My musical month has revolved around events common to many of us, not
least the Jubilee celebrations. There have also been the usual assortment of more personal
experiences, one or two of which I'd like to share now. A couple of radio items caught my
ear. The first was a "Thought For The Day" considering the amount of training
and concentrated effort that goes into making a top athlete. Even with everything in
place, it sometimes happens that an athlete will then "choke" on the day, will
lose focus, rhythm, concentration. The reason may be simply trying too hard, allowing the
chattering uncertainties of the mind to get in the way of the body's instinctive ability,
programmed in by long months of training. Now simply substitute "music"
for "athletics" and "practice" for "training" and the
equivalence is complete. The solution to choking, according to "Thought For The
Day", is to let go and allow an inner grace to hold sway.
The athletic theme was taken up by another R4 programme describing
how athletes use music as an integral part of training, for warming up, for working out
and for event preparation. Rhythm plays a major part in this, the magic 120-140 beats per
minute holding the key. Red Bull have this year sponsored the composition of a piece
of music written, or should I say designed, for all the different components in the
training and performance potential of one of our top Olympic athletes.
