Note: I was dissatisfied with this article but decided to post it yesterday (November 10, 2024) to meet a self-imposed deadline I set. The next day (November 11th), I came back and made some significant changes to it to clarify and elaborate on what I was trying to convey.
PS I mistakenly uploaded the unedited version of the video. In the edited version, I cut out some of the extraneous parts and added in some text to clarify what I was saying in the video and correct mistakes. I replaced the unedited version on November 11th. I hope it clarifies things. And so sorry. I was wiped yesterday!
Paying Attention
In the video portion of this post, I share an exploratory exercise for the pelvis that I call seated walking. In the exercise, you sit on the floor with legs out in front and walk in place. If you can’t make sense of that from the word picture, it will become clear when you watch the video.
The seated walking exercise represents a continuation of the awareness practice I began with the scapula exercise I demonstrated in the previous video. In today’s video, I zero in on the importance of slowing down movement as part of our training.
Slowing Down: Why It Matters
By slowing down movement, we give ourselves a chance to ferret out what is happening in our body, something that is hard to do at faster speeds. In the video, I talk about why we would want to intervene to improve compensated patterns. I’ll say a little more here.
One reason is that when our movement patterns are problematic, we set ourselves up for injury. Another reason is that we are less efficient in how we move when we move in compensated ways. Thus, if we can engage in practices that allow us to notice hidden compensations, we can intervene to prevent injury before it happens and set ourselves up for faster running at the same effort level.
Awareness Is Key
I want to emphasize here the importance of awareness. If we go slow without paying attention, without noticing, then we might not notice what is off. Or, if we notice that something is off, we might not realize we can do something about it.
Awareness is thus key because it allows us to both recognize what is off and to do something about it. It allows us, in other words, to move beyond mindless doing to meaningful doing, doing that leads to self-knowledge and self-agency. Going slow is the practice we can incorporate to help us foster and build a sound foundation of awareness.
Why Slow, Aware Movement Practice Matters for Runners
Because running is a complex, fast movement even when running at slow speeds, we might want to consider incorporating targeted, slowing-down practices that can help us build our awareness and knowledge of how the different parts of our bodies are meant to move when we run and how they are moving in us.
Ultimately, what we are talking about here is building a first, solid, sound foundation of paying attention to the biomechanical details of our running body. This theme of paying attention reminds me of a story Kareem Abdul Jabbar recounts in a memoir he wrote many years ago. It, too, is a story about slowing down, though in a different way. I talk about it below.
True Wisdom
In Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s memoir, Coach Wooden and Me: Our 50-Year Friendship On and Off the Court, Jabbar tells the story of when he first met Wooden after arriving on campus.1 I am re-telling this story years after having read it and may have some details wrong, but what I tell is the essence of the story as I remember it.
Anticipation
Jabbar’s first meeting with Wooden was when he was an incoming freshman at a meeting with all the other freshman who would be playing for the team over the next four years. Wooden was already established as a renowned coach and Jabbar had high expectations for that first meeting, eager for the coaching wisdom he would learn on his first day.
The First Lesson
After a few minutes of waiting, Wooden finally arrived. He didn’t say much. Didn’t acknowledge anyone directly. Just walked in and began to instruct them in their first lesson. What did he teach on this first day? What was the thing he believed was the most important thing he could instill in this talented group of freshman basketball players hungry for knowledge and destined for greatness?
The answer? Tie your shoes in double knots.
What?!!
This is the legendary John Wooden. Tie your shoes? This is the first coaching pearl he has to pass on? Why such a seemingly uninspiring first lesson?
Downstream Effects of Tending to Details
Think of yourself as a promising young freshman basketball player and ask yourself these questions: Do you want to be a good, reliable teammate, someone others can count on? Do you want to be someone who everyone knows will be there game after game playing with full attention the whole time? Do you want to play every game and not miss one for some niggly injury caused by a loose shoe? Do you want to ensure you remain laser-focused throughout a game, including in those most crucial final minutes of a thrilling, nail-biter game?
Then the most important, most fundamental, most basic thing you have to learn to do, and do consistently - the thing you have to learn and do before anything and everything else - is tie your shoelaces in double knots before the game ever starts.
After instructing them on how to tie their shoes, Wooden walked out of the room.
Debrief
Fundamentals are everything. Details are everything. The great coaches preach them and teach them. The great athletes soak them up and begin to notice them, train them, and drill them in practice. There is nothing too small to attend to.
Destiny
For some of us, it takes a lifetime (or more) to get to this point of understanding. Others learn it sooner. No matter when we learn it - early or late in this lifetime or perhaps in some future one - we will all learn it because it is the only truly satisfying and sustainable path. It is about saying yes to ourselves, our gifts, our worth, our continual deepening and growth, and to our happiness.
It is also about saying yes to dedication and humility - because once you step on the path of learning and developing the fundamentals of your discipline, you open yourself up to recognizing, in each moment, what you don’t yet know.
Astrology Tie In
For those of you who follow my Astrology Journal Substack, consider the sign of Virgo and its relationship with Pisces as it relates to this idea of practice, details, awareness, and humility.
Cover Image Credit
For obvious reasons, the image of a double knot made sense to use for the video thumb for this post. The knot also represents what we may find when we slow down that has always been there but needs our attention, i.e., something that needs to be undone. The knot might be in our tissues or our mind. Either way, it is only when we slow down and tune in that we become aware of it.
My memory is that this meeting was also the first time Jabbar met Wooden, but could have that wrong.
Slow Equals Smooth: The Practical Application of Tried and True Training Wisdom