The winter Olympics have arrived and I find myself, like many Americans and especially cold-weather Minnesotans, enjoying the events as they are highlighted to us nightly. We love the artistry, the sheer power and the speed involved in these events. We are also drawn to the human interest stories that these broadcasts often include. A characteristic that these athletes have is a dedication and persistence to train for years, often giving up much of their social lives, and experiencing early setbacks and hardships in order to achieve the high level of accomplishment that we admire. 

What does training for perfection involve? Besides the dedication and long hours of practice, they all have and need a coach. These coaches may never have done some of the things they ask their athletes to do, but they have the ability to see what the athlete needs and the ability to educate them on what needs to be modified and improved. This is usually done on a gradient scale that can accommodate the development of the athlete.

A few years ago, I was lucky to have an ambitious amateur athlete as a patient. She was in great shape and loved sports. She was in her thirties and had run in several marathons, while attending law school at night. Her running time for the marathon was usually in the 2 hour and 55 minute range. This was not good enough for the Olympic trials for women that year, which had a time requirement of 2:50 or better. Several weeks before she was going to run a marathon, she injured her lower back while lifting something at home. When I examined her, I located a misaligned and dysfunctional sacroiliac joint, which is a pelvic joint and part of the pelvic girdle, close to where the upper leg attaches to the hip. This may have been a problem for some time but it took low back pain to have her seek care. I proceeded to “adjust” this skeletal segment on a daily basis until it was functioning equally with the other side. Her gait and stride changed and became more balanced. She ran her marathon and returned to the office several days afterward along with her husband, and both were in a highly celebratory mood. They told me that she had shaved 8 minutes off her previous best and came in under 2:50. Wow! This now allowed her to compete in the Olympic trials in Atlanta that year, which she did along with 3,000 other women who had all completed a previous race in under 2:50. Although she did not make the final cut of two, who would go on and represent the U.S. at the Olympics, she was thrilled and honored that she was able to run with this group of accomplished women.

We all need a coach in life. Most of us have a team of coaches that includes doctors, lawyers and accountants or financial consultants and the like. I count on my team to tell me what is going on and to coach me on what I need to do in order to function better in life.

In the healing arts, coaching and treatment should also be intertwined just like coaching and training for an athlete, so that the odds of a positive outcome are as high as possible. Otherwise, it’s like skiing without the skis. 

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