Wholistic Fitness

COACH CAN’T TAKE IT! AAARGH!!!

Sometimes, i swear…sport specific athletes are among the most addicted, narrow-minded, closed loop Beings on the dang planet! Understand something; since 1982, our humble Temple of WF, HP Yoga, and SR herbs have been producing world, national, and state champions in nearly every endurance sport of which you can imagine. WF trained athletes are among the least injured, most consistently performing athletes gracing the planet…yet, the Outer World does not seem to care one iota. Whether this is because we are not fancy enough (I have no “Coopers Aerobic Institute”) or we don’t get interviewed in major media a lot because i have a yogic and financial glitch with needing to buy an expensive ad in order to be interviewed, or perhaps it is just because my DharmaSpeak is so “outside the box” that reporters, writers, et. al, are just flamboozeled at how to go about articulating such a Balanced, Grounded, Simple, and Effective East/West Path as WF.

Perhaps it is time for you…my noble and faithful WF Sangha that live the Path, that know Her Truth by daily sweat and stillness…to be brave enough to write an article, an essay, invite a reporter to your next workout…share with them the Light of WF…because,
if you care to read a local story about all these world class running coaches
gathering together here in Flagstaff, scratching their Ph.D brains
about how to prevent running injuries among their
world class athletes…
meanwhile, up in the Sacred mountains above their head
runs a mountain yogi coach who has produced injury free champions since the eighties…

sometimes, i just hang my head and wonder what it will take for the Western Coach to embrace
two syllables;
yoga!

read on if you wish…as i respond to a newspaper article below…

you guys,
we are sooooooooo Blessed to have this Path of Balance from which to learn and dive deep into each day…

namaste oh Noble and Balanced and Injury Free Warriors who do the inner as well as the outer workouts!

coach ilg
multi title running champion/multi peak course record holder

***

Most Noble Fitness Writer Ed,

if this “RUNNING COACHES CONFERENCE” event
(see below article that was profiled in today’s issue of the AZ Daily Sun)
continues next year here in Flag,
i would be more than happy to
contribute – free of charge –
a talk and free HP Yoga class on how i have kept myself
and my world, national, and state champion athletes
not only safe,
but at the top of their podiums
since 1982.

i can tell all those other coaches how to prevent injuries in their
athletes with six syllables,

HIGH PERFORMANCE YOGA.

let me know,

i bow to you from beneath the Sacred Mountain,

coach ilg, ryt/uscf/cpt
author/Total Body Transformation
founder/www.wholisticfitness.com & High Performance Yoga

complimentary Daily WF Meditation:

http://www.wholisticfitness.com/weblog/ilgblog.html

****

Coaches converge on Flagstaff for seminar
By ED ODEVEN
Sun Sports Staff
07/29/2005

In a country teeming with nearly 300 million people, there are hundreds of so-called running experts.
Yet perhaps there is but one underlying principle runners and coaches need to know:
“No one has all the answers. If we did, if somebody had all the answers, then all we’d have to do is write it down and everybody would do the same training program. There’d be no sense to have a coach.”
So said Dr. Jack Daniels at the introduction of his lecture Thursday at the Distance Coaching Classic at NAU’s University Union. Daniels recently became the head coach at the Center for High Altitude Training’s U.S. Distance Running Program.
The center’s senior coach consultant, Dr. Joe Vigil, concocted the idea of putting together this two-day seminar, and more than 90 individuals from 22 states signed up for the inaugural Classic.
Daniels, who was once dubbed the “world’s best coach” by Runner’s World, gave the seminar’s first lecture. In his hour-long talk, he offered first-hand anecdotes about what works and what doesn’t work in training high school, college and Olympic runners.
“One of the most important things in running, which most of you realize, is to avoid injury,” said Daniels, author of the highly regarded “Daniels’ Running Formula.”
“If you can avoid injury, you’ve got it made. I’d be willing to bet that every time we go to the Olympics we are leaving some of our very best people home because they just happen to be hurt at the time of the Olympic Trials.
“Avoiding injury is … being fit.”
Daniels went on to discuss his five ingredients for success. They are:
* Inherent ability — what you are born with (anatomical, biomechanical and physiological).
“Some people have advantages over other people,” he said.
* Motivation — the athlete’s desire to do something, not the coach’s.
“If the motivation doesn’t match the ability, you are not going to have a champion,” he said, “but when it does, you’ve got real champions.”

(In combining ability and motivation, there are four types of individuals, Daniels noted: Those with great ability and high motivation, whom he calls champions; those with great ability and low motivation, whom he refers to as coach frustrators; those with little ability and high motivation, whom he labels self-frustrators; and those with little ability and little motivation, aka no-shows.)

* Opportunity — to train and compete, starting at a young age. (Facilities, competition, equipment and travel are factors.)

* Direction — good or bad coaching.

“The direction can make the difference between going to the Olympics or not or winning a medal or not. There’s no question,” Daniels said. “But if you don’t have the ability, the motivation and the opportunity, the direction may not be the answer.”

* Luck — good fortune does play a part, too.

Daniels also reminded the audience that increased stress while running — brought about by longer runs, faster runs, less recovery time between runs or more runs per week –raises one’s level of fitness.

But this isn’t always the case, Daniels said.

“Everyone has limits,” he added, “and I’m not suggesting that you reach absolute limits, but you certainly reach limits that are seasonal or temporary.”

Also Thursday morning, Valley resident Robert Harmison, who holds a Ph.D. in counseling psychology and a master’s in exercise and sports science, gave a lively talk about sports psychology, focusing primarily on mental toughness and using Tiger Woods as a classic example runners can emulate.

“When I think of mentally tough athletes, this is one athlete that comes to mind,” Harmison said of Woods, adding that others have praised him for his single-minded focus, determination and never-wavering desire to win.

Harmison, whose extensive work in the field includes preparing the U.S. Snowboarding team for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, pinpointed 10 key traits of mental toughness:

A) We compete against our own standards of performance; B) We have the ability to achieve our goals; C) We possess unique abilities that make us better than our opponents; D) We have a strong, internal desire to succeed; E) We bounce back from setbacks with optimism and hope; F) We remain fully focused on the task at hand; G) We regain mental control following uncontrollable events; H) We accept competitive anxiety and know that we can cope with it; I) We thrive on the pressure of competition; J) We push through the limits and give a little more.

Other topics included “Overtraining Phenomena In Female Runners,” given by Monika Radloff, a medical doctor who works at the Summit Center and the altitude center, and “Ancillary Training For Runners — Balance Exercise,” presented by John Blievernicht, a Flagstaff resident, personal trainer and kinesiotherapist.