Baby Fox

Just down from our house is a den with 3 baby foxes. I was fortunate enough to get a picture of one of them. Check it out!!

Mental Toughness Myth?

Vern Gambetta has a post on his blog today about mental toughness. His opinion is that mental toughness is a myth and a cliche'. Cliche' maybe but myth? Come-on! Mental toughness is the ability to ignore that little voice (internal or external) that says, "Ok it's time to quit. There's no need to keep going, that's good enough." Or it's the circumstance that threatens to break your spirit but you continue to press on. This character trait can and should be developed. In Vern's blog he also mentions mindfulness. There is a vast difference in my mind between bull headedness, which some would call mental toughness, and mindfulness. Mental toughness must be accompanied with a moral compass and the wisdom to know when you are being mentally tough and rightfully so or just bull headed and wrongfully so.

What is cusious to me is how Mr. Gambetta so highly relies on the facts of science in his training methods and principles but seems to be able to state his opinions as fact but appears to not have any scientific back support at all.

Is mental toughness a myth? No. Can it be developed? Yes Can it be mistaken for other less desireable character traits? Yes.

In the blog it was also suggested that one of the qualifications of mental toughness is "getting it done". I'm sorry but depending on the situation, not getting it done is not in direct coorelation to mental toughness. Someone can be extremely gifted with mental toughness but still falls short of "getting it done" whatever that means. However I would have to say that a certain amount of mental toughness is required when "getting it done" is achieved.

Feet

Right now I've got a female former DI cross country runner that still trains like she's gonna lose her scholarship. We are seeing her for a torn posterior tib. Interesting, during the eval, her arches were almost exactly the same on both feet. One side she's had multiple stress fxs, plantar fascitis multiple times, etc. The other side, she's never had an injury. However she has always had orthotics in her shoes since her early years in high school.
Oh did I mention that her navicular has migrated medially and her talus pronates extremely bad.
If the feet were the problem, and she ahd orthotics in both the left and right shoes? Then why is one side never injured while the other is frequently injured?

The Silent Predator

Here is a post to an article I wrote about the effects of deer hunting on the human heart.

http://www.ncwildlife.org/pg09_NCWildStore/sample_aug07.pdf

Don't Judge A Book By It's Cover

Once again we are reminded not to judge a book by it's cover. I've heard people say different things to define themselves such as "my work defines me" or a person is defined by what they do and not what they say. We are what our lives reflect of us both in private and in public, in speech and in action, externally and internally, and by our talents of lack thereof.
Watch the reaction of the judges and the audience before her performance.

BUT also Listen to what the woman in the middle says at the end of Susan Boyle's Performance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Pitching and external rotation.

The smell of freshly cut canvas of green, dew from the grass wetting your cleats, leather and the crack of the bat. It's that time again, Baseball season. Still we see conditioning programs focusing on the external rotators (ER) of the shoudler (supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor). If you've been in baseball long enough you realize that the ERs of the shoulder do not perform external rotation of the humerus while in the acceleration phase of the pitching motion. The importance of the ERs come into play in deceleration but only a fraction of the percentage. The majority of the deceleration comes form the opposite low back, hip and leg. See Serape Effect.

There is little need to train the ERs to concentrically contract. The emphasis should be on teaching the entire body to share the responsibility of deceleration in order to protect the shoulder.

The Spine

Once again I am thinking of a statement said by Dr. Stuart McGill. He gave the anaogy that the spine is like a clothes hanger and will has a breaking point when bent too many times. However there are a decent number of people who never have to see a Dr. for their back because they don't have back problems. My own father for example is 76 years old and I asked him if he ever had back problems. His answer was "No". He worked in manual labor for the majority of his life and before that was a 3 sport athlete. We always focus on the 80-90 % who have back pain but why don't we ask the question, "Why do the 10-20% NOT have back pain?"

The second question I would like to ask is, "Why that particular vertebrae?" Why not another one? If we can find the answer to "Why this one?" I think we may be able to fix more than just the symptoms.

For a great perspective on this go to the Gray Institute's website and read this months newsletter on knees.