Page 50 February 2012 A RC A DI A SPORTS PAGE A RC A DI A SPORTS PAGE Tori Wright (34) and Andrea Goulette fi ght for a loose ball during the third annual Lady Titan WInter Hoops Classic at Titan Hall. Arcadia went undeafeted in the holiday tournament to win the championship, and continued its winning ways throughout the New Year. Photo by Dale Messmer. Breathing techniques helping athletes reach potential By Wayne Schutsky A relatively new Arcadia resident is taking a unique approach to athletic coaching, using breathing and mental preparation to prepare his clients for competition. Al Fuentes, who has lived in the community for about a year, runs Mental Champ Performance Coaching Services, an endeavor he began in 2007. Through his business, Fuentes provides mental coaching for people in all walks of life, from business to athletics. In the athletic fi eld, Fuentes has helped athletes focus their mind, heal injuries quickly and focus all of their energy on being successful, he said. “The fundamental thing it teaches people, or athletes, is how to be self- empowered,” Fuentes said. While the business respects clients anonymity, a few of the athletes helped by Fuentes’ program have spoken out about its bene fi ts. Some of these clients include Arizona State University NCAA wrestling champion Anthony Robles, Arizona State University women’s basketball player Dymond Simon and UFC fi ghter Kyle Kingsbury. Unlike traditional athletic mental coaching, Mental Champ takes a performance-based approach to solving an athlete’s problems. “Working with athletes is so unique because athletes are all about results, period,” said Fuentes. “They know how to work to get results, and the problem with traditional mental coaching, whether it be sports psychology or counseling, is that there is no tangible result.” Instead of just teaching athletes to express their feelings and think positively, Fuentes developed a breathing system that couples physical performance and positive thinking. “Being an ex-athlete myself, I knew that the only way to effectively work with athletes was to give them a pathway through the physical body to regulate the mental, or chemical, body,” he said. Fuentes graduated from the University of Finley in 1998, where he was a two-time all-American wrestler and a pole-vaulter. Fuentes uses the breathing system, which he developed in the mid-1990s while working in suicide prevention and peer and teen counseling during and after college, to help athletes overcome a variety of problems. “They come to me for many reasons, like they are having fears about performing, about coming back after an injury, about competing with all of the other kids,” Fuentes said. “They come to me because they are having trouble with the adjustment from college to pros, just a lot of different reasons.” Fuentes helps athletes through the use of a patterned breathing method that utilizes different ways of breathing to achieve speci fi c results. Because emotions are amorphous and hard to nail down, Mental Champ gives athletes a physical way to control their mental state in order to enhance their athletic performance, Fuentes said. The system starts out with learning how to focus breathing in a way that allows an athlete to harness all of the bene fi ts that Continued on page 52 SUMMER’S COMING SOON Splash, Play & Learn to Swim! Hubbard Family Swim School BABY SPLASH FREE weekly lessons for babies ages 4 weeks to 5 months old LITTLE SNAPPERS 2 free lessons for new students ages 6 to 35 months GROUP LESSONS for kids of all swimming levels ages 6 months to 12 years PHOENIX, MESA & PEORIA hubbardswim.com 602.971.4044

Juliette Ochoa is a dancer on her way to stardom! She was one of two girls who danced the role of Clara in Ballet Arizona’s production of The Nutcracker at Symphony Hall. This is the sec- ond year Juliette has been cho- sen to play this role. Juliette is in the 7th grade at Veritas Preparatory School and is an excellent student. She works really hard to balance her school work and her dance. (She has dance classes nearly every day after school for several hours.) She is elegant, graceful, a lead- er and always a pleasure to be around with her beautiful smile. She endures many hours of per- fecting pointe as she loves being in ballet. She is an athlete with her dance and a wonderful stu- dent as well. Thank you to Dorcas Guest-Nel- son for nominating Juliette. Do you know an Arcadia athlete who deserves to be recognized by the community? Fill out a Nomination Form at Arcadia Sports & Fitness or www.arcadiadaily.com/athlete.pdf, or drop us a line at athlete@arcadianews.com. HURRY! WE WILL BE CHOOSING ANOTHER WINNER ON FEBRUARY 16TH! Congratulations Juliette Ochoa! C l i of the of the