Gaining Control Over Your Attention and Energy Flow
The mind and the body develop together and where one goes the other is pulled along. If you are training the body to become capable of something extraordinary, are you training the mind for its role in this as well? There is a saying, most notably promoted by Daniel...
Trust Supports Skill… At Every Level Of Performance
One of my favorite scenarios in coaching is to guide a non-swimmer from a tense and fearful relationship with water to a relaxed and confident relationship as a capable swimmer. With an understanding of what’s happening deep in the body’s autonomic nervous...
Going From Pool To Open Water
Spring is the time of year when more people are contacting us to get ready for some summer events or activities in open water. It could be for a triathlon, a swim holiday, snorkeling, or being more comfortable swimming recreationally or for personal safety while...
Your Stroke Is Like A Song
Accomplished musicians can play not only many different songs, they can also play the same song in different ways – changing the feel without changing the essence. Different artists will play the same song, sometimes trying to play it precisely like another, or...
Differentiating Your Thinking from Awareness and Attention
At one time or another, you may have received the rebuke, “Don’t think about it so much. Just do it!” In some consequential situations where self-control is needed, slowing down to think is a really good thing to do. In others, where a different kind of control is...
Coach Mat is Back on this Blog
Photo by Juliana Barquero on Unsplash It’s been nearly a year since I took a pause from the blog here. Over this last year, I was increasingly absorbed with study and writing (draft after draft) of my masters dissertation which I completed a week ago. With a bit...
Coach Mat Taking A Pause On This Blog
As a coach (both for athletics and for life and personal development) I advocate for self and situational awareness, listening to one’s body and being and environment, and learning to interpret and respond in a health-promoting way. Things change, inside of us...
Accept What Is In Order To Change It
Do you notice, as I do, that rarely are we the same person in the same condition in today’s practice that we were the day before? Every day presents the likely possibility that something is different in our bodies, in our minds, in our personal conditions, which...