Fiona Varian Sport & Performance

Having been involved in various sports at a high level as both a competitor and a coach I am passionate about helping each athlete , performer and rider to be the absolute best they can be.

I can make you and your body, more Fluid, more Efficient, more Consistent and most importantly, less likely to get injured. I can make everything you've been working for easier: make your body so that you are fairly getting out for what you are putting in. Make your training more efficient. Give you ways to 'Keep it so'.

I can give cyclists, rowers, runners an efficient pair of straight pistons.

I can give runners impulsion; the most efficient running technique, the ability to drive through their body.

I can give riders an even set of seat bones, equal hands, equal legs so that your horse has clear, unmixed messages. Finer feel, improved connection with your horse.

I can give gymnasts more power, more flexibility, more evenness left and right , better flicks, better tumbles (more height, more power and more straightness through the tumble), better handstands.

Maximum output for minimum effort.

How can I help???

There is a 'gap' between where the ideal body tissue tensions would match perfect form is ...and ....what currently is. The smaller this gap, the more that form stays on track. The bigger the disparity, either the more easily form breaks down in that direction....or.... the larger mental and physical effort that is required to keep form on track.

By many and varied tissue and energy techniques, I can:

Minimise this gap between what is and ideal form so the amount it can breakdown by is much reduced
Help you identify how you came to be in this place and what you can do to change it
Help you to (re)produce the safest, most efficient, most repeatable movement, with the least injury risk
Help you both understand ideal mechanics AND make it easy for your body to do so
Give you things you can do to help stay in the ideal place
Allow you to understand why your specific individual anatomy may lead you to fall into doing certain things
help reduce what you need to focus on to stay on track, freeing up brain space to produce more effort or take in more cues.

Whenever there is a breakdown in performance, there is ALWAYS a really good reason in the body (or mind) that makes it easier for the body to go towards the pattern it breaks down to, rather than to stay on the ideal form.

Sometimes we are using moving muscles to stablise and initialising movement from the outside in, instead of the inside out (the ideal -like in martial arts- is to keep the outside moving muscles soft and responsive and to start the movement from the core)
Sometimes one part of our body is erroneously overused (usually from other activities) and thinks it needs to be in charge of everything and hijacks all movement, disturbing correct biomechanics
Sometimes we are following a previous (mis?)perception of what we believe we should be doing because what we have been told in the past
Sometimes its a bable fish moment.... the coach is asking us to do one thing....we THINK we are doing what they are asking us to do....and they may think we are not listening.....but it is a missing link in understanding or perception or translation
Sometimes we don't realise that there is a hidden pattern of how we respond to incoming stimuli (eg to move away from or yield pressure -be that equipment, partner, weather). This can mean that instead of producing the required movement our movement (often subconsciously) is being influenced by outside things instead of holding our own integrity. Especially critical in sports like Rowing/Sculling with multiple occupancy boats, Riding, Archery in wind weather.
Sometimes , in closed chain sports such as cycling or rowing, the dimensions of the equipment dictates what the individuals body has to do .... and that may be at loggerheads with best or safest biomechanics for that individual. Solutions may often involve quirky adaptations to allow a person to acheive best mechanics AND best form...OR to have an acute awareness of in what way, at what point and why the danger of breakdown occurs...and thus where their focus needs to be, when
Sometimes it is due to a less , flexible area of tissue. When we reach the first resistance of this tissue, unless we are constantly mindful of overriding it, the body takes an alternative easier route. This can form from repeated movement patterns (usually nothing to do with the current situation). It could be scar tissue from an old injury. It could be shortened in compensation patterns.
Sometimes a person can (often subconsciously) change their movement in an attempt to try and protect -either an old injury, or fear of a common injury in their sport (especially so with Ribs and Rowers). It can become that what they are currently doing changes mechanics so much that they are INCREASING the risk of re-injury rather than lowering it.

Way more often than not, WHATEVER A BODY IS TRYING TO DO , THINKING IT IS PROTECTING FROM PAIN or AN INJURY, is actually CHANGING THE MECHANICS TO A PATTERN THAT CAUSES PAIN OR INJURY, becoming a self fulfilling prophecy.

This is PARTICULARLY so for RIBS, 'FROZEN SHOULDER' and BACK PAIN

Seeing the reason for which form is not ideal is a bit like seeing the hidden machine code in the MATRIX.....

Once you can see the truth for what it is, you can do something about it and are no longer mindlessly influenced by these factors.......and YOU are back in control.

I can make you and your body, more Fluid, more Efficient, more Consistent and most importantly Less likely to get Injured.

Sadly, Trying HARDER; Trying to juggle more balls (trying to keep track of more things at the same time) during a performance NEVER results in Peak Performance, more Fluidity or more Expressiveness.

EVERYTHING that is written here also applies to an individual trying to regain movement post injury -Sporting or not.

TEAMS WORKED WITH for extended periods:

Oxford Rowing Team: 2006 to Present;

GB Paralympic archery. Coach and Bodyworker including Athens Paralympics 1994 to 2005;

Bracknell Gymnastics : Tolworth Gymnastics;

Scottish Triathlon; Paralympic Equestrian Development Squad;

Back to HOMEPAGE: HUMAN : RECOVERY FROM PAIN, INJURY & OPERATION : HUMAN GALLERY

Fiona VARIAN

Tel: 0779645 7715

Email: [email protected]