortens, another muscle lengthens. This circular relationship can be viewed as a chain.

Examples of chains in the human body are: Bicep/Triceps, Quadriceps/Hamstrings, Hip Flexors/ Gluteus (butt muscles). There are many more, but I’m sure you get the picture. So what happens to the functionality of a chain when one of the muscles is tight? According to Newton’s law, if one side tightens short—the other side tightens long. This is called “Locked Short and Locked Long”. When this happens the chain has fallen into a state of dysfunction.

The energetic relationship within a chain can be thought of as a wheel. A functional chain is energetically symmetrical while a dysfunctional chain is asymmetrical. The qualities of a symmetrical chain are like that of a symmetrical wheel: it spins fast, requires less energy to move and will have a longer life due to its balanced nature. Now let’s look at a chain that is locked short on one side and locked long on the other. The qualities of an asymmetrical wheel: it cannot spin as fast as the symmetrical wheel, requires more energy to get moving and stay moving, and due to its imbalanced nature, will experience a much shorter life.

Built Backwards (more from Balanced Athlete book)

2008-04-25T10:54:00.000-04:00

I grew up like many other American kids. My dad was an enthusiastic parent who wanted me to be involved in sports. I willingly accepted my dad’s desires. The challenge of sports always got my attention, and I was passionate about practice. Around the age of twelve, my track coach introduced me to weight training. He said it would increase my speed and overall performance. Like many teenage boys at that time, I began lifting weights in my basement.

Not much information was available about strength and conditioning. Nor were there many gyms around, so I just read bodybuilding magazines and followed the routines. I trained muscles not movements, which is the blind side of many athletes. Once I got into high school, I began lifting weights in my school gym where there was no guidance or instruction. I looked at the biggest guys and followed whatever program and technique they were using. The ego was always the motivating factor in the weight room. Push as much weight as you could and be the strongest. Intimidating muscles was the goal. What makes weight training and conditioning so very powerful is what makes it so very dangerous. When an athlete starts lifting weights without any supervision or education on technique and program design, the results can be threatening now, yet the true danger lies in the future. Many times training mistakes show themselves later in life when you scratch your head wondering where this pain or that injury came from. When I was young there was little awareness concerning gym safety and this continues to be a BIG PROBLEM today. This statement is a call to action to all parents out there. If your kids are lifting weights and training, make sure they are receiving proper education from a trained Strength and Conditioning Specialist. Resources can be found on www.nsca-lift.org

The next Blog I will finally get back to the health of the pulley system

My response (excerpt from Balanced Athlete book)

2008-04-25T10:51:00.000-04:00

For many athletes this would have been their first and last yoga experience. I mean who wants to do something they are not good at? Who wants to do something that exposes their weaknesses? For me, I have no choice. My running is hurting me, and I need to find out why. I had heard some hype about yoga, and while weight training and traditional strength and conditioning are all about developing strong muscles that contract inward, yoga works on balancing those actions with extending muscles outward. I checked yoga out, but ended up defeated and exhausted and decided that yoga was not for me. That quickly changed the following day when I woke up after that class.

To my surprise, my lower back was not as sore as previous mornings. I noticed my joints were less achy. All of this from one yoga class! I reconsidered. Maybe this was what I needed after all. The relief motivated me to return to class, yet this time was different. I performed better. I saw progress in just two classes. I did not like yoga in the beginning, but as I continued to show up for class, my body began feeling stronger. You heard me right STRONGER! My range of motion improved quickly and I began studying the movements through the lens of a strength and conditioning professional, realizing the potential this exercise modality could provide the athlete.

People think yoga is some sissy exercise. There are thousands of styles of yoga. The physical branch on the all encompassing Yoga Tree is called Hatha Yoga which literally translates as the yoga of force. Classically those who practiced Hatha yoga and the path they followed were more comparable to the Marine Core. It was not for the faint of heart— or for those afraid of hard work. It was all about discipline. I took my first Yoga class in 1995 and came in and out of yoga for 5 years. It was not until I felt like the athlete within me was being challenge did I respond.

Banged up Jock!

2008-04-25T10:39:00.000-04:00

I am working on the Blog entry about the health of the pulleys yet for now here is something I wrote for the Balanced Athlete book (not yet published).

Sitting on the edge of my bed early one morning, I look over at my running shoes and realize my long love affair seems to be coming to an end. The fading allure is reflective of living with a chronically sore lower back and painful joints. I love to run, throw iron around in the gym and chase a hockey puck across the ice; yet ironically I know deep down inside that I’m inflicting permanent damage by doing what I love. You got it. I am a Banged up Jock, and today frustration won. I decide I can not continue without a change. Little do I know that my life and career are about to take a radical turn.

As I walk into the yoga room later that morning, I am immediately reminded of the locker-room feeling during my ice hockey days. The smell, the unnerving pre-game silence and the focus of those warming up. Once the class begins, it takes all of five minutes before sweat is dripping onto my mat, my heart is pounding and my muscles are firing in ways I have never before experienced—my stereotypically held notion of yoga as simply being deep relaxation and gentle stretching melts away as I confront my first yoga class.

When I have trouble straightening my arms over my head I want to scream, “Can anyone bench over 300 pounds?” Bending over I have trouble even coming close to touching my toes, but I want to yell out to everyone, “I can squat over 400 pounds.” My ego is screaming. I keep asking myself, why can't I do this? We move our bodies standing, balancing, kneeling, lying on our bellies, lying on our backs and in sitting position. We work the spine in ways that immediately redefine core strength. I continually look around the room trying to mimic what many appear to be doing with ease and grace. It is humbling, borderline humiliating. My eyes scan the room for a clock, wanting this feeling of defeat and embarrassment to go away.

At the end of class, we lie back in a final resting position called Corpse pose. I just experienced the hardest workout of my life. Lying in corpse pose is appropriate. I feel like dying. I am physically exhausted and mentally bankrupt. I thought yoga would be another notch in my belt, instead I lie here a broken athlete, yoga having exposed all of my weaknesses. How am I going to respond?