Lunchtime Catch Up Podcast - AFLW coach Natalie Wood is our guest

He also had an injury plagued season so i was wondering if he was actually part of some key discussions

Thanks CJ, great as usual, great reminder of how destructive fans and social media keyboard warriors can be to players morale.

You were saying that it is a mystery why we aren’t performing, whereas I’m convinced your podcast had a lot of the answers.

  1. Players are over thinking and are in their head and not playing in the moment (eg: Kyle’s too busy following instructions to follow the play).

  2. Higher degree of expectation for the coming season is something EFC has always struggled with (Melbourne too I suspect). When we hit rock bottom and we can play without expectation is when we hit form. This is another between the shoulders, overthinking and underplaying issue.

  3. Fan negativity and booing is probably making things worse rather than better, another between the ears issue (not the initial cause, but a compounding symptom which has evolved the longer we have gone without showing any form (JLT 1,2,3 and 4).

  4. The other aspect is that the sides who are succeeding are harnessing their emotions, thoughts and mind power - directly via meditation and also via their coaches philosophy .

Each coach who have elevated their side to another level have had a strong philosophy of real meaningful care about each other and this is increasingly related to meditation and yoga techniques which help with controlling negative thoughts and emotions and harnessing the ability to be “in the moment” and overcoming mental and physical hurdles. I believe this is a key area where we are falling down, but also could be fixed if we get the right people, techniques and philosophy, along with buy in from players, coaches and staff. I believe when our backs are to the wall this has kicked in to an extent in the past, but we need to harness and refine our ability to excel in this area, and this is where we are being left behind by other clubs.

The most recent example is Adam Simpson’s “brotherhood” philosophy along with an added meditation element which at least the arguably BOG Jeremy McGovern used particularly for the grand final.

(PS, if you can right click on the below links and open in private browsing, that should help open most of these).


Also Jeremy McGovern’s use of Wim Hof meditation was supposed to be a key to his almost Norm Smith:

Nathan Buckley:
Buckleys often take holidays in October, that he was doing yoga and meditation while the Magpies were ensconced in the trade period might be viewed, retrospectively, as a sign of what would unfold in an extraordinary 2018, when the notoriously driven Buckley would "let go’’ - lightening the mood and the load on himself, creating a more relaxed and convivial environment for his players.

The whole of Richmond has embraced mindfulness meditation after it turned Dustin Martin’s playing career around.

With Luke Beveridge’s success of 2016 largely attributed to both his and Bob Murphy’s emotional intelligence:

https://www.rochemartin.com/blog/2834/

Even getting by St Kilda, who seemed mentally tougher than us would be influenced by how Alan Richardson has been working on evolving himself.

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WORSFOLD: “Oh great Buddha, please bless me with your learnings
”

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BUDDHA: “The first thing you must learn
you fool
is that there is no such word as ‘learnings’.”

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We have been using meditation this year.
It’s put the players to sleep 
 even in games.

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We have been doing meditation, sessions with Wim Hof and I’d suspect taken on aspects of Richmond with both Rutten and Richardson coming over.

Wim Hof seems like a bit of a crazy ■■■■■■■, but if it works it works. Mindfulness meditation is more of a key skill, and if they are doing it, hopefully they are being taught and practicing well. That will take a little while (not too long) to bed in if it is new.

Devon smith wrote an article on it. Also see them meditating at the start of a training session.

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Disambiguation (disambiguation)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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That’s interesting, any idea when or where the article was posted?

I posted it in the smith thread.

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Well that is interesting

I think they’ve been taking advice from the wrong Hoff.

BBlitzmidnight1

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Thanks, I found the article.

The Wim Hof method is interesting, but that’s not mindfulness meditation that teaches you to clear your head of thought and focus in the moment, which is the method that took Richmond to a new level.

It is based on Buddhist meditation but can be used by psychologists to overcome negative thought patterns similarly to cognitive behavioural therapy, except rather than replacing negative thoughts with positive ones, it teaches you how to stop thinking (negatively or positively) and focus on the present moment, which is a way of getting in “the zone” where you are fully responsive to what is happening now, not distracted by thoughts or emotions.

It is not an instant fix, but the mind can be trained to let go of negative thoughts and emotions and the more you practice it, the better you get.

Hopefully that is what they are doing alongside training, but it is best practiced in a quiet serene place with no distractions.

I can only assume Richardson and Rutten would have suggested and told the club the benefits from it. Even Richmond’s coaching has bought into it. It requires full buy in.

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Have you guys got a play list because the music on your podcast is pretty good


I often get asked this. What are some of the Ad music breaks from. Here are some

Metallica - Halo on fire

Beck - Loser

Kavinsky & Lovefoxx - Nightcall

Me first and the gimme gimmies- nothing compares to you

Japandroids- the nights of wine and roses

Robyn- every heartbeat

Rage against the machine- bulls on parade

Young MC- principles office

Daft Punk- give life back to music

The Angels- take a long line

Deal with Death - Disorder

Phoenix - Lisztomania

Run DMC - Christmas in Holies

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Stewart on the outer, not speaking tl the other boyz.

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Those knee holes are embarrassing.

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