BREATHPLAY
"It's like 140 miles of breath meditation. The last few miles
are like the champagne bubbles of bliss"
Ian Jackson, quoted in Life magazine year-end issue after
finishing 45th overall in the 1982 Hawaii Ironman.
Bill Watkin's Impossible Dream
When I was coaching Bill Watkins at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, he immediately began to feel better on his training rides. He had one complaint, though. He felt he could never get enough air on the inbreath. I explained to him that he was probably just missing the feeling of having done enough work to earn his inbreath. With the passive BreathPlay inbreath, the usual muscular signals were missing, so he felt he hadn't done enough even though he had plenty of air. Purely by chance, he got scientific validation that my explanation happened to be right.
Bill had been tested for minute volume just before my arrival at the Training Center, so he had a pre-BreathPlay base-line measurement for comparison. A minute-volume test measures the volume of air breathed per minute, in liters. At maximal effort, Bill managed to breathe 205 liters in a minute. After about ten days of BreathPlay practice, he was tested again and registered a startling jump to 237.1 liters per minute. So he was ventilating about 15% more air, even though he felt he was getting less.
He said the higher reading was all the more impressive because he didn't push quite as hard in the second test. The maximal effort had produced a minute volume of 205 liters, and so he had expected his second, sub maximal effort to produce a figure somewhat lower than that, not one so significantly higher.
We stayed in touch by mail and telephone, and I followed Bill's slow and steady development. His goal was to make the 1984 Olympic team for the 100-kilometer team time trial. A cycling journalist I was discussing Bill's training with assured me he wouldn't be able to make it because his aerobic capacity was too low. "We'll see," I said.
The first letter had nothing to do with training or racing but showed me how much enthusiasm Bill was feeling for his BreathPlay practice:
"Just wanted to tell you I have lost all problems with my back (no more nagging pains). I haven't done anything different so it must be from the breathing practice."
His next letter told me he had made that all-important step away from the BodyMind games I had taught him into games of his own creation:
"I'm envisioning my lower legs as a piston mechanism with my diaphragm as a furnace driving them. Still working on it. Had a great race yesterday--lots of all-out intervals."
Notice the comment "Still working on it." That's another important part of BreathPlay practice. Persistence is central if only because of the way the body learns. You have to practice new skills over and over again if you want to achieve real mastery.
In this case, Bill was referring to the piston-furnace BodyMind game he had created. As he kept working on it, it slowly developed its own unique character, and even when it became clear and reliable it continued to evolve, as did Bill's BreathPlay skills in general. The next letter showed his first signs of success:
"I tried to ring you a few times with the good news since you had a big hand in it. I was selected to the Pan Am team after two weeks of trials in Austin. I had bad luck but put together a fantastic ride the last day of time trials. I was organized, calm, poised, and powerful--it was the best day I have had in competition. The next step is to win at Nationals at the end of July. I'll be here until then--fine-tuning my breathing. Any more hints will assuredly help--they have been instrumental to date!"
After the Nationals, I got another enthusiastic letter:
"Breathing and organization were totally on--it was a perfect ride except for flats. Road race went well--I made the break and placed 10th. I'm off to the World Championships."
After the World Championships, Bill wrote:
"News from the Worlds--no ride due to a boycott by two riders--pulled out of the blues and placed 2nd in the next four national classics--no win yet. Then to Australia for an eight-day 1300 Km. Brisbane to Sydney. Had the yellow jersey until the last day. Ended up race--2nd. overall by 48 seconds. And I won the King of the Mountain competition and took the green jersey home!
Amazing. I was awesome on the climbs and incredibly powerful. When I dropped the hammer on the climbs, no one went with me. Also, had six top-five finishes."
Bill called me about the Australian race and told me what was so amazing about winning the King of the Mountain competition. In the same race, the year before, he had been dropped on the climbs, which means he could not keep up with the pace and fell behind. To go from being dropped to winning the climbs is a radical change. You could hear the excitement in his voice.
As the Olympic trials approached, Bills letters got longer and more and more revealed the essence of his racing:
"I've got to keep the muscles firing to their maximum-which they may never have achieved yet--in order to win big! The 2/1 or 1/1 rhythms may be right when I start flailing. A total max effort, on an interval (last 200 meters) for example, immerses me in incredible pain. I truly flail just trying to get to the end. I did it Wednesday in a three-mile interval in 6:02.93 over rolling hills. The last hill had me at my limit: respiration rate--infinity, pulse--188, blood pressure 200/0! But, it was wonderfully fantastic because I had reached a limit to my performance and survived. Now, though, to harness
the breathing and mind all the way through to the end of the effort. I lost it that time. Get organized you say--good idea. I rehearse the effort many times in my head--now to get organized.
"Playing Push Bar for my time trial is the key--and lifting the chin slightly for the inbreath. These work well to get my entire body moving with the effort. I'm leaving for my next races in 14 days. I am intensely trying to get my mind and body prepared. Anything you can suggest before then will assuredly help me--immensely. I have never been this prepared and this hungry. I am slowly becoming incredibly focused and centered thanks to many
of your ideas."
Finally there was his success letter:
"As you may know, I was selected to the Olympic long team. It was a long hard struggle but the dream became reality. My performances at the trials were the best I have ever done; it was nice that they came when they did. I was able to put it all together at the right time. As you may also know, much of this can be credited to your help. Thanks for providing me with the tools to focus my energies."