ArlenJ.com
September 30, 2020
Timing is everything when it comes to releasing movies and books. The ESPN/Netflix miniseries The Last Dance continually set ratings records as new episodes premiered. It was a right place/right time scenario as all sports had been halted since late March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The series chronicled the career of NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordan. It particularly focused on Jordan’s last season in the NBA. Many sports journalists and pundits consider Jordan the greatest basketball player of all time, and rightfully so. The 10-episode series included interviews from 90 people ranging from basketball greats Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, to Carmen Electra and former President Barack Obama. There was one surprising and incomprehensible exclusion from the interviewees.
There were a total of 106 people interviewed for the miniseries, according to director Jason Heir via an interview with The Athletic. Several former NBA stars, including Dominique Wilkins, Allen Iverson and Dikembe Mutumbo did not make the cut. But it seems incomplete and disingenuous to exclude George Mumford from the story.
Who is George Mumford?
Mindfulness is the state of being conscious. Cognition is the brain process for acquiring and understanding knowledge and experiences. Mumford has studied both for more than 35 years.
Mumford, author of the book The Mindful Athlete: Secrets to Pure Performance, started his own journey towards a permanent positive mindset after a life-changing event. He was a basketball player at the University of Massachusetts and roommate of teammate Julius Erving (aka “Dr. J”). Mumford suffered major injuries that forced him out of the game. He became addicted to prescription pain killers and eventually moved on to heroin. Mumford ultimately enrolled in Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness-based stress reduction program. He got off drugs, earned his master’s degree, and began teaching mindset training to others.
Mumford was brought in by former Chicago Bulls head coach Phil Jackson in 1993. The team was in disarray after Jordan “retired” to play baseball. His job was to teach players how to deal with the anxiety and pressure that comes with both success and failure. Mumford’s website says it all about his relationship with Jordan:
“Michael Jordan credits George Mumford with transforming his on-court leadership of the Bulls, helping Jordan lead the team to six NBA championships.”
Mindset training for maximum performance
Emma Young, an award-winning science and health journalist, is one of many experts who agree that 95% of brain activity is outside of our conscious awareness. The late Dr. Emanuel Donchin put the number even higher:
”An enormous portion of cognitive activity is non-conscious, figuratively speaking, it could be 99 percent; we probably will never know precisely how much is outside awareness.”
The Last Dance told the story of Jordan’s personal trainer talking about how he needed to bulk up to beat the Detroit Pistons. Said trainer also changed Jordan’s routine to prepare for baseball. The series overestimates the importance of physical attributes over mental training. The term “mind over matter” is somewhat cliche. But science says there is a lot of truth to it.
A late 2000s study published in the Journal of Rheumatology monitored chronically ill patients’ musculoskeletal pain for four years. It found that 46% of participants who followed protocols (quality sleep, minimal stress, etc.) reported no pain. Only 5% of patients who did none of the protocols were pain-free.
A 2017 Stanford study published in the journal Health Psychology showed similar results. People who simply “thought” they were less active (meaning fitness) were 18% more likely to be dead at the end of the 21-year study.
Training on the alpha wavelength
The ALPHA by Prodigy Mindset™ Gym requires 15-minutes training sessions, six times per day during week 2. Week 3 is about fueling the mind into a constant state of conscious repetition. This ensures consciousness and the “conscious creativity” that comes with it. This commitment leads to Internal Monologue System (IMS) reconditioning and the wiring/rewiring of the subconscious. ALPHA is the best way to do this accurately and efficiently.
Learn more about the ALPHA by Prodigy Mindset™ Gym today.