Foto ©Focus On Performance – Coach Lars Lienhard working with skeleton worldchampion Marion Thees with
skeletonspecific visual and vestibular drills.
Recovery, Prevention, Maximum Performance – pure
will (brain) power and nerve strength
19.03.2015 (Translation from Nicholas Reade)
Lars Lienhard is somewhat of a pioneer in German top sports. The 43-year-old sports
scientist is considered to be a sleeper in the realms of neuro-athletics-training. He
accompanied the German national soccer team to a top event – the 2014 World Cup in
Brazil – a.o. as the first neuro-athletics coach in German Football Association’s history. He
pleads for a change of perspective in the rehabilitation, prevention and performance
optimization of top athletes – also in German Bundesliga.
That small town German Bundesliga club FC Augsburg is striking bold notes in the concert
of the greats and is now considered to be a Europe-League contender, still provokes
amazement amongst Bundesliga experts. Especially their excellent fitness level helps the
Swabian underdogs to compete with the best – credited to head coach Markus Weinziert’s
staff, his athletics coaches as well as his medical department. Among others, Lars Lienhard
renders outstanding services to the team’s physical constitution. The man from Bonn is a
neuro-athletics coach. He supervises Jan-Ingwer Callsen-Bracker and Dominik Kohr
among others. Noticeable: Callsen-Bracker, who became pro in 2003 and who
transferred to Augsburg during winter break 2010/2011, has discarded his proneness to
injury from Leverkusen and Gladbach days. He trains with Lienhard for roundabout four
years now. Since then, the defender contended in over a 100 Bundesliga games – more
than twice as many as before. He is a reliable constant for the Swabians. Loan Dominik
Kohr, also former Leverkusen, has made a giant leap in development and has distinctly
won stability. He also managed to multiply his Bundesliga appearances at his new
domain. He recently scored the match-winner against the star-clad ensemble from
Wolfsburg. Their personal achievements get about.
Meanwhile keeper Marwin Hitz is among the players that train selectively with Lienhard.
Three months ago he sustained a cruciate rupture. The end of his personal season was
impending. By the end of February, after a very short convalescence, he staged his
celebratedcomeback and struck the equalizer against Champions League competitor
Leverkusen as a striking keeper at the very last second.
Callsen-Bracker, Kohr and Hitz, as well as many other top athletes, have all experienced
how much progress is achievable with the help of neurological components, parallel to
conventional rehabilitation training and how much undreamed-of potential can be
unlocked.Their units with Lienhard are not so much about conventional training methods
or sweat-inducing exercises. The sports scientist aims at activating the brain – the cockpit
for movement, agility, strength and pain. “The brain and the nervous system”, Lienhard
says, “belonged to the most ignored fundamentals for performance optimization to date”.
He pleads for a change of perspective in sports – from a pure biomechanical towards a
more neuronal informed perception. In this interview with netzathleten.de, he explains why.
netzatleten.de: Mr. Lienhard, what is your occupational motto?
Lars Lienhard: I prefer to call it my basic principle: “You are only as strong as your weakest
link!” The human locomotor system is built in a way that everything is interconnected,
correlates and controlled by the brain and the nervous system.
netzathleten.de: What are you? A revolutionary? How do your athletes perceive you? As a
fitness guru or even a witch doctor?
Lars Lienhard: Certainly not as a fitness guru or witch doctor, to straighten this out right
away. I definitely refuse to accept such concepts and I am certainly not involved in such
trickery. Neuro-athletics-training is not a trend promoted by the fitness industry.
netzahtleten.de: Ok, let’s agree on revolutionary, or at least: pioneer…
Lars Lienhard: If you need a label or an attribute to describe me… - I would rather talk less
about myself and more about the innovation of neuro-athletics-training…
netzathleten.de:…which is inevitably connected with criticism of the conventional training
and rehabilitation concepts in performance sports.
Lars Lienhard: I am not a system critic and I am not looking to confront for confrontation’s
sake. But I do criticize that in the matter of rehabilitation, prevention and athletics training,
the biomechanical component has been stressed too much, while at the same time the
neuronalcomponent was neglected. Even though there is a neuronal cause behind every
problem. Nothing functions without the brain.
netzathleten.de: You plead for a change of perspective.
Lars Lienhard: Exactly. Otherwise several percentages are left behind – not matter how
hard one trains, stretches or stresses one’s muscles. The insights to the brain and the
nervous system as movement-controlling entities and their practical application are still
among sports most ignored fundamentals for the improvement of physical and
psychological performance. In my opinion they need to be emphasized and integrated into
a holistic athletics training.
netzathleten.de: And this is where you start?
Lars Lienhard: Yes. I operate at the interface between neuroscience and modern athletics
training. The truth is: The brain is evolutionary-biologically and primarily an organ,
supposed to safeguard our survival. Virtually everything runs through the filter: How
dangerous is my conduct? If what the brain is perceiving is not distinct and controllable,
protective reflexes are instantly triggered. These have to be extinguished to achieve
maximum performance. Do not get me wrong: without ignoring true hazards of course.
On the contrary. These are avoided by a neuronally optimized motion sequence. Systems,
which do not validate the brain’s and the nervous system’s status quo before every
training, can be dangerous, cause injuries and diminish performance.
netzathleten.de: Is there a hierarchy within the movement-controlling entities?
Lars Lienhard: Firstly, there is the visual system,
the eyes. Secondly, there is the vestibular system,
thus the equilibrium system within the inner ear.
In third place: the proprioceptive system,
thus the information from the body’s periphery.
If any of these systems detects hazards, protective
mechanisms are put into motion,
which always act performance diminishing and
are attributable to biomechanical deficits and
problems.
right picture: Coach Lars Lienhard working with luge
Olympic champion (2010) Tatjana Hüfner, six times
world champion and five times overall worldcup
winner.
netzathleten.de: How does an amateur have to imagine this principle?
Lars Lienhard: Conventionally it is believed that if something is aching, the spot is
causative. A fairly symptomatic view, which incorrect in most cases. That pain is caused, is
a decision by the brain. Pain is just a warning signal, a demand for action. The spot that
aches is virtually not under control and pain causes one to take it down a notch. Pain does
not necessarily indicate damage. The opposite holds true as well. Therefore pain is the
outcome of a protective reflex. Such protective reflexes do not only find expression in pain.
More often these protective reflexes cause muscle tensions, movement constraints or loss
of strength – thus potential pain or injuries. All these outcomes are intended by the brain
and underlie the same principle as pain. The appropriate actions shall be met from this
viewpoint. It is therefore not a question of athletes being weak or immobile, but why they
are. Therefore strength training and stretching wouldn’t be very effective, since it wouldn’t
alter the “movement software”.
netzathleten.de: Does this mean that neuronal training components are a “software
update” so to speak?
Lars Lienhard: That is a way to put it, yes. To keep with the image: Movement primarily
takes place in the brain and the movement map in the brain is exploited via visual,
vestibular and proprioceptive systems – meaning: “blind spots” are downright “overwritten”
and neutralized with a “movement software update”.
netzathleten.de: And the consequences of this?
Lars Lienhard: The nervous system is the fastest operating system in the body. Therefore
movement optimization, pain reduction and performance enhancement set in real fast.
Results are immediately perceptible, measurable and visible – not just after months, as in
biomechanical approaches.
netzathleten.de: An individualization or particularization of your work is probably
inevitable?
Lars Lienhard: Of course. Every training with us starts with a detailed anamnesis and an
intensive and holistic examination of the current movement quality. This also implies an
exact review of the nervous system. Therefore our training systems are as unique as our
athletes’ fingerprints. Furthermore the factor technique training is of great importance,
since different sports and disciplines come with varying, specific circumstances. The
success of neuro-athletics-training is essentially dependent on how good a coach manages
to put his knowledge into practice – that is the art of neuro-athletics-training.
netzathleten.de: Thinking ahead, this would ultimately imply that future stars could be
downright developed – not to say: built. Is this vision too adventurous or just a logical
conclusion of what today still has to be viewed as innovative?
Lars Lienhard: This is an almost philosophical approach. It sounds somewhat
disconcerting, perhaps even deterring to romantics, but ultimately it can indeed be
declared: athletic elite can be created. Incidentally far from doping. A fascinating
perspective for me as a sports scientist and coach. Talent, this much is certain, is
overrated.
Interview by Frank Schneller