Relax and Win - Legacy of Speed Podcast

Listen to the full episode here

Dr. Belisa Vranich was able to talk with Malcom Gladwell about the importance of relaxation and breathing. Bud Winter’s used this technique to develop the fastest runner’s in the world.

Winter’s theory was that tension in antagonistic muscles slowed a runner down. The trick was to relax those muscles using fewer muscles to do the same tasks. One of his most important cues was to relax the chest and ribcage, and let the midriff out – breathe diaphragmatically.

Across 30 years at San Jose State University, he produced 27 track and field Olympians & 3 Olympic gold medallists. At one time, his runners held every world record for sprinting events. Usain Bolt’s coach is said to claim that much of Bolt’s (and Jamaica’s success) is due to Bud Winter’s influence.
As a young coach before the war, he experimented with sports psychology, in particular relaxation after taking a class with Dorothy Yates, who was an expert in the sports psychology of boxing. Dr. Yates focused on teaching boxers how to “float like butterflies” — staying relaxed and loose during a fight so they could effectively “sting like a bee” when they needed to.

After Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in Naval Aviation & was assigned to the Del Monte Pre-Flight school in California. Early in the war, the Navy had a big problem. America was losing. Despite recruiting the best and brightest, & spending a fortune on training and technology, their new pilots were cracking under combat conditions. They froze under pressure. They shot at the wrong airplanes. On top of that, training was too slow, they needed new pilots sooner. The Navy tasked Winter with using sports psychology to improve results. He created two equal groups of cadets: a control group & an experimental group. He then took the experimental group & trained them in progressive relaxation techniques.

But Winters discovered something else. The relaxation technique, when combined with positive self-suggestion, made the cadets better at everything. The relaxation group beat the control group in nearly every regular cadet activity, often by a huge margin. Military History was an exception. They did better at sports. They could identify Japanese vs. US planes much faster & more accurately. They got higher marks in examinations. They were also happier & less stressed.