Wake up team, its training time again!
Many sporting teams have closed for business over the Covid-19 threat to health, and left us in an apparent void, where to from here? Tonight, we are going to look at some alternative training techniques you would have some knowledge about, while your team is apart. That does not stop you from using the full potential of your fantastic brain. By using visualization, there is endless things you will be able to do, until the team comes back together. When that will be, we cannot say for sure at this stage. Your self-responsibility is to not become a victim of that fact. So first, let’s have an introduction into how that wonderful brain is going to work for you.
Your mind can visualize a picture of your training. You may have grown up with the myth that we use about 10% of our brain capacity but have infinite opportunity to develop that to a higher level. Pure myth. Its even better than that. Albert Einstein referred to the old statistics too. The neurophysiological reality is that the 86 billion neurons (nerve cells) in that 1.3 to 1.4KG of brain that we have, works to 100% of its potential, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for your lifetime, provided it is not in a state of disease. So, let’s get to work. Here’s your responsibility, visualize and create your own training practice session. See yourself walk into the locker room. Open that sports bag and carefully unpack that clean well maintained sports outfit, and picture yourself changing into it, then sit down and tie the shoelaces.
Now create “The zone”. It may be your sports field, paddling event, triathlon training, marathon training, ironman or running club, gymnasium, golf course, ballet studio, Zumba class, gymnastics studio, football stadium, basketball stadium, cricket stadium, ski slope, cockpit for your air plane or race car, or any other one that belongs to the sporting area of your expertise. It may be some other activity or skill set you possess but are presently separated from. The list is infinite. Start your gentle stretching and your warmup. See, feel, smell, hear, taste, physically experience in your mind what it is to train. Start going through your training and performance protocols that you have taken a best part of your lifetime to train for. You are going to surprise yourself over the next few months, at how real these pictures will become to your mind, with regular disciplined practice. How detailed and infinitely productive they will be, as you discover you can keep conditioning your training by maintaining your muscle memory. Covid-19 movement restrictions have taken you away from the peace time conditions. But it will not always be that way. Let’s move back to a little background of the neurophysiology and we will develop the concepts a little later.
So, we can start thinking that this is not the end of our career, but better said the start of our future. I want you to be ready to re-ignite all that passion, energy, joy, capacity for infinite application and true contribution to our society and civilization. You are now the hibernating being, waiting to pounce on the opportunities that will be waiting for those who are prepared. There have been Electroencephalogram (EEG) studies done on the brain of people visualizing their physical activity, which means this special equipment that studies brain function has been connected to the brain to show what’s happening to those 86 billion brain cells you possess. As the subject goes through their routine, the messages that were processed in the thinking during visualization have shown to cause similar transmission through nerves cells, to the exact muscles that create that movement. Simply put, you think the movement and the brain produces nerve cell impulses like the ones that really cause in this case, muscle contraction. So, what all your hard work is going to do is create the environment to condition and train your muscle memory. Find this hard to believe?
Let’s consider an example. Colonel George Robert Hall was a U.S. Airforce pilot taken as a P.O.W. during the Vietnam war and suffered humiliating solitary confinement and physical torture during his capture. When he wasn’t being tortured, highly disciplined daily visualization became his powerful tool to create an 18-hole golf course, that he played in his mind. Setting up in his stance, club grip pressure, concentration on which part of the ball to strike, getting over his nervous tension blocks, the wind, the length of the shot, and thousands of other factors, into the smallest most minute detail. In addition, he studied Math’s, Physics, and many other subjects using visualization, that brought the power of Neuroplasticity into play. Consider Colonel Hall’s return to the U.S.A. from being a P.O.W. on 12th February 1973. He was invited to play at the New Orleans P.O.W. Pro-Am Open only 6 weeks after his return date, and by shooting a 76, matched his previous Handicap despite not having played any golf for 7 years! Thankfully neuroplasticity is that incredible process that takes place for the rest of our life, where hundreds of billions of trillions of connections forming between these 86 billion brain cells continues. It will take a quantum computer to more accurately estimate that number of potential new connections.
You may also be able to identify some weaknesses in your present technique or performance capability and create ways to address them in your mind. Consider contacting other members of your team to participate in this exercise. You can contact your team Captain and ask them to help co-ordinate a team approach to this process and perhaps compare notes and other techniques over a Skype session. This is only my list; you will be able to come up with even more ideas than I have listed here. But remember to never, never, never give up! Every single small step you take in applying these recommendations will lead to giant steps in developing your present capabilities, and the added benefit is that it will help to keep you positive, focused, happier and healthier. It will be progress in motion, taking you away from all the negativity and help stop you developing thought processes based on fear, loss of power and change in belief patterns. Nothing will stop you continuing to benefit from this type of visualization training. Remember, if you believe something to be right, then it’s right, correct?
No matter what your sport of choice or group activity is, you have all the resources to continue to stay fit and look after your immune system at the same time, in your own home. Please subscribe on our You tube site, at “Jeremy Hip2Toe Plus”. You can also visit our website at www.hip2toe.com.au and read our blogs and watch our videos to stay positive and in tune with presentations, both current and future. I have more information of visualization in my book I have published on Amazon titled “Lets learn about Power of Activity” by Dr. Jeremy Hawke. (Podiatrist). I hope you will be able to share this information with family and friends, so we may continue to move together to create a future we truly believe in. So please remain safe, healthy and happy. What we choose to think creates the process, that’s 90% of the work. The rest you will put back into motion with the sport or skill set you love, at the earliest opportunity. Let me keep you in the driver’s seat. I know you can do it! I am grateful for you joining me.
Thank you from the Hip2Toe Team. Have a great evening!
Dr. Jeremy Hawke (Podiatrist) B. AppSc; M.A. (International Relations) is the Managing Director of Hip2Toe Plus in Cairns with a specialist interest in Sports medicine and musculoskeletal medicine treatment. He is a member of the Australasian Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine (AAPSM), Australian Podiatry Association and The Australian Podiatry Council. He has Australian medical prescriber with an Endorsement to prescribe scheduled medicines. He has lectured Doctors, Medical specialists and Allied health practitioners over his 27-year career and presented on radio. He is the Author of “Lets learn about Power of Activity. He was formerly a professional dancer, Marathon runner, and competitive swimmer with a background in amateur Australian rules football, martial arts, cricket, Ice hockey training, ice speed skating, squad swimming training, social water polo, and a keen snow skier. He is passionate about playing golf in his spare time. He has a goal of participating in a running marathon at 100 years old.