Results matching “Bird”

Getting some air - Test articles

Getting some air

Photo © 2007 The Flying Pie.

Principles of Effective ActionThe first blog by Training Syndicate's Mike (other than his own, which is always a great read) is online : Stephen's Principles of Effective Action. Head over there and say hello.

Athletic Strength and Power Via Physical Strategies : A great blog - Athletic Strength and Power. The podcast (in three parts) is well worth a listen.

Kim Wood's gym (pictured) doesn't look too bad either. Especially the collection of barbells. Beautiful.

Visualisation - Test articles

Arnie watching Ken Waller 'Try out your ideas by visualizing them in action.'
- David Seabury

Visualisation (or 'visualization' for our North American readers) is the act of forming a mental image of the outcome event, before the event has taken place. Although it's often dismissed as being 'new-age' (or something a little stronger, but you get the idea), it has a logical base that stands up to a little testing.

If you've never been exposed to visualisation before, here's a brief example to illustrate just what it is.

Imagine yourself at a powerlifting competition, standing on the platform with a bar loaded to 200kg on the floor in front of you. You've deadlifted 195kg in the gym, and you feel ready for the 200.

Just before you walk up to the bar you see a great image in your mind - it's you successfully completing the lift, and a subtle grin forms on your face as you stand there for a second with the bar in your hands. The training has paid off.

Back to reality - you walk up to the bar, set yourself up and get down to business. The bar moves fast, your head feels ready to explode and your eyes are about to burst. Seconds later, however, you find yourself standing there with the bar in hand, and a subtle grin on your face. You've done it.

This is the way visualisation can, and does, work. It's an extra bit of help; not a miracle. If you've worked up to 195kg in the gym, visualisation won't have you suddenly pulling 350 in a competition. It just takes you one step closer to a successful lift.

Now, the rational part. There are many reasons why visualisation (and positive thinking in general) helps, including :

  • Forming a mental picture of you successfully completing a lift is not a lot different to watch a video replay of a previous success you've had. The more often you see these successful lifts (whether via video replay or visualisation), the more likely you are to repeat them. It's a great way to learn.

    The benefit of visualisation here is that the outcome may be based on something you haven't done before. Sure, you may have done the exercise many, many times; but not with that weight. Or perhaps you've run that distance numerous times; but not quite that fast. Whatever the activity, visualising success can be the difference between your actual success and failure.
  • If you believe you can do something, you try harder. If you walk up to the bar telling yourself 'there's no way I can lift this', you're probably right. Walk up there with a positive attitude, picturing yourself lifting it successfully, and you're in with a real chance.

    Part of this is purely physical. Think about the times you've lifted something in order to impress someone. This doesn't matter whether it's a group of friends in your backyard, a young girl in the gym or your mother trying to rearrange the furniture. Chances are you took a deeper breath, puffed your chest out a bit more, pushed your shoulders back and arched your back slightly - all without realising it. It all helps.

Further reading

There's a massive amount of reading material available on the topic of visualisation. Fortunately I'm somewhat skeptical in my thinking on most subjects, and have cut this back to a manageable few :

Blogs

More than Mind Games
Sports Psychology and History

Sports Psychology for athletes, coaches and parents
Dr Patrick Cohn on sports psychology

A mental game
Sports psychology and golf

Cultivate Greatness
Personal development
Particularly the visualization category

The Genius in All of us
This is a superb look inside the minds of athletes, inventors and just about everyone else. David Shenk raises some fascinating questions.

Sites
Peak Performance Sports
Sports psychology and mental training

There's a lot of great information on this site; particularly the Get Psyched podcasts and newsletter.

Psychology of sports
Dr Richard Lustberg

Podcasts

Goal Free Living
Interview with Doug Gardner, Sports Psychology consultant

Weight Loss: Visualization and Positive Self-Talk

Articles

The Secret Weapon
Chris Shugart interviews Dr Jack Singer, Sports Psychologist

6 keys to killer workouts
Mike Robertson discusses the benefits of visualization, goal-setting and stimulants

Walter Gieseking
The man who rehearsed in his mind

Mind control over muscle power
Synopsis of a 2006 Cardiff study

The shocking nervous system
Chad Waterbury discusses neuroscience. Superb.

As I said, there's an immense amount of material on the topic of visualisation, and sports psychology in general. If you've come across a good resource - that's not already on the list - let me know.

Car flipping - Test articles

Markovic vs Kazmaier Via Napalm's Corner (fast becoming a great source for all things Kaz) : the Car Turn Over event [streaming, 8.5mb .flv download] from the 1989 World's Strongest Men contest (later renamed to World's Strongest Man). Just when you thought tyre flipping was challenging.

Combat archery - Test articles

Combat archeryVia Physical Strategies : if you're looking for a change when it comes to working the rotator cuff (at least on one side), try this - Combat Archery [streaming, 8.8mb .flv download].

e-Strength Band - Test articles

Randy Hauere-Strength Band is the blog of Pennsylvania's Randy Hauer, both coach and competitor with passions for Olympic weightlifting and kettlebell training.

His latest piece - Medvedev, Weightlifting and Kettlebells: Part 1 - clearly demonstrates both of those passions. Superb.

Robop (Robotic Bird of Prey)Via Engadget : Robotic falcons are being developed in the UK to perform a curious task - to scare away obese pigeons. Novel idea; will larger animals (dare I say humans) be next?

Robop (Robotic Bird of Prey)Via Engadget : Robotic falcons are being developed in the UK to perform a curious task - to scare away obese pigeons. Novel idea; will larger animals (dare I say humans) be next?

25kg block weight cleanIf you've got a few 5kg plates, some duct tape and fairly large hands; try this [streaming, 1.3mb .flv download]. Harder than it looks, but great fun.

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460  

Pages

Powered by Movable Type 5.2.7