“Biomechanical assessment”

Coach Steve has several time recommended Scott Howitt at the Sports Performance Centre in Thornhill. I met Scott at the Team Bentley party early in the summer, and we agreed by e mail that I’d see him for a “biomechanical assessment” after I’d done Ironman Wisconsin.

Letting my cracked rib heal, and working with his schedule, I saw Scott on Saturday, October 13. He spent about an hour and a half with me: he watched me run, stretch, walk over bars, lunge, etc. One of his tests, the Thomas test, looks a lot like the picture I’ve inserted. (And I’m not sure, but I think that’s Scott in the pic.)

In our valedictory discussion, after I’d dressed, Scott had a few particularly interesting things to say. Most important, he said he found nothing that was worth his working on. I.e., no therapy was indicated. All the problems or issues were for me to work on, not a therapist. Indeed, he said, I was in better shape, biomechanically, than half the Maple Leafs they’d examined during training camp.

He wrote a two-page report I got just a few hours later—great service. I will share part of what he wrote in the summary:

“Richard has no current injuries and no limitations to his training. Some minor tweaking of muscle strength and flexibility to his improve his overall muscle balance is recommended. … Train harder and kick butt in IM Wisconsin.”

How did I feel? I was disappointed! I know that doesn’t make much sense unless, like Jeeves, you “consider the psychology of the individual” (I am working my way systematically through Wodehouse’s Jeeves & Wooster books): there is no magic bullet, nothing that I can delegate. My aches and pains, my “limitations”, are all in my control, as much as they can be controlled.

As Scott says, the key message is: “train harder”!