The Super Mental Training Book (22 page)

Alexandra David-Neel watched two lung-gom artists in action. "She describes," says Tarnawsky, "their gait as something between running and race walking—a 'peculiar nimble springing."' Continues Tarnawsky:

The first time she (David-Neel) saw one was a memorable occasion.

She and her party were travelling horseback across the Chang Tang, that desolate grassy upland. Suddenly they saw a tiny figure in the distance, coming toward them with unbelievable swiftness. It was not a part of Tibet where one ran into people, especially afoot, and they wondered who it might be.

Then her servant, looking through her binoculars, said, "It looks like a lung-gom-pa."

They watched, fascinated, as the man approached.

"I could clearly see his calm impassive face and wide-open eyes with their gaze fixed on some far-distant object..." David-Neel wrote. "He seemed to lift himself from the ground, proceeding by leaps. It looked as if he had been endowed with the elasticity of a ball and rebounded each time his feet touched the ground. . ."

As the monk passed, her servants bowed their heads to the ground. The monk took no notice, being in a trance.

Not wishing to disturb him, they let him get a ways ahead. Then they followed him on horseback, curious to find out where he was going. After two miles, the monk suddenly left the flat. He bounded off up a steep slope like a mountain goat and disappeared. Whether he'd done this to get away from them or whether it was simply his route, they never knew.

Tarnawsky believes that the monks trained in the art of lung-gom took part in an ancient version of biofeedback training. Biofeedback training, notes Tarnawsky, leads to the "learned voluntary control of physiological functions that we used to think were involuntary. The 'feedback' itself is direct information transmitted to the learner through electronic gadgets such as electroencephalographs." The monks, not possessing electronic equipment, learned to control their heart rate, body temperature, and so on by studying under a monastic teacher.

This old way of learning the principles of biofeedback, while commendable, undoubtedly requires more time than modern methods for one to achieve proficiency. As reported by C. Maxwell Cade and Nona Coxhead in their book, The Awakened Mind (1979), "a yogi, Swami Rama, said that when he returned to India, he would shorten the training of novice monks by starting them off with biofeedback instruments. Many years would be saved that way, he observed." How much time is saved in learning biofeedback with the aid of instruments? Obviously, it depends upon the degree to which you wish to master the technique. Generally, though, if you live in an urban area, it is not too difficult to find someone offering a 2 or 4-week biofeedback class; such a course should provide sufficient instruction for you to grasp the fundamentals.[14]

If you desire to enhance your running endurance via biofeedback training, you will probably prefer taking the 2-week course rather than subjecting yourself to the regimen the Tibetan monks face while learning lung-gom. This is evident when we note the training required of the monks. Says Tarnawsky, "The novice Maheketang had to do special breathing exercises in total darkness for 3 1/2 years. In one exercise, he would sit cross-legged, inhaling slowly for a long time, then leap into the air with legs still crossed, not using his hands. He would repeat this leap a number of times during each practice period. If he could leap twice his height, he was considered capable... In other words, if he were 5 f 5" he would have to leap 10 f 10" to be considered proficient."[15]

David-Neel points out that it is the mental part of the Maheketang's training which is upper-

most in importance. "It must be understood," she explains, "that the lung-gom method does not aim at training the disciple by strengthening the muscles, but by developing in him psychic states that make these extraordinary marches possible." It is clear that you must be both mentally and physically strong if you wish to maximize your athletic potential. By being able to leap twice their height, the lung-gom artists must be physically fit; yet, Tamawsky and David-Neel emphasize that a remarkably focused state of mind, developed through arduous mental training drillwork, is the key to making the monks' feats possible. Tarnawsky describes the Maheketang's state of mind while running:

When he is actually running, the runner repeats to himself a secret ngag, or sacred phrase. His breathing must be in rhythm with the phrase, and his strides keep time with both his breathing and the syllables of the phrase. He does not speak, or look from side to side, but keeps his eyes fixed on a distant object. Apparently he reaches a point where he does not feel the weight of his own body, and goes on thus for hours without pain or fatigue.

Reading this commentary about the lung-gom artist, one might wonder about the importance of the physical side of conditioning. An easy conclusion would be to skip the 15 miles/day workouts, and just enter the marathon, remembering to repeat a sacred phrase and breathe rhythmically the whole distance. But, make no mistake: athletic success depends just as much on possessing a physically fit body as being mentally tough. Still, it is a pleasant turnabout to see an example of physical conditioning aspects relegated to a secondary role, and therefore having to justify their importance. For in sports the reverse is pervasively the case. The coach subjects his players to hours upon hours in the weight room, endless drillwork on technique, double workouts galore, while absolutely nothing is done to help the athlete properly prepare his subconscious for competition.

Related to our discussion of the lung-gom artist, Dr. Thaddeus Kostrubala, well-known psychiatrist, makes an interesting hypothesis. He says that long-distance running is essentially the same thing as meditation. Both entail a repetitive aspect: in running, the foot strikes the ground unremittingly; in meditation, the person constantly repeats a word or phrase. The effect of each is to alter one's state of mind. In his book, The Joy of Running (1976), Dr. Kostrubala presents his hypothesis:

I liken. . . running itself to one of the major techniques of meditation, and sometimes prayer, employed by virtually all disciplines both East and West: the constant repetition of a particular word or series of words, whether it be, "Om, na pad na, om na," or the Hail Mary. It matters little what value that particular philosophy or religion attaches to the use of the word, phrase or prayer. It is clearly intended to be an opening into another aspect of awareness. In short, by means of the repetition, the phenomenon sought—namely, the touching of another state of consciousness—is achieved. I think the same process occurs in the repetitive rhythm of slow long-distance running. Eventually, at somewhere between thirty and forty minutes, the conscious mind gets exhausted and other areas of consciousness are activated.

We recall David-Neel's report that the lung-gom monk took no notice of the servants as he ran by, that his gaze was "fixed on some far-distant object." This can be attributed to the monk's intense mental and spiritual training; but, it also falls into line with Dr. Kostrubala's contention that long-distance runners achieve the same state of mind meditators attain. There is, of course, a major difference between meditators and long-distance runners. Meditators deliberately alter their consciousness whereas long-distance runners do so inadvertently. Of these two methods to alter one's state of consciousness—meditation or long-distance running—the athlete educated in the ins and outs of mental training would opt for meditation. Long-distance running is too much a hit-or-

miss thing when it comes to altering consciousness. Besides, it takes quite a while to attain the desired state of mind when you run (30-40 minutes according to Dr. Kostrubala). Meditation, by contrast, achieves its ends fairly quickly: 5-15 minutes; plus, you do not have to take a shower afterwards. The athlete seeking the benefits of meditation and whose sport happens to be longdistance running could try to get by with just his workout while dispensing with meditation sessions; but again, relying on the workout alone to deliver a pleasing altered state of consciousness is too haphazard. Unless one's running route is in an isolated area, interruptions from such things as cars, other people, etc. would continually hinder the development of the meditative state of mind.

As we have seen, the typical situation in sports today, despite a degree of progress on the mental training front, is for the physical and technical aspects of conditioning to be overemphasized. This usual situation was ameliorated somewhat in the women's track program at Cal State Hay-ward several years ago. A clinical psychologist at the university, Dr. Betty Wenz, taught biofeedback to various members of the women's track team. We read in the December, 1979 issue of Runner's World this report of Dr. Wenz's efforts:

"The goal is stress management that will result in muscle relaxation and increased concentration," Dr. Wenz said. "Then, when specific problems are identified (such as tight shoulder muscles in runners), biofeedback in the form of electromyography (EMG) or surface temperature gives the athlete an immediate physical indication of what is happening in his or her body, and when."

... The athletes are taught a simple series of exercises in which they recognize tension in muscle groups by consciously tensing and relaxing them. Eventually, tension can be recognized without the exercises. "Once this is accomplished," says Dr. Wenz, "EMG just gives visual proof that their muscles are tense." One difficulty Wenz has encountered is getting athletes to transfer relaxation techniques learned in the lab to competitive situations. To do this, Wenz teaches "self-biomonitoring," which involves recognizing tight muscles by touching them, and checking breathing speeds and rates of speech. [16]

One can sympathize with Dr. Wenz in her difficulty in "getting athletes to transfer relaxation techniques learned in the lab to competitive situations." We do not know enough details about what inspired the biofeedback training sessions; for example, did the women track team members volunteer or were they "volunteered" to learn biofeedback? We do not know. Consequently, we are in the dark about how motivated the athletes were to apply this particular mental training strategy to their event. However, the Hayward track coach, Harmon Brown, did offer his opinion of biofeedback, and how it affected the performance of six members of the team who utilized the technique regularly. Stated Brown, "It can be a useful tool in the hands of someone who knows how to teach it. Biofeedback does not drastically improve performance, but it does reduce stress, and that helps." Assuming Coach Brown's observation is correct, it appears that biofeedback in this instance proved mildly beneficial.

Keep in mind, even a mildly beneficial improvement can mean the difference between victory and defeat. Track and field is a sport of inches, seconds, and fractions of seconds. It is no fun losing a race by a tenth of a second, or the long jump by half an inch. Any athlete in track and field therefore should seriously consider investigating visualization, self-hypnosis, biofeedback, or other mental training strategies. Applying any of these disciplines may make the difference. Even if but a slight improvement results, be grateful. For slight improvements add up, eventually separating the champion from the also-ran.

A scientific estimate of the performance gain runners can achieve from applying self-hypnosis to their sport has been ascertained by Dr. William P. Morgan of the Institute for Aerobics Re-

search, in Dallas, Texas; as we recall from earlier in the chapter, this is something Dr. Johnson contended could be done. Dr. Morgan, in his article, "Mind of the Marathoner: Association and Dissociation from Pain" (see Psychology Today, April, 1978), relates how he tested the effects of dissociation on physical performance. Dissociation, he first of all informs us, is a "kind of self-hypnosis" which runners can employ as a "strategy for coping with the pain and discomfort of a long, competitive race." What is involved in using this strategy? Explains Dr. Morgan, "The runner who dissociates purposely cuts himself off from the sensory feedback he normally receives from his body," much like the lung-gom artists. The test results obtained by Dr. Morgan are predictable: people who dissociate demonstrate greater endurance. Here is Dr. Morgan's account of the test and the results:

We tested 30 young men on their ability to walk on a motor-driven treadmill until they were completely exhausted. The speed of the treadmill was 3.5 miles an hour, and the grade, or slope, was adjusted for each subject so that he had to work at 80 percent of his aerobic power (the maximum amount of volume of oxygen he can consume in one minute). In this initial test, the 30 men lasted, on the average, about 15 minutes before having to quit. Then, all were divided into two groups, dissociators and controls. We induced dissociation in one group by asking them to 1) stare at a specific object in front of them, 2) repeat the word "down" (a pseudo-mantra) with each leg movement, and 3) synchronize the repetition of the mantra and leg movements with their respiration.

The performance of the control group on the treadmill remained essentially the same in this retest, while the dissociators lasted an additional five minutes—a substantial gain. A second trial confirmed the performance gain of 30 percent. Not only were the dissociators superior to the controls in performance, but they also were significantly more effective than a third group, who were given a lactose capsule that was supposed to improve endurance but was really a placebo.

The performance gain of the dissociators was 30%! That is extremely impressive. It would seem that adopting some sort of dissociation strategy would put the runner on the road to athletic success. But, Dr. Morgan issues a strong warning for those runners interested in trying out such an approach:

Dissociation appears to be far more pleasant (than association), since it reduces anxiety, effort sense and general discomfort. On the other hand, the jogger who adopts it is more likely to suffer serious injury. The increased likelihood of stress fractures to the bones of the feet and lower leg cannot be ignored. The very real potential for heat stroke or heat exhaustion can lead to death or permanent impairment unless medical assistance is readily available. Finally, the beginning jogger should be warned that the quest for a "breakthrough" or "transcendent experience" can produce addiction and psychological trauma.