A RC A DI A SPORTS PAGE TOO A RC A DI A SPORTS PAGE TOO Page 52 February 2012 A RC A DI A SPORTS PAGE TOO A RC A DI A SPORTS PAGE TOO Fuentes Continued from page 50 ontrolled breathing can offer. While ll human beings breathe unconsciously o survive, the conscious manipulation of breathing has many positive effects, specially for athletes, Fuentes said. “Right now, we breathe without thinking bout it, and breathing just means that we’re alive, which is great,” Fuentes joked. But we do it without paying attention to t, and the problem with that is we don’t have a foundation or a point we can call our zoned-in point, which means we have nothing to turn to when we get stressed during a performance.” The system begins moves from oundational breathing to more speci fi c breathing patterns for speci fi c situations, or example preparation breathing, performance breathing and recovery breathing, to help athletes maximize their potential in every situation. Each type of breathing is different and argets a different area of need for the thlete. In a testimonial for Mental Champ, Robles - the ASU wrestler born with one eg who defeated defending champion Matt McDonough from Iowa to claim a national championship in 2011 - gives the program and Fuentes credit for helping him overcome issues on and off of the mat. “Working with Al has been great; not just in my wrestling, but in my life,” Robles said in the video. “He helped me get everything in perspective and it brought me to a whole other level and I couldn’t have become a national champion without his help.” Mental Champ works with athletes to clear their minds. Because of the chaos and internal worry they face, many of the athletes who come to Fuentes have trouble performing, he said. They are looking for a way to quell the worries or frustrations they are experiencing. “They can talk about their problems until they are blue in the face,” Fuentes said. “Logically they want to let go of it, and logically they don’t want to feel the way they do, but they have no real tools to change how they feel.” After meeting with athletes, Fuentes introduces the system to help calm what he calls the “mental or emotional body.” After that, he takes on the more daunting challenge of trying to change the way the athlete thinks in order to create a more positive environment for success. “And that is where the second part of what I do is really even more unique,” Fuentes said. “Because you take the breathing and, now that I can get you into this really centered state, we couple it with visualization.” The visualization learned at Mental Champ is unique, Fuentes said. According to the coach, this sort of visualization utilizes the breathing techniques in order to harness the power of the mind and put the body into an energy generating state similar to that experienced during sleep. This state allows athletes to compete at their highest level during the entirety of a performance or a competition. “Part of my thing was looking at the fact that we can generate energy while we sleep,” he said. “So we can probably do it during the day, we just don’t know how.” The connection between the breathing exercises and visualization is key to reaching full athletic potential in the Mental Champ system. Through his system, Fuentes claims athletes can train their muscles and senses to react quicker. “Those are things that are profoundly important to your effectiveness,” Fuentes said. Fuentes compares this state to when certain athletes seem to be “in the zone” for a few minutes or a few games throughout the course of a season. However, with Mental Champs, athletes can make getting in the zone a repeatable action, he said. In addition to overcoming mental obstacles, Mental Champ can help athletes recover quickly from physical injuries by tapping into the body’s ability to heal, Fuentes said. In a testimonial for Mental Champ, Kingsbury credits Fuentes with helping him fi ght through a separated rib he suffered eight days prior to UFC 104. “Al came out to LA with me for UFC 104, and we sat in the room and we went through the breathing technique, and we got in a comfortable place and focused a lot of our energy on the rib,” said Kingsbury in the video. “Anytime there was any attention brought to that rib it brought me to a very relaxed place.” Kingsbury credits Fuentes with helping him withstand several rib shots in the middle of the fi ght en route to his victory over Razak Al-Hassan. Fuentes also related a 2009 story about former ASU pitcher Josh Spence, whose rapid recovery from a fi nger injury at the end of the season allowed him to pitch a complete game against Clemson on June 9 that sent ASU to the College World Series. Spence tore a muscle in his hand with about a month left in the season and was given a recovery timetable of three months, Fuentes said. Fuentes sat Spence down and asked him to make a commitment. Spence agreed, and Fuentes changed his mental, nutritional and health lifestyle in order to quicken the healing process. Within a month, Spence returned to the mound and, a few weeks after that, pitched the complete game against Clemson. While Fuentes does take some credit for the unique system he has developed, he also acknowledges that the fundamental basics of what he teaches have always existed. “So it’s not really me, it’s the techniques that I’ve developed and created that are really a culmination of a lot of other things that I’ve just put together,” Fuentes said. “My personal philosophy is that I don’t feel that we create anything, I think it is just all around us, because the more I share what I do with people, the more I hear other people doing similar things.” By working with young athletes, Fuentes is attempting to help them avoid mistakes he made as a young man. “Being an athlete myself, I had a lot of self-sabotage and I fell short of my dreams and goals,” Fuentes said. “And my whole quest has been to understand not only the why for me but how I can help others not do the same things I did.” Fuentes’ system may seem quirky or unorthodox, but the results are hard to argue with. Athletes and coaches from all walks of life are speaking out on behalf of the sports guru, who is breathing new life into athletic mental training. “For me, it was all in the mind and what I mentally prevented myself from,” said Fuentes. “My system is really simple, yet a profound system in its results.” HYSICALTherapy L PHYSICALTherapy L PHYSICALTher L PHYSICAL THERAPY Physical p p Therapy L THERAPY therapy physical y y PHYSICAL THERAPY Physical p p Therapy L THERAPY therapy physical py y PHYSICAL Physi Th L therapy APY py APY cal L ysic Therap L AL THER y l Therap L THER physi Physical physical YSICAL hysical p p Ther L apy physical YSICAL Physical p p Ther L apy YSICAL hysical Therapy L apy PHYSICAL y Therapy L therapy PHYSICAL T hysical Thera L T therapy PHYSICAL THERAPY Physical p p Therapy L THERAPY therapy physical y y PHYSICAL THERAPY Physical p p Therapy L THERAPY therapy physical py y PHYSICAL Physic Th L therapy PY y PY al THERAPY al y y THERAPY physical THERAPY Physical py py THERAPY therapy physical THERAPY Ph Y Y ysical py py THERAPY therapy Y Y physical ACHES OR PAINS? 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