Focus with Sports Psychologist Scott Goldman

I met Scott Goldman, a sports psychologist at the University of Arizona, a couple years ago in Big Sky, Montana. He shared a couple of his writings that he said I could post on my blog. If you have ever heard athletes talk about getting in the zone it all begins with the cues that they set for themselves. While we may not all have the luxury of a sports psychologist, these techniques can make all the difference when the pressure is on. They seem even more important with the amount of distractions competitive and every day athletes face on a daily basis. Here is part 1: Athletes are often told by their coaches “C’mon, Focus!” However, it is rarely described what focus means or how to do it. In any performance, there is a ton of information to consider. Some of these cues may be external such as the position of the outfield while others may be internal such as how fast your heart is beating. Another differentiation to consider is if the cues are broad such as scanning a football field or narrow such as preparing for a putt. Additionally, some of these cues may be relevant such as how much time is left in the game while other cues are irrelevant such as fans booing. Thus, the best definition of “focus” is being aware of everything that is going on while concentrating only on the key elements that will lead to a successful performance. • How well can I be completely “in the moment” while competing, yet be relaxed during breaks in the performance? • How well do I put aside distracting thoughts at practice or competition? • Are there times when I am so absorbed in what I am doing that I don’t notice what’s going on around me? Choose to Focus On What is Relevant • For example, class is the time to focus on school and practice is the time to focus on The ability to focus is a skill that can be trained like any other skill in sport. The following are some recommendations for improving your focus: sport. If you are thinking about your midterm at practice, it is time misspent. Similarly, if you are thinking about your sport while in class, it too is lost time. • Identify potential distracters and how you plan to cope with them. Similarly, it may be helpful to practice with distractions present. Practice Eye Control • Focus on simple cues of your sport such as the ball, the floor, a piece of equipment, etc. Try to ignore distractions such as crowd noise. • One technique to improve eye control is the “Spotlight” technique. The object is to create a beam of light from you to your desired goal. For example, a golfer may visualize a lighted trail from their ball to the hole. Employ Non-Judgmental Thinking • Don’t evaluate the play as good or bad. Instead, focus on what needs to get done to execute a better performance

Out with the Old, In with the New...

I'm not sure if there is a polite way to tell someone that in order to prevent the same problem from happening again and again they are going to have to lose 20 pounds or do more than 5 minutes of core work a week. Remember those crazy electric football games where you end up with a scrum of electric player figures that got all jammed up in the middle of the field? That's kind of how some of us go through our preventative injury programs. Doing some antiquated old school nonsense. For some men it's "I can't be caught dead in a yoga class" yet I'll be caught with L4L5 disc herniation running like an old man because that's what we KNOW. It's not easy to change what we do. It requires effort and discipline. You also need to know if your muscle, fascia and tendon tissue are just plain worn out or if there is a tear. Tools like diagnostic ultrasound can delineate The DEGREE of injury. That's why you see the doctor for a sports injury; not because you have no idea what it is. Only YOU can change that paradigm. And guess what? It doesn't happen overnight. It's about a lifestyle not a boot camp with someone yelling at you. Last time I did anything remotely close to that I reinjured my ACL in a sports conditioning class doing a standing broad jump relay race on a gym floor with running shoes. Keep crashing up against those old cast iron players on the electric field and keep getting the same result or do something different and put yourself on the line to improve.

The Skinny on Lasers and Toenail Fungus

People have been fascinated with lasers going all the way back to the iconic image of James Bond being nearly split in two in the movie Goldfinger. Goldfinger was the first blockbuster movie ever. No doubt this brought the idea of lasers as being cutting edge into the American psyche. Lasers have been used in medicine for everything from zapping off warts to whitening teeth and now for treatment of those ugly thick fungal toenails. Another unforgetable scene on the Hollywood silver screen highlightd the social stigma attached to feet that aren't pretty. Eddy Murphy from the movie Boomerang pulls back the covers of his bed to reveal that his sleep over guest has jacked up feet. Lasers are part of a program that can help with the thick fungal nails and are an alternative to oral medication. The should not be thought of as effective as the oral but there are no potential side effects unlike oral aGENTS. Sports like running skiing and soccer increase your risk of getting toenail fungus because you sweat inside a closed shoe or boot and you are subjecting your toenails to repetitive microtrauma. The treatment should be only part of a regiment for a pesky problem.
The laser helps eliminate the fungal spores that lie within and underneath the nail. Just as in fading with laser teeth whitening the nail fungus can come back. It should be used as an adjunct treatment either with an oral or topical treatment. It is also important disinfect the areas the fungal spores reside, so the nail does not get reinfected. There are now ultraviolet lights to do this. Lysol is not a great idea because you are subjecting your skin to strong chemicals but there are other more safe disinfection sprays for shoes available. Health insurance does not cover the cost of this treatment. The treatments are administered once a month over three months and do not require anesthesia. You don't have to hiode your feet. You can flash them like your teeth with or without the teeth whitening!

Warts & the Wolfman

No this post isn't about a new Wolfman movie. It's actually about trying to get rid of plantar warts. Warts are a virus. They are a strain of HPV. Plantar warts are a partiicularly hardy strain and they can reside on pool surfaces, bathroom surfaces and the skin itself. Do you remember the old Wolfman movies wear the nice guy turns into a werewolf and they film it time lapse style? I call a treatment I use on warts the reverse wolfman because when it does work it cause warts to fade away. It uses a dectivated yeast called Candida which gets the body to recognize the foreign antigen because it sometimes cannot recognize the wart virus. The treatment takes about 2 months to work but it sometimes has no effect since everyone has a slightly different immune system. Lasers can also be used for warts. They work by damaging the blood vessels that provide nutrients for the warts. If you look at a wart you will saee little black dots; those are the blood vessels. Although some warts go away on their own, plantar warts tend to be tougher to get rid of without treatment.