Brett Farve Case Study:  Pain Decreases Performance

I am so stoked about the Vikings game this Sun night!  It is going to be close but I predict Adrian Peterson will have a break out game and silence the crowd, thus allowing Brett to pass for some major yardage and a win.

Can you say………Superbowl!!!  (Fingers crossed)

Pain Decreases Performance

As you know, I tend to write about pain because it has a bad effect on performance.

This is especially true for accuracy.  If you are in pain, your ability to accurately perform on the playing field will be diminished.

Let’s look at our good buddy Brett Farve.

You see that the number of interception last year (and some other years) was very high.  It was well know that Brett had a pesky shoulder that was causing him pain.  In 2008-09 he threw 22 interception and this year, only 7 so far to the wrong guy.

This year (after getting the pesky said shoulder fixed), the interceptions dropped by a ton!   Hmmmm…….

The Perfect Case Study?

Of course this is not a perfect case study in any sense, but my guess is that pain in his arm dramatically affected his passing accuracy.

What do you think?

Who Will Win This Sunday?

Drop a comment on who you think will win the big game this Sunday night vs the Saints!  I say Vikings!

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

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Extreme Human Performance of the Week: Brett Favre to Greg Lewis TD Toss

Due to my crazy schedule I have not made time to watch a full Vikings game for some time, but today Jodie and I were hanging out for a bit and after she left around half time I debated about watching the rest of the Vikings vs 49ers game.  Everyone knows I should spend that time working on my dissertation if I ever want to graduate, but my butt seemed like put crazy glued to the coach.

It was a back and forth game the whole time and it did not look good for the Vikings near the end.  They were all out of time outs and only about 1:30 left on the clock and they needed a TD.    Yikes.

In the past it would be a complete stumblefest as they would attempt to get a score, but would end up pissing away precious seconds on each play and all Vikings fan leave pulling out their purple hair.

This time was different!

Brett Favre and Greg Lewis to the Rescue!

Brett Favre lead them right down the field and had brilliant time management on the clock.   With only seconds left he threw a strike to Great Lewis who made an AMAZING catch in the end zone.  He went up and knew exactly where his entire body was in space, made sure his left foot was inside the line and dragged his right toe.  You have to watch the video below, especially in slow motion.  Stellar throw and dynamic catch.

What Did We Learn Today?

All exceptional athletes have an amazing movement map -  they know exactly where their body is in space at all times.   This is a combination of visual, vestibular (inner ear “balance”) and joint information to the brain (proprioception).   If you want to go from here to Chicago, a detour through the UP of MI is not the best route!

Each one of the these components can be trained also, but rarely do you see them trained; even at an elite level.  Virtually every athlete needs to start with joint mobility (I personally love Z-Health for this) to enhance their proprioception and thus their overall movement map

Better map = better performance

Congrats to the whole Vikings team and Brett Favre and Greg Lewis for the Extreme Human Performance of the week.

Who else watched the game today?  What are your thoughts?

Rock on

Mike T nelson