Interval

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Kennemerduinen, today. Interval training [go hard, go easy; united in a balanced training]

"A good walker must connect grace with quickness and perseverance, whatever be the nature of the ground, whether hilly, sandy, or slippery. To walk well, is a great art, and deserves to be attented to by parents from the earliest years of their children; their habit here, as in most cases, is all powerful. It is an exercise which may be practised in any place, though no so well in a common excerise-ground as elsewhere. [...] I. Grace [...] A straight natural carriage of the whole body, particularly of the head, without anything artificial, or affected; a light, yet firm step with the whole sole of the foot at once; the knees straightened, whenever the foot touched the ground. The feet should be turned a little outwards. […], so that the body may not lose its balance. II. Duration, cannot be acquired except by much practice. Walks [regularly] taken, and gradually increased, and then longer excursions and journeys on foot, are requisite. Perseverance in walking and strength to carry some weight, is an important accomplishment. […] IV. Indifference as to locality. Walking over unlevelled ground is much more difficult, but at the same time a greater exercise. The same is the case in walking trough deep sand. If a hill is so steeped, that every step requires considerable exertion, then the motion is called ascending, which may be practiced with and without a load. [...]  Running, if practiced with precautions, is an exercise extremely salutary to the chest and lungs. […] Posture and body: Breast out, shoulders back, upper part of the body forwards; upper arms close to the body, elbows bent, and kept backwards. The steps light, and with the ball of the foot, not with the whole sole. The mouth shut; breathing long, uniform, and more trough the nose, than trough the mouth. […] Cool and calm days are best for this exercise. In the beginning run with, not against, the wind. When very much heated, or out of breath, stop. [...] After running, cool yourself by walking about, not by standing still, nor lying down."

From: 'Treatise on Gymnasticks, taken chiefly from the German of F.L. Jahn'  [ translated ] by Charles Beck in 1828 ("It is a well known fact that a subject, whether it be entirely new, or only more attended to, will exercise an influence upon language, in proportions to its importance; it will either coin new words, or transplant them from other languages, or impart a new shade or greater distinctness of meaning to some already existing [...] If the present work facilitates the introduction and management of gymnastic exercises, my wish is fulfilled, and I shall consider myself richly awarded for the trouble which the execution of it occasioned.") 

See also: Friedrich Ludwig Jahn  a.k.a. 'Turnvater Jahn' (1778 - 1852)  at Wikipedia (English)

Ignorance

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Kennemer Dunes, today. Learn [ or burn ].

Min/max temperature: 3°C/9°C; humidity: 100%; precipitation: 12 mm, sea level pressure: 988 hPa; wind WNW 52.0 km/h; visibility: 10.0 kilometres; Clouds Few 243 m., Scattered Clouds 304 m., Mostly Cloudy 548 m

"[People] interested in creating high performance teams are unafraid of incertitude and unresolved issues and are able to remain open-minded. [Prepared] to accept a condition what the poet John Keats termed "negative capability": "when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts without any irritable reaching after fact and reason" […] It is important to maintain a state of deliberate open-mindedness -- the ability to keep imagination alive without having the urge for closure. […] Paranoid and depressive anxieties are major emotional drivers within a group-as-a-whole. At the core of these primitive regressive processes is a basic feeling of helplessness, a state of mind that produces the deepest source of anxiety in human beings […] If these regressive forces are not dealt with, the group-as-a-whole falls victim to a paranoid mindset, expressed as mistrust, untruthfulness, suspicion, hostility, immoral behaviour, rivalry, jealousy, envy, spite, and fear. […] Within this paranoid framework, scapegoats will be targeted within a group or team. Scapegoating is a way of deflecting our aggression onto safer targets, instead of directing it towards the target we are really frustrated with. People who become scapegoats act as receptacles for the projections of the unacceptable impulses experienced by the group-as-a-whole. […] As an additional "benefit" this act of projection may bind "good" group members closer together, by creating a common enemy. In many instances, scapegoats are chosen because of some special or unique characteristic that makes them different from the other members of the group […] some low-status individuals frequently become associated (forced by the group) with the unacceptable, unseemly, or foolish aspects of the group."

Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries in 'The Hedgehog Effect', page 145, 146, 147, 151. First published in 2011 by John Wiley and Sons, USA

Knowing ignorance is strength.
Ignoring knowledge is sickness.

If one is sick of sickness, then one is not sick.
The wise are not sick, because they are sick of sickness.
Therefore they are not sick.

Lao Tsu in 'Tao Te Ching', translated by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English. Originally published by Knopf, New York, 1972

Cold, dark, warm, light

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Kennemer Dunes, today. Finishing after dark [ motivation ]

"[Except for elementary reflexes], people are not equipped with inborn repertoires of behaviour. They must learn them. New response patterns can be acquired either by direct experience or by observation. Biological factors, of course, play a role in the acquisition process. Genetics and hormones affect physical development which in turn can influence behavioural potentialities. Many so-called instinctual behaviours [though], even in lower species, contain a large learning component. […] When people deal with everyday events, some of their responses prove successful, while others have no effect or result in punishing outcomes. Trough this process of different reinforcement, successful forms of behaviour are eventually selected and ineffectual ones are discarded [...] Self-reinforcement refers to a process in which individuals enhance and maintain their own behaviour by rewarding themselves with rewards that they control when ever they attain self prescribed standards. […] According to social learning theory […] self-regulated reinforcements increase performance mainly trough its motivational function. By making self-reward conditional upon attaining a certain level of performance, individuals create self-inducements to persist in their efforts until their performances match self-prescribed standards. […] Track performances, for example, are gauged in terms of speeds. Achievement-oriented activities are evaluated on the basis of quality, quantity, or originality. Social conduct is judged along such dimensions as authenticity, concequentialness and deviancy […] Whether a given performance will be regarded as rewardable or punishable depends upon the personal standards against which it is evaluated. Actions that measure up to internal standards give rise to positive appraisals, while those that fall short are judged negatively. For most activities there are no absolute measures of adequacy. The time in which a mile is run, the scores obtained on tasks, or the size of charitable contributions, do not convey in themselves sufficient information for self-appraisal. […]  In performances gauged by social criteria, self appraisals require relational comparisons of at least three sources of information to judge a given performance: absolute performance level, one's own personal standards, and a social referent."

Albert Bandura in 'Social Learning Theory', page 16, 17, 130 131. First published in 1977 by Prentice-Hall, Inc., USA 

Periodization and 'the law of diminishing returns'

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Haarlem. Today, I met with Ruud Wielart, after having been able to observe him for some time while being at the Haarlem 'Pim Mulier' athletics track. 'Weather or no weather', he always is present -- with his characteristic, deep, friendly and no-nonsense respect gaining voice, with an occasional touch of shyness --  as the sun can pierce trough leaves, deep in a forest. Commanding the training, of -- among other people -- his son Jurgen. Ruud Wielart is a former high-jumping-athelete, champion and record-holder. And has managed to transform his personal experiences into a training career. The topic of our conversation: how to make your personal experiences available trough training to others? We talked about his sports-career and how sport can be part of education. About training and dealing with injuries. His experiences in observing people, especially children. It will need some more time to work it out before publication, a crucial, labour-intensive process that just can't be left to somebody doing a transcript, no matter how well intended. Or, in the words of Army Air and Signal Corps combat photographer Arnold E. Samuelson, quoting Ernest Hemingway (on page eleven in 'A Year in Key West and Cuba'): "Don't get discouraged because there is a lot of mechanical work to writing. There is, and you can't get out of it. I rewrote the first part of A Farewell to Arms at least fifty times. You've got to work it over. The first draft of anything is shit. When you first start to write you get all the kick and the reader gets none, but after you learn to work it’s your object to convey everything to the reader so that he remembers it not as a story he had read but something that happened to himself." 

Presented here are a brief, short quote, though, and a photo from the meeting. It seems interviews at least lead to an opportunity to get close to people and make a good portrait. This is a recurring experience. The interview leads to an 'up-and-close' photo moment. The interview combusts artificial distance and clears the space between camera and subject, revealing true nature. At least, that is my humble experience. As Michael Rabiger points out in his book 'Directing the Documentary': "The strength of a documentary lies in the relationship between subject and filmmaker." In that sense the interview testifies of that experience: the decomposition of distance. Very similar to what we know about the proces of breathing in oxygen, breathing out carbon dioxide. 

Min/max temperature: 13°C/18°C; humidity: 81%; precipitation: 0.3 mm; sea level pressure: 1010.57 hPa; wind: SE 13 km/h; visibility: 11.0 kilometres; Clouds: Mostly Cloudy 914 m .; Moon: Waning Gibbous, 56% visible

"Sport has developed from peaceful circumstances. The first athletes, well, call them athletes, the people who were involved in sports, were people who trained under conditions similar to soldiers in the army -- though more comfortable. They trained in camps, with everything included, according to core principles and methods coming from preceeding times, coming from the army. As we athletes do, the army also periodizes. It comes from the Greeks, the ancient Greeks; they trained according to periodization principles: building up gradually, according to the 'law of diminishing returns'. 'Building up, building up, building up' and doing more and more and then bringing it down quietly and gradually. Building up intensity but reducing the overall work-load. And then they had the games. That is how sport originated. In every country that enjoys peace, there is sport. Football coach Rinus Michels talked about 'Football is war', it sounds a bit awkward, we can see that in the behaviour of some of the extremities of football, hooligans, the extreme fanatics, and [ football ] calls upon that more readily. Teams represent -- and this I always found a disadvantage of team-sports -- its call upon 'we against those over there'."

Ruud Wielart, personal communication during interview, Haarlem, May 17 2017