Thursday 29 March 2012

10 Bad Eating Habits Parents Often Teach their Kids

Kids most often learn by example and I think we as parents tend to forget that fact as they get older. Once our kids are a little more self-reliant we usually go back to our habits as they were pre-children. As life picks up, moms go back to work when the kids start school, and everything gets busier, and it gets harder and harder to set a good example for our kids. Do you do any of the following bad habits in front of your kids?
  1. Salting your food before you taste it: This used to be a secret test that interviewers would use to size up a candidate for a job. Their reasoning? Salting your food before you taste it at a restaurant means that you have preconceived notions about how it will taste and this could trend over into other aspects of your personality. With children, using too much salt is a bad habit to get into because it’s not good for blood pressure and it makes your body retain water. Instead, try to use other spices to season your food, adding flavor without unnecessary sodium.
  2. Eating really fast: In our frenetic lives of running our children from activity to activity we often don’t have time to sit down as a family and enjoy our food. Eating too fast can lead to over eating because your body doesn’t realize that it’s full until after you’re done eating, and this can lead to weight gain. This is especially bad for our children because we are not teaching them to enjoy their food and listen to their body’s hunger cues. When they feel full they should stop eating.
  3. Skipping breakfast: We’ve all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day so why do so many adults still skip it? Scientific studies have shown that people who eat breakfast weigh less than those that skip breakfast so why do so many women still skip breakfast to save calories? Kids especially need breakfast to fuel their bodies and brains for a long day at school. Unlike adults, they can’t – and shouldn’t – get up and go to the vending machine when they are hungry.
  4. Midnight snacking: This late night habit of grabbing a snack is terrible for your system. Odds are that you are going to go to bed very soon after eating and those calories are not going to get burned off, which will also lead to weight gain. Kids who are active burn up calories a lot faster than adults and might need a healthy snack before they go to bed, but it should be at least a half an hour before bedtime and definitely not at midnight.
  5. Eating while driving: Again, in our hectic lives we’re constantly running from one activity to another, whether with the same child or a different child or our own personal activities. We grab a bite through the drive-thru and inhale it while going down the road, and we are inadvertently teaching our kids the same as they eat their nuggets and watch us in the back seat. What we should be showing them is to drive undistracted and that it’s important to focus on our food and enjoy what we are eating. Mindless eating is what also another cause of people being overweight.
  6. Skipping vegetables: We always think of children as not liking vegetables, but there are plenty of adults who don’t like vegetables either and it’s very hard to get your kids to eat vegetables if you don’t. Kids learn by example, and when you skip veggies they will skip them too.
Read the rest of the Article Here!

Caffeine’s effects and recommendations

In the month of March, people across Canada purchased coffee in droves in hopes of winning the 1 in 6 prizes posted from Tim Horton’s “Roll up the Rim” contest. (Most of the prizes being a free coffee!) This concept of buying coffee to win coffee inspired me for this month’s hot topic –caffeine.


Like most individuals, I wake up in the morning and without even thinking I have added the water to the coffee machine and I am carefully measuring out the number of scoops to make the perfect pot of coffee. After the first sip, I am sighing with relief knowing I will make it through the day. I began to question what it is about coffee that “pumps” me up for the day. After a little digging I discovered, not surprisingly, caffeine is a mild stimulant, it helps delay drowsiness and speeds up reaction time. But why? Well, it blocks an important neurotransmitter, adenosine, in the brain responsible for slowing down nerve impulses.

Imagine the Yellowhead highway free of traffic lights, construction and road blocks and you have the effects of caffeine on your brain.

Read rest of the article here!

Monday 26 March 2012

Is Brown Rice Really Better?



From the website: Men's Health! 
 

Brown or white rice? Diabetes risk jumps 11 percent for each serving of white rice eaten per day, according to a new meta-analysis of Asian and US/Australian populations published in BMJ.
But white rice doesn’t necessarily cause diabetes, says Clyde Wilson, Ph.D., a nutrition professor in the Stanford University and University of California, San Francisco schools of medicine. “The reality is that eating too much of any carbohydrate, including brown rice, can lead to diabetes,” he says.


White rice is implicated because of its high glycemic index (GI). High GI diets tend to spike blood sugar levels quickly and are associated with diabetes. However, “the glycemic index of brown rice is only about 10 to 20 percent less than white, so it digests relatively quickly, too.” (Not to mention, there are several problems with the GI measure to begin with.) It’s more about the amount you’re eating, less about the type.

Rice can be a healthy part of your diet. They key is to slow the rate your body digests carbs, so they don’t cause a dangerous rise of glucose in your bloodstream.
First, choose white or brown based on—and here’s a brilliant idea—what you like best. Whether eating white or brown, add raw veggies, like a side salad. “Foods act as a team within a meal and vegetables will slow down digestion and cancel out any negative effects of the rice,” says Wilson.

The 10 Dirtiest Foods You're Eating

On October 6, 2003, Jeff Cook took his family out to dinner at the Chi-Chi's Restaurant in the Beaver Valley Mall, north of Pittsburgh. When his chicken-and-steak fajitas arrived at the table, they were accompanied by the obvious—sauted peppers, onions, sour cream—and the invisible—a helping of hepatitis A. Cook, 38, healthy and energetic on that autumn evening, died of acute liver failure a month later.

Hepatitis A may have been the disease that ended up sickening 575 Chi-Chi's patrons and employees—and killing three—but a batch of green onions was the carrier. Dirty food. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that every day, 200,000 Americans contract food poisoning. But Philip Tierno, Ph.D., a microbiologist at New York University medical center and author of The Secret Life of Germs, pegs the true eat-'em-and-weep rate at around 800,000 a day. "Everyone in this country will have at least one incident of sickness this year attributable to a foodborne virus, bacteria, or toxin," Tierno says. Except that most of us won't know what hit us; we'll chalk up the usually mild symptoms—nausea, diarrhea, cramping—to "that stomach flu that's going around."

Scientists currently know of only one 100 percent foolproof way to prevent foodborne illness: Stop eating. Or, almost as effective, obsess over every morsel you bring to your mouth and whether it might be staring back at you. But assuming you'd rather not die of slow starvation or, worse, live like Nick Nolte, we present you with a third, saner solution: Identify and sanitize the 10 dirtiest foods.

After considering incidence of foodborne outbreaks, relative danger of the dirt, and how often the carrier is found on our forks, we came up with a list of the edibles most likely to send your day spiraling down the crapper. We then assembled simple strategies for decontaminating the prime suspects—from the supermarket to the supper table—without worrying yourself sick. And what if, as with Jeff Cook, someone else does the cooking? We'll also tell you how to spot a dirty restaurant. Add it all up and what we're giving you is a recipe—for clean living.

How To Be Brave



I love this video because it shows something you rarely see: the anatomy of a courageous moment.
Improvement isn’t just about getting better — it’s also about getting braver. It’s about encountering thresholds, and taking big, scary steps across them; it’s about jumping into uncharted territory where you don’t know if you’re going to fly or flop. This girl, who’s in the fourth grade, is experiencing the same kind of moment that happens on a theater stage, or on an athletic field or in an office, and she gets past it with a great bit of strategy.
  • First, positivity. She assures herself that she’s going to do it, and she’s going to be fine.
  • Second, simplicity. She’s not caught up in remembering a bunch of stuff, but focuses on two things. (Go straight. Don’t snowplow.)
To read Rest of this Article go here!

Sunday 25 March 2012

Military Fitness - On a Mission to save you - Mental Training



Great article to read about fitness and mental training, along with pushing through adversity!
You may want to read it more then once!

 
AMERICA IS 11 YEARS INTO THE LONGEST PERIOD OF WAR IN ITS HISTORY. THE MILITARY IS RELYING MORE ON ITS SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES TO CARRY THE FIGHT. In fact, Special Operations Command (SOCOM), which oversees units from the U.S. Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Army, sent 13,000 men to 75 countries in 2011.

The typical enlisted special operator is 29 years old (34 for officers) and married with at least two kids. He has 8 years of experience in the general forces and earns around $70,000 a year. Incidentally, he has banged out about 40,000 pushups. (And you're worried about repetitive stress injuries?) He deploys more than ever, with annual tours lasting 6 to 8 months. His missions can range from black ops, like the raid that killed Osama bin Laden (a dozen such raids are conducted every night), to village stability operations, which involve tasks like building schools and training police.

Combat is debilitating, both physically and psychologically; yet having soldiers with combat experience is critical. As one Green Beret captain, who prefers to remain anonymous*, told Men's Health, "You want the old guy on your team, but not the old broken guy." That's why SOCOM initiated a performance program, which each service branch is customizing. The aims: Boost combat effectiveness for healthy soldiers and return wounded ones to full strength more quickly. Training a special operator costs about $250,000, and the military can't afford to lose guys because of injuries that develop from years of combat and outdated physical training. The program is a mind-body-spirit overhaul, treating elite soldiers as professional athletes. That's why civilian strength coaches, dietitians, and acupuncturists now rub shoulders with military psychologists, explosives experts, and drill sergeants.

Of course, the stakes on the battlefield dwarf those on the sports field: Suicide rates among active-duty personnel are higher than ever, and in early 2009, for the first time in history, more service members killed themselves than were killed in action. As Marine Corps vet Karl Marlantes writes in What It Is Like to Go to War, "Warriors must touch their souls because their jobs involve killing people. Warriors deal with eternity." To understand how the military is forging the modern warrior, and to learn from these men who must be both violent and sensitive, MH spoke with special operators in all four branches, and identified skills you can use every day, even if the only combat you engage in is the career kind.

*Many special operators want to remain anonymous, a preference that Men's Health respects by using only first names and identity-protecting photographs in this story.

1. Build a Combat-Ready Body

10 Ways to Ensure Your Children Keep Their Word



Great article to help coaches and parents!

    When our culture advises parents to “groom” their children for success, it typically encourages us to send our kids to the best schools or push them to squeeze out every possible SAT point they can muster.

    But what is often overlooked is our children’s integrity, the rudder that will steer their life’s ship. And integrity starts with keeping promises.

    If you really want your children to flourish, train them to keep their word, no matter what. When your kids say they will do something, they do. No questions asked.

    If your children will live up to this principle, wherever they go, their reputation for being upstanding will make them outstanding.  Equip them for success. Here are 10 Ways to Ensure Your Children Keep Their Word:

  1. Keep your word – always:
    Like most clichés, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” contains practical wisdom. Children learn 100% of the time. Watching dad back out of a promise will leave an imprint, always.

  2. Model integrity in every aspect of your life:
    Integrity isn’t selective. Dad as a role model and dad as a leader amount to a broad sweep. Keeping our word is an example for so much more. Our integrity is to be character lesson #1 in absolutely all we say and do.

  3. Make character education an ongoing family project:
    The family is a living, learning laboratory – a learning center where “teachable moments” abound. It’s a simple task to pause, point out a truth, then move on. “Look, Junior, that wasn’t easy; but we made the commitment to help pick up trash this morning and I’m glad we did. What do you think?”

  4. Share stories of family character and examples of famous people:
    Talk about family history that supports promise keeping. Watch movies together such as “Chariots of Fire” and talk afterwards. Highlight news items and personalities that illustrate the value of integrity.

    Read rest of article Here!

Saturday 24 March 2012

Breaking Down the Crosby Powerplay




Added by Mike Colligan on March 24, 2012.
Sidney Crosby reminds me of Mario Lemieux at age 35.

That’s not an insult.  Probably not a compliment to the 24-year-old Crosby either.  It’s reality.
When Lemieux came out of retirement in 2000, he was a different player.  He could no longer physically dominate opponents with his reach, deceptive speed, and 6-foot-4 frame.  He had to combine what was left of those talents with his exceptional hockey IQ.

Lemieux stayed out of the high-traffic areas in an effort to save his body and became an elite playmaker.  (Goals made up over 40% of his points pre-retirement; after 2000 that dropped to 33%).


Malkin and Crosby NHL: Dec 12 Panthers at Penguins

The Penguins powerplay allows Crosby and Malkin to co-exist (Icon SMI)

Crosby has made a similar transition.  THW’s James Conley suggested last week that Crosby should consider the perimeter style of play if he wants to stay healthy long-term.  Through five games, that’s exactly the Crosby we’ve seen.

He’s had a number of great scoring chances that haven’t resulted in goals, but his playmaking has stood out the most, as evidenced by his nine assists.  Conley also pointed out that coach Dan Bylsma has surrounded Crosby with the right personnel to make this transition easier.
Crosby has spent most of his even strength shifts with Matt Cooke and Tyler Kennedy, two wingers capable of winning battles along the boards and doing the dirty work.  Bylsma has also moved Crosby to the point on the powerplay which allows him to stay out of the corners and utilize his playmaking abilities.

That switch answered one of the biggest questions surrounding Crosby’s most recent return: Can Crosby and Evgeni Malkin co-exist on the powerplay?

Since the 2008-09 season, the Penguins’ powerplay has routinely been in the bottom 10 of the NHL.  Minnesota Wild coach and former Penguins assistant coach Mike Yeo, who was responsible for the Penguins’ powerplay, was chased out of town by fans who believed Crosby + Malkin should equal domination. That simple equation hasn’t always happened for a number of physical and psychological reasons.

First, Crosby and Malkin are both left-handed.  More often than not, they tend to drift to the same areas of the ice and get in each others way (Jaromir Jagr‘s concern over the same dynamic was accurate, in my opinion)

They’re also proud players.  When Crosby and Malkin have been in the same lineup together – a rare occurrence in recent seasons – both players have insisted on having the powerplay run through them.  Many times the puck would go to Malkin, he would drift to the right halfwall where Crosby was already standing, and he’d hijack the system.  The notoriously unselfish Crosby would do the same thing.  This is one of the biggest challenges of coaching multiple superstars.

Bylsma was recently asked whether he ever considered splitting the two up, creating a 1A and 1B powerplay unit.  “Of course,” Bylsma said.  “We certainly explore all possibilities and opportunities out there. I think we’ve always felt, and strongly feel that having the best two players on the ice is the best thing to have success on our power play.”

What Bylsma didn’t say: Even the hint of Crosby or Malkin manning the ‘B’ unit would be an insult to both players.

So Bylsma made changes (with the help of assistant coach Tony Granato and his players, I suspect).  He took an inventory of the talents of his five best players:

Read rest of the awesome article here!

Thursday 22 March 2012

Off-Season Training for High School Players

More articles at Grow The Game

If you’re like most hockey players, you’re likely looking for the most beneficial—and injury free—off-season training program. This interview with an elite performance training coach, Oyvind Gulbrandsen of Viking Power Fitness, shares some guidelines for hockey players. Gulbrandsen spent years training pro hockey players in the off season and says, “Whether a hockey player is in a youth organization or a player with a pro team, they are all seeking the same results and that is to improve strength and performance.”

To accomplish those goals, Gulbrandsen has the youth player focus on lower and upper body strength, core stability and improved cardio. Gulbrandsen explains, “While the lower body strength is mandatory for hockey, you have to focus on a strong core and not forget about upper body workouts as well. And, if you balance your off season workouts with interval training, the result is you become a more explosive player.” Gulbrandsen says, “Youth hockey in this country is exploding. It’s a great sport for the players and families, but the key to staying injury free, is to stay fit off season.” And especially for youth, Gulbrandsen has these requirements for the players:
  • Eat for performance (his mantra)
  • Maintain a balanced diet of 55 percent carbohydrates, 25 percent protein and 20 percent fat
  • Warm up for five minutes before starting any exercise
  • Stay hydrated all day by drinking water or low sugar electrolyte drinks
  • Track performance using a heart rate monitor and know the heart rate zones
  • Cool down after each workout for five minutes
He suggests an hour in the gym for weight training two to three times a week and interval cardio workouts two times a week. He also is adamant that the youth player does no have to incorporate heavy weights into the training. “Bench press heavy weights is not the No. 1 exercise for hockey, in fact using heavy weights isn’t recommended for youth training. In Viking Power Fitness, I train hockey players using dynamic body weight exercises,” he explains.

Dynamic body weight exercises use your own body weight for performance of key exercises. Gulbrandsen says youth hockey players will benefit tremendously by performing key exercises off-season such as:
  • Two to three strength workouts a week
  • Walking lunges
  • Squats to failure without weights or using low free weights
  • Lateral lunges with a resistance band around ankles to improve hip strength and stability. Keep the band taut the whole time
  • Push-ups
  • Pull-ups
  • Planks for core strength
  • Box jumps
  • Medicine ball slams to the floor, which is raising a medicine ball to about eye level and slamming it to the floor in front of you, or on each side of your feet
Because the shifts in hockey are short and furiously fast, Gulbrandsen says interval cardio training is a must. “To reach shift performance, it is a good idea to train using a heart rate monitor and knowing your maximum heart rate. When a player trains, I like them to keep their interval bursts between 75 and 85 percent of their maximum heart rate.”

Interval Training consists of a variety cardio bursts followed by a timed reduction is effort. “If the player is training in a gym, I recommend interval training on the Stair mill, treadmill or spinning bike. Outside, the effort can be accomplished running on a track, running hills or cycling.” The off-season training he recommends for the best results is:
  • Do two interval workouts a week
  • Five-minute warmup reaching your target heart rate zone
  • 30 minutes alternating between two minutes on and one minute slowing down at 75 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate during the two minutes on
  • Five-minute cool down
Gulbrandsen summarizes, “I leave the skating drills to the coaches—my goal is to help hockey players achieve or retain their explosive ability, flexibility, full body and core strength and improve their cardio endurance for shift performance.”

Editor’s Note: Thank you to Kathy Smith for this story. Oyvind Gulbrandsen grew up in Norway, where he played hockey and semi-professional soccer. He was a member of the Norwegian Military and it was during his two-year stint that he developed a passion for coaching strength and conditioning. When he left Norway in 1995, he started his fitness career in California, but it was in Denver a few years later that he catapulted to success. He is currently the Owner and Elite Performance Coach at Viking Power Fitness.

Health News: Fruit Linked to Lower Diabetes Risk

Fruits, particularly apples and blueberries, have been linked to a decreased risk in Type II diabetes, according to a new study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.


Researchers looked at the diets of more than 200,000 people and found that those who ate the most blueberries had a 23 percent lower risk compared to non-blueberry eaters. They also found that people who ate five or more apples per week also had a 23 percent lower risk compared to non-apple eaters.
Check out our list of seven must-eat fruits and veggies for spring.

Read the full article at HuffingtonPost.com >

10 Bad Habits We Need To Help Young Hockey Players Break

By Rich Taylor Of Youth Hockey Review

As the 2010-2011 Fall / Winter youth hockey season comes to an end, and coaches begin the process of providing player evaluations, I thought it might be useful to share my observations of the top 10 list of bad habits that we as coaches and parents need to help young hockey players break.
 
The list is based on my observations and player evaluations over the course of the season. They are in my view, key developmental areas for improvement in both personal skills and team play.

10. “The Lone Ranger.” Always tries to gallop the length of the ice and weave through the opposing team. Often turning the puck over, taking a poor shot, or missing a great chance to headman the puck. “Lone Ranger” play is selfish hockey. A real team player makes the other kids on his or her team better by passing, working hard without the puck and setting a good example in both practices and games.

9. “The Shift Hog.” Working hard on the ice is no excuse for not sharing it. Far too many young players, and especially the “Lone Ranger” types, want to stay on the ice as long as possible. They don’t look for smart opportunities to make a change, or listen when the coaches are calling for a change. They run hard for the first minute of their shift, only to get beat, or get called for a lazy penalty, at the end of a 2 or 3 minute shift.

8. “The Belly Flopper.” Young goalies have a tendency to dive from the butterfly position out toward the puck. These “Belly Flops” create a big hole underneath that makes it easy for pucks to slide through, or get pushed through by opposing players crashing the net. Young goalies need to develop the habit of staying in the butterfly position and not diving forward for loose pucks.

7. “The Drive By.” Young players drive hard to the net, take a shot, only to turn away or skate right past the net. Missing their chance for a rebound and second chance scoring opportunity. Stop in front of the net! It’s an easy habit to develop, yet so few young players do.

6. “The Lazy Loop.” Turnovers happen all the time in hockey. Which makes hard stops and fast starts incredibly important. Far too many young players lose the puck and then perform a big looping turn – “The Lazy Loop” – to try and change direction. Unfortunately, by the time the loop is finished their opponent is off to the races.

5. “The Blind Pass.” The simple habit of practicing stickhandling at home with your head up and not looking at a puck (or ball) can make a huge difference for most young players. Many young hockey players develop the bad habit of looking at the puck as they skate. They can’t see the ice, or their teammates, and get into the habit of throwing the puck blindly to an area, rather than making a heads-up play.

4. “The Field Goal.” Lifting the puck is virtually an obsession with most young hockey players. They all want to shoot high and hit the corners. Opening the blade and flicking the puck up from out in front of their bodies is a common, and bad, habit many young hockey players need to break. Flicking and throwing the hands (and blade) up frequently results in the “Field Goal” that goes right up over the net, rather than in it. Learning to turn the wrists over and point the toe of the stick where you want the shot to go is more difficult, but it’s the proper technique needed to improve shot power and accuracy.

3. “The Flat Foot.” Standing still is a tough habit to break. Learning to move without the puck is one of the most critical skills to develop as young players move up to higher levels of hockey. Whether it’s a defenseman standing still at the blue line, or a winger standing still in the high slot, being flat-footed is a difficult habit to break. Finding an open lane to support the play and anticipating the puck are key skills that transform a positional player into a true team player.

2. “The Bird Watcher.” From face-offs, to breakouts, to rebounds that bounce out right in front of your own net – a lot of young players stand still and watch the play. They watch as the face-off is lost and goes to the other team. Watch as the breakout comes at them. Watch as their own goalie struggles to keep a rebound from getting shot right into the net. Developing the instinct to “attack the puck,” whether it’s right in front of them, or by anticipating that a pass or play will be coming their way, is a vital skill. And it begins by learning to keep the feet moving. There’s no place for bird watching in hockey.

And finally, my number one bad habit for young hockey players to break -

1. “The Panic Attack.” In the heat of competition, where the pace is fast, a great many young players go into panic mode. The puck becomes like a hot potato, getting slapped away, passed wildly, or simply fired right back to the opposing team. Patient play and good decision-making are essential team play skills. It’s the biggest difference between players at the same age, but playing at different levels of competition.

Those who develop the ability to stay composed under pressure and make smart plays may not be the most skilled skaters, or hardest shooters – it’s nice when they are – but they are what make a team, well a team. And without them you’re left with a group of “Lone Ranger” personalities competing against each other, rather than working together toward a common goal. Communication and teamwork is the key to eliminating panic attack hockey.

No matter what level your child plays at, it’s the small things that make a big difference. The players who are easy to coach, eager to learn and willing to work at breaking bad habits are the ones who will have the greatest success both at their current level, and the next.

Want to suggest a bad habit that’s not on the list? Tell me about it and we’ll try to address it in a future post. If you like this list, let me know that too.

Monday 19 March 2012

Quote

If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. -John Wooden

3 Things Winners Know

Duke University’s head basketball coach Mike “Coach K.” Krzyewski wrote the book on leadership. Ask him to define the quality and he’ll remind you of it: “How much do you want to know?”

His recipe: Confidence—or cockiness, if Duke’s a rival—combined with what he calls natural leadership ability. In lieu of structured playgrounds at his Chicago elementary school, Coach K was the kid organizing recess kickball games. “I just always instinctively did that,” he says. (Here’s the ultimate March Madness workout.)
With 927 wins and counting, Coach K. is the winningest coach in college basketball NCAA history. How can you create your own winning record?

Be Truthful—Always
Trust is the most important ingredient of leadership, says Coach K. And to develop it, you have to invest in others and yourself. Emails can create facades. Make eye-contact. Choose face-to-face conversations. “The more you do it, the more you’ll develop that bond,” he says.


Most importantly, trust yourself. Coach K. has repeatedly turned down attempts—from the NBA and other colleges—to leave Duke. You can’t always trust money and the lore of the NBA, and year after year he’s put his trust in Duke.

Read the rest of the article Here!

Sunday 18 March 2012

One Method Athletes Successfully Use to Eliminate Anxiety




Read more of these articles by Loren Here!

You have trained long and hard for this event. Today’s the big day. Your moment of truth. Will it all come together as you have dreamed?

Or will those doubtful nagging thoughts begin to appear, slowly chipping away at your confidence. Your anxiety rises as the time for your event approaches. The anxiety is so overwhelming making it difficult to focus. Nothing you do brings relief. These are the moments when the biggest hurdle is fighting down the waves of anxiety.

When I first began racing with my crew club at regattas, the hours and minutes leading up to my heat were excruciating. The intense anticipation always caught me off guard. The nervous energy running through my body made sitting still impossible.
Performance anxiety is experienced differently by each athlete. Physiological, mindset and emotional symptoms combine.

Physiological Symptoms
  • upset stomach
  • butterflies
  • nausea
  • sweating palms
  • racing heart
  • dry mouth
  • shakiness
Mindset Symptoms
  • easily distracted
  • thoughts of fear, doubt and worry
  • Mind blanks, blocks, freezes
Emotional Symptoms
  • Fight, flight or freeze response
  • Irritable
  • Fear
  • Inadequacy
Now this is where most sports psychologists will explore the different fears, doubt and worries contributing to your anxiety. Yes, those are all good and plausible. When you are in the moment it is too difficult to decide what is throwing off your focus.

Simply put either you are competing to win or competing to not lose. When your focus turns to thoughts about not losing it’s like unlocking Pandora’s Box. Suddenly the nasty thoughts are unleashed. Each thought building on the previous one.

Instead of spinning out of control, you can contain the momentum to turn it around. The Emotional Freedom Techniques is the ideal tool for catching those nasty thoughts, regaining control of your body and putting a lid on the anxiety.

The anticipation of the first race of the day was when I experienced the most anxiety. To calm my nerves I began tapping on the different meridian points. I didn’t care what anyone thought as they saw me tapping away. Initially I was tapping without saying anything because I was already keenly aware of my anxiety.

As I felt my mind, and my body, begin to calm I began adding reminder phrases to the tapping.

This nervous energy
Worried about rowing well.
Will I be able to stay strong in the race
What if I miss a stroke and catch a crab
I don’t want to lose
Once I felt centered I tapped a round of positive statements.
I’ve trained well for today
I am prepared
I’m in a boat with strong experienced rowers
I’ve done this before, I know I have what it takes


Right before my first heat as I was walking toward the bathrooms, silently tapping along the way, I was stopped by a rower from another club. She asked me if I was doing EFT, stating she had never seen someone tap in the open before. We talked for a couple minutes, sharing our experience with EFT. Then it was time for the race.

Feeling focused and confident, I climbed into my seat of the boat. We did some warm-up drills first. We had to wait longer than anticipated for our heat. Silently I did more tapping to maintain my focus. Finally, we lined up to race. I took some deep breaths, quieted my mind and prepared for the start.

Performance anxiety is difficult to manage under the best of circumstances. Understanding it’s cause is helpful, but not necessary. All you need to determine is if you are racing to win, or racing to not lose.

As an athlete, your anxiety is usually related to the thoughts of not losing. Use EFT as your secret weapon to relieve the anxiety. Tap as you acknowledge your thoughts. Then reframe with positive thoughts to refocus your energy. The Emotional Freedom Techniques is a fast, easy technique to conquer the negative thoughts.

Challenge: Does anxiety interfere with your performance when competing? List the thoughts which go through your head adding to your tension. Next list the things you would like to say to yourself instead which would raise your confidence. Now you have your tapping statements. First tap on all the negative thoughts to reduce their intensity, then tap on all the positive ones to anchor them in. Or if you like just follow along with me on the video as I do some tapping for performance anxiety.

Thursday 15 March 2012

The True Meaning of Conditioning

The True Meaning of Conditioning
Swen Nater

This is going to be a rather long posting. I’ll try to keep the quality high from beginning to end, though I may become a little tired. I’ve not done this long a posting before. [deep breath] Here goes.

It was early on an April 1980 San Diego morning, the first morning after the last game of the San Diego Clippers season. I put on my Clippers socks, basketball shoes, practice shorts, and practice shirt and walked out the front door of my home into the cool, but soon-to-be warm, day. The eastern sun, slowly rising like a released golden balloon, almost blinded me. But it warmed me slightly.

My usual off-season workout was weights, sprints, footwork, jumping, or shooting. I had never tried running. As I stared jogging I thought, ‘With the kind of shape I’m in, I should be able to run all day.’ The “eye-opener” was just around the corner.

Planning on “getting it over with” in as little time as possible, I picked up the pace from a jog to a run. My heart rate increased and leveled off a bit. About 5 minutes into the run, my legs began to tighten a little and my breathing shifted from aerobic to anaerobic. In other words, I began seeking more air. It felt like the third overtime. I slowed down. That didn’t help much so I reduced my pace to the slowest jog I could muster, hoping to finish the two miles. Finally, after one mile, I quit and began my walk back home. With my head down, lungs burning, hands on my hips, and confused, I could not figure out why someone who could run four miles in a basketball game (combined with jumping and extreme wrestling) and not be tired, couldn’t run two miles straight without jumping and no one hanging on him. I was conditioned to play more than an entire NBA game but not conditioned to run two miles.

In 1974, I was challenged, by a 60 year old PE teacher in San Antonio, Texas, to a game of racquetball. I had never played before but I figured, since I’m used to running on an 84’ X 55’ court, the much smaller area would not be a problem. Because of the teacher’s experience, he had me running from wall to wall while he stood in the middle of the court, sadistically, joyously, and without an ounce of compassion, spreading the ball around. Ten minutes into the match, I began tripping over my tongue and was convinced I had used all the oxygen in the place.

Conditioning is Activity-Specific

It can be said; a couch potato is in condition because he’s accustomed to sit five hours in front of a television set working the remote, eating potato chips, and drinking Bud Light. It can be said, “He’s in shape.” He’s not in great physical shape but he’s in shape to sit in one position for 5 hours without becoming physically, mentally or emotionally fatigued.

A New York traffic intersection cop is conditioned to move his arms and stand for hours without becoming physically, mentally, or emotionally fatigued. A court stenographer, scorekeeper at a basketball game, graveyard custodian in an office building, and garbage collector, are all in a condition I am not. And, they are not in the condition I am for what I do. Conditioning is activity-specific.

Therefore, training must also be activity-specific. And, the more the training is “like the activity” itself, the more properly trained people will be.

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Read This Book

From the Website "The Talent Code" One of my Top 5 favorite websites! 


 


For me, the best books are not the ones that come out of left field, dazzling you with their original genius.

No, the best books are ones that, the instant you read them, feel titanically obvious. The ones that take something right under your nose and show it to you in a way that makes the whole world pivot and seem fresh.

That’s why you should read The Power of Habit, By Charles Duhigg, who also happens to be a friend.  Here’s the thesis:

Habits — automatic loops of behavior, triggered by cues, nourished by rewards, driven by cravings — make up a large percentage of our behavior.

To control your life, it helps to understand how these loops operate — to control the cues, rewards, and cravings. In short, the same neural machinery that makes you reach for a jelly donut can also make you reach for the tennis racquet or the math book, or perform a certain skill better, or build a productive practice routine.

In the book, Duhigg gives the example of the champion swimmer Michael Phelps. Phelps’s coach, the remarkable Bob Bowman, designed Phelps’s workouts as a series of strong, productive habits.
For example, each night Bowman would cue Phelps to “watch the videotape before you go to sleep and when you wake up.” There wasn’t an actual videotape — Bowman wanted Phelps to visualize himself performing every element of the perfect race. During practices, Bowman would have Phelps swim at race speed and tell him to “put in the videotape.”  Eventually, at races, Bowman would simply whisper, “Put in the videotape.” (We know what happened next.)

There’s a great deal more, but my main takeaway is the crucial importance of the central craving. Strong habits are not built around a vague desires, but rather around deep and powerful cravings that dominate our conscious and unconscious minds, our identities.

To build good habits, then, put the craving first and foremost. Figure it out. Define it. Nourish it. Do everything to ignite and support the craving, because the craving is the engine around which powerful, productive habits can be built.

As Saint-Exupery said, “If you want to build a ship, don’t assign people tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”