writings: ARTICLES
Alexi Grewal's Epic Ride - Ian Jackson
I felt very much at home with the bike racers at the Olympic Training Center. Theirs is a dangerous sport and all of them had generous portions of risk-taking relish in their personalities. I felt an affinity for them because I too like the adrenaline high that comes from playing the edges of danger. But for Alexi Grewal, I felt a very special affinity. He was a fellow edge-player, yes, but there was more than that to the extraordinary connection I felt.
What a wonderful surprise it was to get a thank you letter from him shortly after returning home from Colorado Springs.
"The breathing techniques work! Much time and practice will be needed for me to truly unlearn old patterns, but the start is there."
Alexi's heroic ride for the Olympic gold medal is history now. He had the courage to escape from the pack and push on alone, fighting the wind without help. Those in pursuit had the enormous advantage of being able to work together against the wind, and yet he stayed out in front until late in the race, when he faltered momentarily on a hill and was passed by the Canadian rider Steve Bauer, who had also escaped from the peloton. Somehow, Alexi
reached deep down inside and rallied. He caught Steve and the two of them stayed together for the rest of the race, when Alexi reached deep down inside again for the winning sprint. The crowd went wild, as I'm sure did millions across the country, watching it live on TV.
Since then, we've been working even more intensely together. His first season as a professional was difficult and disappointing for him, because he came down with hepatitis and was unable to ride with his natural strength. Nevertheless, he's healthy again as I write and is clearly going to be stronger than ever in the future.
I want to share with you some of the learning process that Alexi's gone through. It's not just for the interest of how the best train, but also for the practical lessons we can all benefit from, as well as the inspiration.
The first quote is from a letter that followed a week I spent with Alexi in Aspen. During that week, we rode mountain bikes and hiked while our racing bikes gathered dust. The hikes were a perfect way of going deeper into BreathPlay techniques.
"The things I learned while you were here are just beginning to come back and flow through me. The breathing patterns and techniques became tremendously vivid just a few days ago. The time I spent walking and hiking allowed me to concentrate very easily. Life is such a beautiful thing-endless possibilities and no limits to anything."
Notice that the breathing became vivid sometime after the practice started. Remember, the body learns in it's own way. It takes longer to learn to recognize a pattern of feeling in the muscles than to learn a pattern of meaning in words. The mind recognizes meaning more quickly than does the body; so don't let yourself get frustrated if you find that you understand BreathPlay intellectually long before you understand it physically. I have been on this exploration for over ten years now, with the advantage of
feedback from thousands of people who have shared their discoveries with me, and yet I'm still learning deeper levels of feeling and organization. After all this time, I know that the key qualities for this kind of learning are patience and persistence.
"I am surprised at the variety and consistency of my breathing awareness," Alexi wrote. "Even when I didn't train for a few weeks, I learned new rhythms just by thinking about them. Only five percent of my riding time is without a rhythm now, maybe less. Except for hard steep climbing, 5/2 is the shortest rhythm I'm using. I've been using 8/3, 9/2, 10/3, 7/2 and 6/3 a lot lately. In a well-organized 10/3, the roads just disappear behind me."
"I was a little worried about training turning into drudgery, but today's ride reassured me that I'll still be learning every day so I won't get bored."
As a professional bike racer, Alexi has to train hours a day. Notice the way his play with SwitchSide rhythms gives him something to focus on, and the way the ongoing learning keeps things interesting for him. For many athletically involved people, this is the most valuable part of BreathPlay. They're not the least bit worried about beating the world's best in races, but they are worried about getting so bored with their fitness program that they give it up.
I find it interesting that people who've heard about BreathPlay but have not tried it often get the impression that the counting of footsteps or pedal strokes is going to be boring. Nothing could be further from the truth. Anything that you get more absorbed in is more interesting. It's when your mind's somewhere else, or only half there, that what you're doing is likely to be mechanical or boring. Connecting your breathing with the rhythms of your movement is a fascinating study in and of itself. If the prospect of counting worries you, rest assured that the counting soon drops away.
Go out for an easy walk with a 3/2 rhythm, for instance, and you'll realize after a while that you no longer have to count out the rhythm because your body learns how to recognize the way it feels. Keep in mind the central intention of the counting: it is to balance your body through the SwitchSide patterning. Once you can feel the last step of the outbreath switching sides from one breath cycle to the next, you can drop the counting.
"On one ride," Alexi continued, "I did some very difficult climbs, at intensities and actual speeds that I would ride in competition. There was no tendency to go into 'flail state.' If anything, to maintain speed and to massage away the pain, my organization had to be increasingly more refined."
This is something Bill Watkins learned too, and I consider it an important feature of BreathPlay. Notice that the high pressure of hill climbing forces Alexi to organize better. With BreathPlay techniques, you learn to come together under pressure instead of falling apart.
Many of the runners, cyclists, and hikers I've worked with tell me in the early stages that they find BreathPlay most useful when they're going up hills. Relatively sedentary people tell me that they find it a boon when they have to walk up stairs.
Of course, I'm delighted to hear that people are finding BreathPlay useful, but I'm concerned that they limit its value for them by getting the idea that it's for climbing only. It's true that you can get a much more dramatic sense of the power in your BreathPlaying when you're climbing, but you're getting extra power (and working with more efficiency) just as surely when you're moving on level ground or going downhill.
And here's a report about a test Alexi did in a sport laboratory. His excitement about his achievement shows through:
"I did the most wonderful thing today. I tied the record on the ergometer at a sports lab in Holland. It was so easy. I started with a 3/2 when it was easy and went to a 2/1 alternating with a 2/2 when it got harder. In the final minutes I used a 2/1 alternating with a 1/1 and an occasional 1/2 for deepening my lung capacity. I just concentrated on technique and I quit when I tied the record. I had more time left in me, I'm sure."
"It was fantastic work. I just watched the heart rate monitor for several minutes at 190 beats per minute--in control, the rhythms washing away the pain. This breathing is the most powerful tool that can be imagined."
What I want you to notice here is the way Alexi changed his breathing rhythms as he got more fatigued. Slowly and progressively his rhythms got shorter. His repertoire of breathing patterns is like an internal gearbox, as yours will be when you've practiced for a while. He shifted down when he felt the need.
Notice, too, that he occasionally used a combination of rhythms that included a 2/2. When he was using 2/1, 2/2 as his repeating pattern, he was switching sides every other breath cycle instead of every single one. The body-balancing effect is still there, in spite of the occasional even-count breath cycles.
When he was sick with hepatitis, Alexi used BreathPlay to speed his recovery:
"I've been using some new techniques of imagery to help me balance and strengthen my recovery. I use them during my meditation and stretching and whenever I can get a chance. Basically I imagine a laser arcing from my forehead during each outbreath, connecting me with times of power during my
life past and present."
This is much like the process I feel is set in motion by the exercise of curiosity in BreathPlay. When we explore the world of the body as we instinctively did in our preschool years, we reawaken the memories of those early years. Those memories include the openness and energy of our child self. By using each outbreath to get access to memories of personal power, as Alexi did, we can use more of our past resources to solve present problems.
The same process can be used to get access to memories of courage and confidence. We all have within us memories that we can use to help us in times of need. If we have been resolute before and we need to be again, we can charge our outbreaths with the task of jogging our memories. What will come to us, along with the example of our firm resolve, is the emotional aura surrounding the event. Alexi used imagined laser arcs to connect himself with the positive energy he needed from the past. You might see something
else, like a filing cabinet, with memories stored in alphabetical order. What matters is not the particular image you use, but the intention behind the image. If you intend the image to connect you with what you need, it will do that for you.
You see, we're dealing with something with far deeper and wider implications and applications than simple body organization, body awareness, and relaxation. It's an attitude towards life itself that we're choosing and creating and practicing through the BreathPlay techniques.
I hope Alexi has a long and fulfilling career in professional bike racing, but there will eventually come a day of retirement. When that day comes, he'll have useful skills and positive attitudes for the following stages in his life. And you can use BreathPlay to build those same useful skills and positive attitudes. You don't need an athletic career as the context for building them, all you need is the intention to turn your breathing into that kind of a focus.