Focus and the Olympics

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In my glory at the 21st Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler. Love that uniform!

I cannot believe that it is four years since I was a volunteer at the 21st Winter Olympics held in Vancouver and Whistler, BC.

It was great being part of the excitement of the preparations, training and competition. My job was to work with a team of volunteers to ensure spectators had a good experience.

The Olympics and Paralympics are ultimately about the athletes and their ability to compete safely and fairly. They train for years and years, day in and day out and both they and their families make many sacrifices. What I think they all have in common is unwavering focus.

In his new book, Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence, Daniel Goleman (author of Emotional Intellegience) talks about training and the myth of the 10,000 hours needed to perfect a skill.  He quotes Anders Ericsson, a psychologist at  the Florida State University who says:  “You don’t get benefits from mechanical repetition, but by adjusting your execution over and over to get closer to your goal.” In Feldenkrais speak we repea a movement with attention to a different detail each time with each attempt representing an approximation toward finding the best way, from your body’s perspective, of completing an action.

Ericssson and other psychologists now agree that guided attention by a coach or teacher to particular details of performance are most critical for success. Feldenkrais teachers are teachers of awareness; we help our students discover what that they are doing that might be impeding their ability to be more flexible, agile and thus able to do what they want which might include being a world class athlete or artistic performer.

We are part of that feedback loop  Goleman suggests  is needed for learning,  “ideally that feedback comes from someone with an expert eye and so every world-class sports champion has a coach. If you practice without such feedback, you don’t get to the top ranks. The feedback matters and the concentration does, too — not just the hours.”

You can read the full review of the book here.

Okay so I am not a coach of world class athletes, at least not yet! But performers and athletes include Feldenkrais or other mindful practices in their training regimens because they learn how to pay attention to their whole body and how it, as well as their mind participates in their activity so they can be more focused when it counts.

Want to learn more? Visit our website for details on classes, private sessions and our upcoming workshop, Happier Hamstrings.