We always knew that our program was effective and the concept behind our program was on solid ground. But we had the privilege of talking with one of the top brain researchers in the country for the past three months. He has been doing extensive research on Norwegian Olympic athletes for five years and has published his findings in peer-reviewed scientific journals. We talked with him at length about why our program has been so successful.
We have said since we started teaching, that there are two principle reasons why an athlete plays exceptionally well. We have also said that these experiences usually happen by chance and we were able to teach them, through unique drills, by design. Those two experiences are:
- Time is experienced as moving slowly
- The discriminating intellect becomes less active
As a result of the above two experiences, an athlete in any sport is able to have fluid, powerful motion. Below, you will find the neurophysiologic reasons why these statements are true.
There are specific processes in the brain that allow for fluid, effortless motion. Motion is produced in the body when a signal enters the pre-frontal cortex, (PFC), and then is transmitted to the motor system, which is the part of the brain responsible for motion. When someone has effortless, powerful motion, the signal from the PFC spends very little time there and is immediately transmitted to the motor system. When motion is forced and not very effective, signals get tied up in the PFC and are not sent out right away.
Signals get tied up when the intellect gets involved. The inherent tendency of the PFC is to analyze signals before moving them on. When this happens, the PFC starts analyzing and dissecting that information and the motor system is put on hold. Then in the cerebellum, a part of the motor system, time is experienced with a wrinkle in it and because of this, the fast-twitch muscles are not allowed to fire and the motion becomes forced.
The key is to get the signal from the PFC to the motor system as quickly as possible. This is a delicate task. You can not force signals to move quickly. Essentially, you have to set up a condition that shuts down the natural tendency of the PFC to analyze that signal before it moves it on. You have to shut down the discriminating intellect inherent in the PFC. That is why world-class athletes, when they are playing well, describe their experience as having their discriminating intellect shut down. They say things like, "I just wasn't thinking, I just reacted to the situation".
It explains why Tiger Woods tells the story of hitting key shots in major golf tournaments and not remembering anything about the shot, between the time he took the club out of his bag, and the time he saw the ball land on the green. Here is an athlete that has the best work ethic in probably any sport, who has worked harder on improving his swing than probably anybody on Tour and in the heat of battle, his intellect completely shuts down. Without consciously knowing it, he wants to get those signals from the PFC to the motor system as quickly as possible. He intuitively knows this is the only way he can swing freely. That is his real secret. This is the only way that anyone can have freedom in their swing. This is the neurophysiologic explanation for powerful motion in any sport.
So it is not so much the content of thoughts that is important during a motion, but how fast you can transmit those thoughts from the PFC to the motor system. In order to do this, thoughts have to be transmitted from a deeper, quieter level of the mind. There is simply no other way. Our drills, set up the condition for the mind to generate these kinds of soft thoughts.
The drills, if done correctly, forces one to generate thoughts from a quieter, deeper level. Only quieter thoughts can not get caught up in the PFC. They are able to slip thorough the PFC without a lot of fanfare. A thought that is not quiet, will spend unnecessary and costly time in the PFC and shut down the muscles responsible for fluid motion. When someone's mechanics are off, but has good timing nevertheless, signals are moving very quickly from the PFC to the motor system.
The quick path that signals take from the PFC to the motor system allows a golfer, for instance, to swing with abandonment and still produce a successful motion. The body is able to make effective adjustments during the swing because when the mind gets feedback from the body thorough out the swing, (or any athletic motion), which it always does, the body is able to adjust very quickly. This is because information is sent immediately from the PFC to the motor system. This explains why when someone is just slightly off mechanically during a swing, they can still have good timing and produce an excellent golf shot.
The same sequence is true for putting. Because motion is slower during putting and putting is for the most part, all about feel, the importance of getting that signal to the motor system is even more important. During putting, signals get trapped in the PFC more easily because of the slowness on the motion. Essentially, the great putters are transmitting signals from the PFC to the motor system as quickly as possible, which is easier said than done, when you have a 7-foot putt to win $900,000.
The reason why super-star athletes are paid so much is that they are able to transmit signals from the PFC to the motor system quickly. The reason why gifted athletes are not able to breakthrough and use their full potential is because they are not able to do this. We have found that with our program we are able to teach someone how to set up these subtle conditions. And they are subtle. If they were not, every coach would be teaching it because they would realize its value.
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