Sports

Mindful Running

Part of the appeal of running is how mindless it is. Running is one of the things I start to pick up again. Here let me share with you how I change my experience from just putting one foot in front of the other, to a more mindful running.

I am never really keen on running before for several reasons. Usually when I run, these are the things that I sense:

1. Stomach cramp

After I hit 2.5 km, my stomach likes to get a cramp like feeling. However, mindfully inhale and exhale-ing really helps to release that cramp. I find regulating the breathing is very important to achieve a longer endurance.

2. My ankles feel stiff and I feel discomfort either on the front or side of my shinbone

In the beginning when I felt this, I really paid attention to what cause my stiffness. Then I realized that my feet felt like stomping rather than articulating from heel to forefoot. Also I felt like my ankles are like one unit to my feet.

After getting this awareness, I start to mindfully make my ankle move a bit, it helps for a while but doesn’t get rid of the discomfort completely. The stiffness only disappear when I remember my training about fascia. How we should be able to bounce instead of rigidly rely on our muscles to make the movement. So I started to imagine I bounce from one step to another step..and kept go on and on. This completely “cure” it. I felt excited to find that lightbulb moment. At the end of my jog, I didn’t feel any stiffness and pain whatsoever on my lower legs. Even the next day, I felt like normal

3. My medial left knee feel a bit of pain

This to be honest, I still haven’t found my lightbulb moment yet. I’m guessing it has something to do with weight transfer from side to side also my hip movement. But I will keep trying to find out just like I did with my ankles and will let you know..

These are really some of the things that I want to give to my clients, the ability to explore one’s body and find the “solution” when they notice discomfort or pain in their body.

I do believe that mindfulness is the beginning of a solution..

The importance of awareness in tennis

After 4 lessons of coaching, I’ve started to learn how to do forehand, backhand, volley forehand, volley backhand. Even though I thought I know my body well enough, to adapt to a new form is not as simple.

The definition of neutral position is quite different from Pilates for some joints position. For example, the wrist alignment. All these years of my Pilates and Gyrotonics trainings, neutral means that my hand is in a straight line in relation to my forearms. However, in forehand, the wrist should be in extension. So, I didn’t get it right away when my coach kept telling me to make my wrist more neutral. Because my brain is wired in different way.

Luckily, I’ve developed a sense of awareness of my body. Once I understood what he meant, I was able to adapt to that new “neutral” wrist for forehand. It’s just one little example of how Pilates helps me.

I’ve always known that movement should originate from pelvis movement. So that part is quite easy. I was able to rotate my pelvis and transferred the movement to lower and upper limbs. So, no back pain for me.

This experience really intrigues me. I often hear this phrase “we don’t know what we don’t know”, especially from Douglas Heel, one of world renowned mentor who taught us Muscle Activation. I now realized that as much as I’d like to think that I know my body well, I still don’t know what I don’t know if I never use it and adapt it in different ways.

So, if you are new in tennis or other sports, and would like to explore your body more to create that sense of body awareness, I’m eager to help. Because I’m like a child who’s curious to all possibilities on how our body can move..