Sports Performance:
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"When at first you don’t succeed, never try again, at least, not in the same way. Trying almost always involves extra and excessive tension."
Patrick Macdonald
"The word ‘try’ itself implies weakness in the face of challenge. The moment you try, you are already tense; trying, therefore, is a primary cause of error."
Dan Millman, author of ‘The Inner Athlete’
The idea that it is possible to enhance performance without trying harder may at first sound implausible because it contradicts the accepted belief that to improve we need to do more. Yet in the process of trying to push a little harder all but the most gifted athletes tend to engage the ‘wrong kind of effort’. By misdirecting energy we achieve the opposite to the desired result and succeed only in reducing efficiency and limiting further development. Performance may appear to be enhanced by some measures - but at a price.
The following experiments may help to illustrate the concept.
EXPERIMENT 1
1. Fold your arms and notice which hand is tucked in.
2. Reverse the pattern and fold them the opposite way.
3. Notice the difference in sensation and your reaction to that difference. Unfold and after a few moments fold them again. Look at which pattern you have chosen.
The pattern in step 1 is your habitual ‘folding the arms’ programme that is activated without conscious thought and will feel familiar and probably comfortable.
The pattern in step 2 requires some thought to achieve and will probably feel wrong, as this is different from your usual preference. This experiment shows how strong the force of habit can be. Not only does it select the pattern of the movement in step 1 but it also determines what feels right and wrong in relation to position and movement (and your sports performance!)
Whilst there is nothing wrong with the pattern in step 2 is it a move you would choose to do automatically? I guess not, because you only perform movements in a manner that feels right. When you do what feels right you engage your usual habitual movement patterns, those performed often enough to establish the habit. What you feel when active is important for allowing modifications and adjustments to the movement.
If, as you have found in this experiment, your feelings can differentiate only between familiar and unfamiliar you will unconsciously perform all actions based on what feels right (habitual) and never in a way that feels wrong or different thus limiting your potential to change and develop. This does not cause a problem if all your movements are efficient, however, the next experiment demonstrates there is no in-built mechanism to prevent or measure inefficient effort.
Try the second experiment.
EXPERIMENT 2
1. Sit on a chair and get ready to stand up.
2. Before you move, observe what preparations you want to make. Do you hold your breath? Do you push forward with the lower back and raise the chest? Do the muscles in your neck stiffen and pull back the head? Do you feel the need to push with your hands on your legs? Spend a little time to study this movement before attempting the next step.
3. Now try to stand up from the chair without doing what you have just noted (it may be necessary to ask someone to observe your actions to give you feedback). How far can you execute the move before one, or all of these patterns appear?
To successfully execute step 3 can be difficult because the usual preparations you make are a part of your habitual ‘getting out of a chair’ programme and are ready to go before you even begin to move. You would not attempt to start the move until the familiar conditions such as the sensation of muscle tension associated with the act are present. From a mechanical point of view the common actions mentioned in step 2 actually reduce the efficiency of the movement. If your preparation and subsequent actions for this exercise are unnecessary, why do you do them? Why are you not aware that the amount of effort applied was inappropriate placing unnecessary stress on joints and ligaments? This is because you do not have a reliable mechanism that rings an alarm bell when an appropriate limit with regard to effort is exceeded. You continue to do it like this because it is a habit.
The presence of one or more of those actions in step 2 of this experiment suggests inefficient preparatory patterns are likely to be present in others. Whilst they remain, attempts to improve performance will have limited results because the same patterns will be used as a basis for every technique.
My point is that conventional sports performance training and exercise systems do not recognise the role of the most fundamental aspect influencing performance and therefore do not adequately address it. This aspect is habit. It dominates life, is active in all actions, yet we are barely conscious of its presence.
Whether professional, amateur or weekend athlete, we commit time and energy in our pursuit of excellence. We therefore need to ensure that the effort we put in is directed in a way that promotes the best conditions for improvement whilst not undermining health and performance. To achieve this, we must first become aware of how we apply ourselves to an activity and not be content with just the result. Quality not quantity! We need to develop an ‘awareness in action’ to allow the opportunity to think before we act, something we repeatedly fail to do. Only then can we recognise the force of habit and subsequently become independent of them giving us a real chance to change.
Sports Performance And Your Sense Of Effort
When we want to try harder to achieve a result, what do we do? Whether it is to run faster or to sink a putt to win a game, how do we apply ourselves to the task differently than when the result does not matter? The common response for most is to stiffen in anticipation of the action in the belief it helps us to concentrate, in fact this impedes respiration and circulation at the moment when maximum dexterity is needed.The wrong kind of effort does not just apply to movement. Without moving, observe how much effort you are using to hold this book. Are your hands gripping the book? Is there tension in the shoulders that you could release? Are your legs or lower back muscles tight? If we can answer “yes” to any of these questions we have been placing unnecessary strain on our joints and internal organs. Can you release this tension without slumping? To release the tension by collapsing places the strain elsewhere.
The body has numerous control mechanisms to monitor activity in muscle and make modifications if necessary, one of these components is the feedback loop. Feedback about any activity is vitally important for the quality of movement, messages from the brain that activate muscle have their actions monitored in order to reduce errors. Basically, an outgoing signal ‘pings’ back a reply about the outcome. When we try harder, the conscious decision to put in more effort causes the motor cortex (part of the brain that controls muscle) to send additional signals to recruit more fibres of the required muscle. The increase in signals sent from the cortex adds to the traffic in the feedback loop, thus increasing our sense of effort.
What we cannot be sure of is whether those additional signals have resulted in an efficient movement. We may feel we are working harder but will not know whether we are necessarily working smarter.
The misapplication of effort can be seen at most athletic meetings. On the last lap the leader may look over their shoulder and see the second placed runner closing the gap. The leader will then do what they think is necessary to run faster and apply more effort. The feedback they receive will convince them they are running faster because of the feel of it.
Invariably, the additional effort has applied the handbrake and is preventing them from running faster because they have stiffened up, pulled the head back and now require more effort just to maintain current speed. The second runner is in a better position to judge the required speed and moves more freely. As the runners draw level the original leader applies more effort and appears to run on the spot in comparison with the eventual winner. It is no coincidence that commentators may describe the winner of a race as ‘relaxed’ or ‘making it look so easy’.
Next time you are about to attempt an act you perceive requires more effort, observe what actions you make in anticipation and decide whether you think they help or hinder the activity. Are they necessary or do you do them because that is how you always prepare?
If we continue to apply effort where it is not needed, we become less sensitive to the stresses and strains it places on the body. Attempts to improve performance are, in many cases, actions that just serve to consolidate our present condition by using the same existing habits to achieve our goals.
How much effort we apply to an activity depends on how we have done it previously. The next section looks at how we can unknowingly become conditioned for poor, inefficient movement whilst being convinced we are doing the right thing.
Previous chapter: The Exercise Myth: Is It Really That Good For Us? Next chapter: Sports Conditioning: Is Your Practice Making You Perfect? Return to Contents |
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