In sports, one of the most important (and completely overlooked) keys to performance is the processing of visual information. I just came across a study that helps demonstrate this point in an interesting way.
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Reversibility, a Key Determinant of Movement Quality
February 7, 2011 
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Reversibility is a key concept in the Feldenkrais Method. I will introduce it by way of relating an amusing anecdote. In my second year of Feldenkrais training, the instructors made the unfortunate decision to encourage an atmosphere of playfulness by throwing a whoopie cushion to the students for their discretionary use. As I detailed in […]
Continue readingSkeletal Awareness for Better Movement
April 27, 2010 10 Comments
This post is about using awareness of your skeleton as an aid to finding the most efficient movement patterns. In the Feldenkrais Method, students are encouraged to develop skeletal awareness by visualizing their actions in terms of the movement of the bones. In Z-Health, students are instructed to perform exercises while attending to “bone rhythm” […]
Continue readingMaking the Hard Easy and The Easy Elegant
April 16, 2010 11 Comments
Easy. For him. This post is inspired by a famous quote by Moshe Feldenkrais. Feldenkrais said that one of the primary goals of his method was to make the impossible possible, the hard easy, and the easy elegant. I’m a big fan of this quote because it reminds me that physical training involves a lot […]
Continue readingMirror Neurons – Can You Get Better at Sports by Just Watching?
April 1, 2010 17 Comments
Image via Wikipedia The last post was about improving coordination by just imagining movement. The basic idea is that imagining the performance of a skill will activate almost the exact same neural pathways as actually performing it, so that you can better at something purely by visualization. This post takes the same idea a little […]
Continue readingMoving Better By Just Thinking About It
January 29, 2010 13 Comments
One of the main themes of this blog is that the brain has far more control over strength, speed, flexibility and coordination than most people imagine. Nothing makes this point more clear than the fact that we can dramatically improve our physical performance by doing nothing more than thinking about it. In this post I […]
Continue readingWhy Slow Movement Builds Coordination
January 17, 2010 33 Comments
I’ve written quite a bit on this blog about the benefits of moving slowly for improving coordination. Of course, my two favorite movement practices, the Feldenkrais Method and Z-Health rely to a great extent on slow mindful movement as a primary means to develop coordination. Many people will look at very slow and gentle movements […]
Continue readingEfficiency is the Essence of Coordination
December 30, 2009 16 Comments
No wasted effort In the previous post I talked about coordination, which I defined as the harmonious interaction of multiple joints to produce a useful movement. To briefly summarize, I stated that coordination implies that: the joints work together as a team; that the team involves as many joints as possible; and that there is […]
Continue readingIs Flexibility Important?
April 1, 2009 17 Comments
Good warm up? As a rolfer, I see many clients who tell me that one of their main goals is to increase flexibility. They seem ashamed of their lack of flexibility and feel guilty that they don’t do more stretching. (This is usually right after starting a yoga class.) They are surprised to hear that […]
Continue readingThe SAID Principle
January 10, 2009 32 Comments
Image via Wikipedia The SAID principle is one of the most important basic concepts in sport science. It is an acronym which stands for Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand. It means that when the body is placed under some form of stress, it starts to make adaptations that will allow the body to get better […]
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