I will reproduce what Irvin
Yalom says about his way of learning what empathy is.
Irvin D. Yalom has made a career of investigating the lives of others.
In this profound memoir, he turns his writing and his therapeutic eye on
himself. He opens his story with a nightmare: He is twelve and is riding his
bike past the home of an acne-scarred girl. Like every morning, he calls out,
hoping to befriend her, "Hello Measles!" But in his dream, the girl's
father makes Yalom understand that his daily greeting had hurt her. For Yalom,
this was the birth of empathy; he would not forget the lesson. As Becoming Myself unfolds, we
see the birth of the insightful thinker whose books have been a beacon to so
many. This is not simply a man's life story, Yalom's reflections on his life
and development are an invitation for us to reflect on the origins of our own
selves and the meanings of our lives.
Empathy is what is needed in
this coronavirus epidemic.Most of us
will not die from it, but we should have empathy for the most vulnerable
people, elderly, chronically sick, etc.Empathy is needed to improve as an athlete and human being. It is something lacking in some athletes due
to the policies followed by countries where the athlete is created by the system
with the purpose of performing as such; Sun Yang is an example.The developed nations create athletes with
the purpose of creating a good human being, college sports were originated for
this purpose.Many filters are on the
way in order to become professionals.Athletes need to pass many filters to end up as professional players;
even basketball or football players need to pass filters as school point
average –it says a lot about focusing on things other than delinquency.We have witnessed the problems with some
basketball or football recruiters when the recruiters bypass the filters
looking for performance without looking at creating a great human being; Aaron
Hernandez and many others are examples.Empathy is a sine-qua-non to create a good human being and coronavirus epidemic
is an opportunity to learn it.The same
situation lived by Irvin Yalom when he was confronted by an angry father.
We know the rules to follow
to avoid the spreading of the virus, hand washing, hand washing, hand washing,
including the controversial mask. The following by Leora
Horwitz, associate professor of population health and medicine at NYU Langone
Health regarding spreading of the virus:
What are masks
good for, then? First, they are crucial for people who have the disease.
Remember those drops of saliva? Wearing a mask if you're sick can help catch a
large number of them, greatly reducing the amount of virus that gets into the
environment or onto other people. Second, they help health care workers, who
are constantly in close contact with lots of sick people coughing in their
faces, to avoid infection. Third, they may help you avoid infection if you live
with someone who has the disease or, perhaps, if you live in an area with a
very high rate of disease in the community, as long as you are careful not to
touch your face more because of it.
Wearing a mask
is not a big deal and it says how much empathy we have for the elderly, the
chronically sick or our very small contribution to control the spreading of the virus.
We work with athletes and
patients.The key to have results is
self-awareness; we cannot lie to ourselves if we want results.An example of what we should not want from
athletes is lack of self-awareness as in the case of the highest rank official
of the FMTRI which comment highlights lack of self-awareness:
“It is not stupidity to say
that Crisanto Grajales could be in the top six in Tokyo.” His premise is based
on the fact that 65 competitors started the Tokyo race last year and just finished
46, and Grajales run a second faster than Mislowchuk and Stornes (the first
two), a minute behind on the bike; not counting that Mola, Gómez, Luis and others
were not there.And the fact the event’s
page said: price money TBA for competing in that race.Some competitors were there to test the bike
course.That comment gives information
about the lack of self-awareness or perhaps he is just “Trumping.”
Researchers are working on
how to measure self-awareness in athletes.The constructs are not easy to develop but as any science, it does not
proof anything, it just probes.We have
known the facts empirically for centuries.
Introduction
Mental toughness (MT) is
widely recognised as a fundamental attribute for attaining success in sport.1 Mentally
tougher athletes maintain performance levels during adversity; perceive
pressure as a challenge and a catalyst for prospering; and maintain emotional,
cognitive and behavioural control despite situational stressors.2 Considering
the appeal that these cognitive and behavioural signatures have to athletes, MT
has become a prominent research area in the sport performance literature.3
Scholars' primary interest
in MT is based on the capacity to acquire MT attributes through sport and
non-sport developmental influences and experiences4, as well as
through psychological interventions5. However, determining the MT
dimensions that may be taught and the most effective approaches to develop them
requires resolutions to the current conceptual and operational disparities that
exist. Some researchers contend that MT is a narrow personality trait that is
situationally stable5,6, whereas others suggest MT is state-specific
and may fluctuate depending on the situation7,8. In addition to MT
manifestation distinctions, these conceptualisations differ in the extent to
which MT may be developed. However, in support of the mutual inclusivity of
these perspectives, Gucciardi et al.3 reported that a
combination of intraindividual (i.e. within person) and interindividual (i.e.
between person) differences may be attributed to the variability of MT.
Accordingly, an athlete may display enduring patterns of MT across similar
situations, but varied levels of MT across dissimilar situations.
Although the
multidimensionality of MT has generally been supported9, the type
and quantity of constituents comprising MT remains unclear10. In
addition to dimensional discrepancies between sport types,11 within-sport
MT differences have been found. For instance, Coulter et al.12 reported
that risk-taking is an integral MT component in soccer, whereas Thelwell et al.13 indicated
that MT in a soccer player involved affecting one's opponents. The
characterisation of MT variations are reflected in the range of instruments
that often diverge in the types of MT that are measured. To illustrate,
affective intelligence is included as a subfactor on the Cricket Mental
Toughness Inventory14, but is not contained within the Australian
Football Mental Toughness Inventory15.
Although unequivocally
determining the components that constitute MT is necessary, there are several
components that are repeatedly referred to in the literature.16 These
components include confidence or self-belief; emotional and cognitive control;
accepting, persevering and thriving through challenges; and commitment and
determination.2,17 Accordingly, MT refers to a collection of
personal resources (inherent and developed) associated with athletes' pursuit
of optimal athletic performance levels, irrespective of positive and negative
situational demands.18,19
In the extant literature,
considerable attention has been devoted towards examining the characteristics
associated with MT. Commonly identified correlates of MT include effective
coping, the use of self-talk, relaxation strategies and mental imagery.20-22 Mentally
tougher athletes have greater flow experiences (concentration, autotelism)23,
perceive stressors as less intense24, and utilise performance- and
mastery-approach achievement goals25. Collectively, MT is related to
a number of positive psychological characteristics. However, self-awareness,
also referred to as psychological self-mindedness, is one concept that has
received limited quantitative MT research attention. Self-awareness represents
the capacity to attend to, recognise and examine one's thoughts, physiological sensations,
emotions and behavioural reactions, either as they occur or retrospectively.26,27
Although the
self-awareness process is multifaceted and associated with an array of
corollaries and self-directed attention areas26, common
conceptualisations encompass two primary components: engagement in
self-reflection and the attainment of self-insight28-30.
Self-reflection involves emotional, cognitive and behavioural
self-introspection, whereas self-insight refers to clarifying and obtaining a
deeper understanding of such experiences.29
Even though
self-reflective activities may not automatically result in self-insight31,
self-awareness represents an important process for identifying and replacing
maladaptive responses as well as establishing progress towards achieving
positive psychobehavioural changes28,32.
In sport, awareness of
one's emotions has been linked to superior performance.33 In
particular, maintaining peak performance levels is at least partly dependent on
the ability to recognise negative emotions and cognitions and effectively
control or avoid the detrimental effects of such experiences.34 With
research supporting the emotional and cognitive control of mentally tough
athletes35, along with the understanding that MT is associated with
positive performance outcomes3, self-awareness attributes may be
relevant to athletes' MT.
Recent qualitative
research has posited the relevance of several forms of self-awareness (e.g.
emotional and cognitive) in relation to MT. Bull et al.25, for
instance, qualitatively established thinking
clearly (awareness, focus and control of thoughts) as an essential
component of MT in elite cricket. Slack et al.36 extended this
finding to denote cognitive awareness
of own emotions as indicative of mentally tough English Premier
League football referees. There is also evidence to suggest that self-awareness
promotes or facilitates heightened levels of MT37 - a finding
that supports early heuristic MT perspectives38.
Taken together, these
findings provide preliminary support for the applicability of self-awareness
characteristics to the MT of athletes. However, prior MT studies have not
specified what embodies self-awareness, and, despite recent qualitative
findings, there is a dearth of knowledge about the role of emotional, cognitive
and behavioural self-awareness in relation to MT. Therefore, the purpose of the
current study was to explore the relationships between MT and self-awareness
components (i.e. self-reflection and self-insight) in competitive tennis
players. It was hypothesised that MT and each of its subcomponents would be
significantly predicted by both (1) self-reflection and (2) self-insight.
…The finding that self-insight was the single significant
predictor of global MT suggests the phase is particularly important to
athletes' MT. However, given that attaining insight requires introspection and
evaluation of the self,31 self-reflection is a necessary part of the
self-awareness process. Considering the markedly larger effect size between MT
and self-insight, as compared to self-reflection, mentally tougher athletes
appear to be better at progressing from self-reflective activities to achieve
higher levels of self-insight. With prior studies reporting that self-awareness
promotes the development of MT,37 attaining maximal MT benefits might require athletes to
engage in and proceed beyond mere self-introspection toward generating a
profounder level of psychobehavioural clarity and understanding.
Conclusion
The findings in this study
support the positive association between MT and self-awareness in competitive
tennis players. Most notably, the strongest predictor of MT and its
subcomponents was self-insight. Notwithstanding the necessity of
self-reflection in the process toward obtaining insight, the latter appears to
be particularly important when considering MT and its development among
athletes. Research identifying the contextual demands and situation-based use
of self-awareness among mentally tough athletes is warranted, along with
whether self-reflection and insight may be used to develop MT through
interventions.
We work on education with
the purpose of increasing self-awareness to have better triathletes.
I looked at the biological
passports of different athletes, including the one on Lance Armstrong.It is incredible how malnourished these
athletes were according to the passports.Eufemiano Fuentes mentioned when doping these athletes that he was
treating them when he was caught at the Operación Puerto.Looking at the Biological Passport of these
athletes we should agree with him; but the remedy is not the appropriate
one.
We have mentioned that if somebody
needs steroids for asthma, he or she is not in any condition to remain
competing for at least a few months, by then it is too late to come back for
the year: of course, athletes are not that ill to require steroids.Steroids are used for other reasons. Eufemiano’s
intention is not to treat them but to help them in the “rat race.” Please read
our posts related to doping.
19 oct.
2019
Triathlon and TUEs
8 oct.
2019
Triathlon and Asthma
I remembered when the Swiss
fixed addicts in mobile units located at parks to avoid spreading infections,
criminal behavior or overdoses.The
“fix” was not for “treatment” but to decrease the trouble behavior.Eufemiano’s declarations remind me of these
remedies:
P. Siempre se ha dicho eso, que de un burro no se hace
un caballo de carreras. Pero, ¿eso sirve también después de la aparición de
hormonas como la EPO? ¿No convirtió la EPO a algunos burros, con perdón, en
caballos de carreras? R. Creo
que no. Evidentemente hay tratamientos que mejoran el rendimiento, pero habría
que valorar más cosas, como por ejemplo si ese rendimiento fue mejorado sólo
por uno o por dos o por todos. Es decir, habría que saber quién recurrió a la
EPO y quién no.
P. La justicia está estudiando si, con sus prácticas,
cometió o no un delito contra la salud pública. Pero a estas alturas no negará
que había dopaje, ¿no? R. ¿Dopaje?
Estamos hablando de hechos que ocurrieron antes de que saliera la ley
antidopaje. Dopaje deportivo es posible que hubiera, pero yo le llamaría dopaje
terapéutico, que sería el uso de sustancias dopantes con finalidad terapéutica,
para evitar males mayores.
También
se podría emplear una sustancia dopante, haciendo un mal uso, y tener
consecuencias no deseables. Pero, al igual que ocurre en algunos deportes, no
de este continente pero sí del americano, como la NBA o el fútbol americano,
donde las sustancias dopantes son utilizadas con fines terapéuticos. Y están permitidas.
P. ¿Usted realizaba entonces dopaje terapéutico?
R. Así lo entendía yo. Parece ser que no todos lo entendían así, pero yo
buscaba siempre proteger la salud de mis deportistas. Buscaba protegerles del
daño, inmenso daño, que les hacía el entrenamiento a los niveles que lo hacían
y del calendario competitivo tan exigente que tenían.
Eufemiano touches areas
related to poor nutrition and recovery.He decided to treat them with “whole blood” instead of teaching them how
to eat right.Eufemiano was right that
“whole blood” was the way to go because it was very difficult to educate to
change habits; EPO, steroid or other drug does not work with a poor nutrition.The objective was to keep them in “the rat
race.”He claims that they did not have
time to do the teaching and recovery for cyclists because of the racing
schedule: “Professional cycling is not good for your health; I help cyclists to
avoid more trouble with their health so they can continue racing.”
Based on the above, we say
to our athletes that triathlon has to do with the administration of our
time.The winner is who administers
his/her time the best way where nutrition, recovery and education are
priority.There is not talent, just
repetition with intention to improve and administration of our time.The need for doping is not there if we have
educated athletes.Eufemiano was acquitted
from doping athletes after Operación Puerto trial.Ferrari was suspended after his second trial
for trafficking performance enhancing drugs (Al Capone ended up in jail for not
paying taxes).
In much
wisdom is much grief: and he that increased knowledge increased sorrow.Ecclesiastes, 1:18, King James
Version
It is difficult to follow Salomon but
we agree with the two quotes above.We
try to teach kids to become wise in the future but we struggle with how being
listened by them, and the acceptance on their part of what is required to grow
as a wise person.We have failed after
they become adults most of the time.The
hypothesis is that the “adverse score” (low SES) hits when they become adults
and competition becomes extreme.They do
not leave with sorrow because they do not acquired knowledge.Most of the time, they were able to
understand the situations, but the knowledge did not belong to them.We have failed introjecting knowledge,
because as Albert Einstein said: “knowledge is experience, the rest is
information.” To learn from experience “certain knowledge” needs to be present.
“Certain knowledge” is in the environment
the athlete lives in, such a knowledge will depend on the Socio-Economics-Status
(SES).
“SES has a significant effect on sports performance: High
SES displayed higher performance in all three speeds than low SES group.”
This study done in Morocco took into
consideration “personality traits” in addition to SES; such personality traits belong
more to a high SES than to a low SES; but it shows that certain personality
traits are related to better performance in sports.High performance is related to high SES
scholarly also:
An analysis was conducted on the Academic
Performance Index (API) for charter and noncharter schools in California. API
scores for the years 1999, 2000, and 2001 were analyzed along with various
charter school characteristics. Since socioeconomic status (SES) has a strong
correlation with student performance on standardized tests, comparisons were made
focusing on schools serving free or reduced lunch eligible students (low-SES
students). Raw comparisons of test scores (unadjusted for SES) tend to be
misleading since charter schools often choose to work with the most challenging
populations, and have done so with lower funding levels per student, as
California has not provided facilities funds to charter schools.
We work with low SES children; the
process we follow last at least ten years to equalize the effect of low
SES.It is not a matter of injecting
money into it, but improving education.We work daily on how to produce experiences that could have an impact in
the learning process so “the experience can become knowledge.”We emphasized that our political class amassed
millions, but they still belong to a very low SES because of their low
education; even though they went to college (most of them went to College).Our children belong to the lowest SES in
Mexico, but we have the top triathletes for children and adolescents in Mexico. We have the only world champion in triathlon from Mexico.As David Salo wrote when publishing his
book about swimming and receiving criticism: "lack of having produced a recognizible 'elite' athlete." We do have the “elite sample":
To be sure, these concepts have been
challenged, not for the lack of experimental and theoretical evidence, but more
for the lack of having produced a recognizable “elite” athlete. In order to
provide some practical support for the training model, I extensively describe
the details of the training program that I utilize.”
Our previous post deals
specifically with asthma.Please read
previous post.Let’s see what
hypothyroidism treatment can do for us.Remember, Galen Rupp has been treated for asthma and hypothyroidism:
Last week, the Wall Street
Journal profiled Jeffrey Brown, an endocrinologist to star
athletes and a medical consultant for Nike. His roster of patients includes
nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis, and athletes treated by Brown have
won 15 Olympic gold medals combined, according to the doctor.
We can believe that confined variables exist to the fact that gold medalists taking thyroid hormone won
gold; they are more focus, they take care of details, etc.but we still have other problems.
Thyroid hormone is known to affect sex
hormone-binding hormonal globulin (SHBG) concentrations. Men with hyperthyroidism have
elevated concentrations of testosterone and SHBG.Thyroid hormone therapy in
normal men may also duplicate this elevation.
This knowledge about thyroid
hormone elevating the concentration of testosterone is well known by
endocrinologists, even Floyd Landis knew about it:
In 2006, bicycle racer Floyd Landis blamed his
hypothyroid medication for the illegally high testosterone levels detected in urine
samples taken during his Tour de France ride, according to the New York Times. An overactive
thyroid gland does seem to coincide with higher levels of testosterone, so it seems
feasible that an increase in thyroid hormones from medication could cause a
similar reaction. Race officials, however, were not swayed, and Landis was
stripped of the yellow jersey that summer.
We have a history of using performance
enhancing methods for years, at one point valid methods; Lasse Viren injecting
his own blood for example. Emma Snowsill running with a Ventolin puffer.If we want a clean sport, TUEs should be
transparent.Who has one and how he/she
is monitored by WADA should be available to the public.
Below, a few things related to Salbutamol. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2658979/ Our results add to the growing body of evidence that salbutamol mediates anabolic effects, and we report a mechanism by which salbutamol might promote such effects. Salbutamol has a short plasma half‐life (3–6 h).4 Following a recommended dose of inhaled salbutamol, the compound is only transiently detectable in the plasma,4 and salbutamol reaches levels up to 2.5 ng/ml or 1.04×10−8 M.27 These levels are considerably lower than effective concentrations in our in vitro experiments, which were above 10−6 M with an (IC50 value of 8.93×10−6 M). Whereas anabolic properties have been demonstrated in several species after systemic use of some beta‐2 agonists,11,20,21 salbutamol possess anabolic activity only after intravenous administration,22 and no potent anabolic effects have been reported after oral administration in animals.11,21In addition, in humans, oral administration of therapeutic levels of salbutamol increases maximal anaerobic power,24,25,26 irrespective of the subjects' training status, without changing the body composition.25,26 Similar improvements in performance have been shown in two other studies, using a comparable daily salbutamol dose.9,23 Of note, there is no evidence that inhaled beta‐2 agonists have ergogenic effects at therapeutic doses.28 Although it is too early to draw final conclusions, based on these studies we hypothesise that the agonistic activity we observed at the androgen receptor might play also a role after intravenous administration of salbutamol.
This post is a follow up of
the two previous posts. The job done by
WADA is sloppy regarding doping; many fault positives and nonsense regarding
persecutions. Is it possible to go after
the real problem, TUEs?
During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, 17 percent of cyclists and 19 percent of swimmers were
diagnosed with asthma. These asthmatic athletes went on to win 29 and 33
percent of the medals in those sports, respectively. At the 2012 Olympic Games
in London, 700 of approximately 10,000 competing athletes had confirmed asthma
diagnoses and, surprisingly, they were almost twice as likely to win a medal as their non-asthmatic peers. If trends from past
Olympic Games continue, there may be similar statistics in Rio.
Some webpages considered
asthma a bless: “It may seem like elite
athletes don’t ever have asthma. After all, athletes need a robust supply of
oxygen during their competitions. And symptoms like wheezing and coughing might
seem to hinder someone from training and performing at their peak.”
Chris Froome had twice the salbutamol level in urine authorized by
the WADA. The urine sample was taken
after one of the last stages of La Vuelta a España, 2017. He mentioned the report done to a Swiss
athlete where the value was extremely high after taking three puffs of salbutamol.
The first reported instance in an athlete and
the most publicized involved a young Swiss male who appeared to have
consistently unique pharmacokinetics for salbutamol. 14 This was
discussed in detail in a recent paper. 15 Briefly, his post-race urinary
salbutamol concen- tration was ~8000 ng/mL and subsequently, when he received
the same inhaled dose, 900 μg in five hours on two occasions, the concen-
trations were 3000-4000 ng/mL. ...
To treat asthma does not need
more than 400μg in
a three-hour period, something that could be done in the ER; otherwise the salbutamol
level will be high as above and more importantly, the athlete needs a more aggressive
treatment and he or she is not able to compete.
The permissible level of
inhaled Salbutamol is
1600 μg (16 puffs of the reliever inhaler)
over 24 hours and no more than 800 μg every 12 hours [1]. If the presence
of Salbutamol in urine exceeds 1000 ng/mL, it is
presumed not to be an intended therapeutic use and considered as an adverse
analytical finding by WADA.
The above brings us to the
problem that asthmatic patients are winning one third of the podium in the
Olympics.If it looks like a
duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably
is a duck.
We have a previous post
regarding this subject, but looking at comments in www.slowtwitch.comrelated to anemia and how low hemoglobin is in
some triathletes prompt us to write again about this subject. The slowtwitch forum mentions a nonprofessional athlete who suffered an incident that made him bleed 8/29/18:
taking iron supps for 6 weeks now as I thought my H&H values,
and iron were low when tested 6 weeks back. I have sent latest info to
doc(online blood test order yesterday) asking for how to proceed/what to check.
Doc wasn't really concerned 6 weeks ago, but I was as I didn't enjoy be
tired/weak/fatigued/short of breath all the time. This is now 1 year(8/29/18)
post heart slicing and dicing. Any thoughts from ST docs and "docs"?
Off-Score is calculated taking into consideration the average hemoglobin in a cycling population: The UCI pilot project
Following a meeting which took place in Paris in October 2007, between WADA,
the French sporting authorities and the cycling family, UCI launched in 2008 a
pilot project for the implementation of the hematological module of the
Athlete’s Passport (Zorzoli & Rossi, 2010).
Since then, more than 800
athletes per year were enrolled in the program. UCI signed contracts with
several sample collection providers in order to face the high demand of in- and
out-of-competition tests. At the beginning samples were only analyzed in the
group of laboratories that have been involved with the nostart tests for many
years, because they were already participating to the same external quality
control program that WADA has chosen (Swiss Center for Quality Control) and
were all using the same technology. Progressively, as other WADA accredited
laboratories were fulfilling the requirements to conduct hematological passport
tests, UCI only relied on these laboratories for three major reasons: - The
samples could be directly analyzed for the detection of forbidden substances or
methods; - Decreased costs with sample transport when collection included both urine
and blood; - Ease of the laboratory with technical and legal aspects related to
anti-doping procedures (documentation package; chain of custody; testifying in
court).
The experts were chosen by
the UCI and WADA. All qualified in the field of hematology (either clinical or
laboratory), sports medicine, exercise physiology or blood doping. Each week,
10 to 15 updated profiles were sent by the APMU to the experts for review. In
these profiles the Bayesian adaptive model has identified the Hb or Off-hr score
abnormal with a 99% probability (either for the single measurement as a
function of previous results or for the complete sequence) or with normal or
lower levels of probability.
The main problem in any
research looking for answers related to a particular population is the
sample.In this case the professional
cyclists.
Extrapolating the data to
triathletes is not a big problem, hours of training are long, endurance sports
for sure.But let’s take a look at what
Vincent Luis has for breakfast.
This kind of breakfast make
you anemic in a few weeks.No wonder why
Vincent and his teammates had a bad performance in Lausanne; perhaps with the exception of
Mario Mola (small frame).The average
hemoglobin is very low because of the nutrition or bad illness.Well-nourished individuals will have
suspicions Off-Scores if we compare them to athletes eating the way Vincent Luis does.We have information from a newspaper on
Javier Gómez’s hematocrit values:
37% hematocrit the lowest,
42% average.This talks about deficiencies
in nutrients.
The average hemoglobin and
hematocrit from African nations are lower compared to the Europeans.This is not related to ethnic differences
because athletes like Bekele have values similar to the Europeans in the 90th
percentile.
In summary, malnourishment
exist in triathlon. 300 protein's calories per day could make the difference between being anemic or having a homoglobin above 14 for females. The Off-Score is based
on malnourished athletes which represent the control group.Is there a booth that takes complaints based
on evidence?
