TAMPA, Fla. — As the Olympic games continue in Paris, a Tampa man has developed an innovative technique to prepare Olympic and other athletes for competition. For him, it’s about the brain, not the brawn.
“Mine is not really psychology, it’s neurology. I’m interested in getting them to control their body through their brains,” Tom Maloney said.
Casey Eichfeld is a Team USA canoeist, competing in Paris, and a client of Maloney. Eichfeld started neurology coaching with Maloney in preparation for the 2012 Olympics.
“He‘s been coaching me on how to maintain my focus and I think that’s one of the reasons I’ve had a huge jump,” Eichfeld said during the London games.
“With Casey, I made him a lot more efficient,” Maloney explained.
From canoeists to bobsledders to weightlifters, Maloney has worked with athletes in seven straight Olympics, preparing them mentally for competition.
“I would call it neuroplasticity. I’m teaching them how to rewire their brains,” Maloney said.
The strategy developed by Maloney is not to force your body, but control it.
“You first just learn to make your body feel like it’s floating and once we feel that connection, now we’re going to make it feel like power," Maloney said.
Maloney works to calm the brain and create smoother pathways and patterns to success.
“Our brain loves patterns. When you get up in the morning, you do the same thing every single day," he added.
More than 10,000 athletes are competing in the 2024 Olympics. The challenge is teaching athletes how to focus, block pain and eliminate distractions that lead to failure.
“When an archer draws his bow, they don’t look at what they don’t want to hit. They look at only what they want to hit and so that’s what I’m teaching them in practice is to start focusing on the target. Stop worrying about what could happen,” Maloney said.
As the games continue in Paris, Maloney watches from his home in Tampa. He is rooting on Team USA, determined to help athletes — and all of us — become our best.
“There’s so many areas in the brain that we can tap into that are, I wouldn’t say superhuman, but they’re advantages to the average Joe who hasn’t learned, hey, we can work on this," Maloney said.