Coach Ted talks about his observations of the natural phenomenon of contraction and expansion throughout everything.
The Origin of the Contraction~Expansion Discipline
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The Origin of the Contraction~Expansion Discipline
Season 3/Episode 51
January 3, 2022
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
This is the Ted O'Neill program, a podcast that explores the science and philosophies for performance optimization, and the elevation of the human experience. Ted O'Neill and Jon Leon Guerrero.
Well, here we go. Welcome to the Ted O'Neill program. Today is Monday. It's the first Monday of the year.
0:24 Ted
Whole New Year, Jonny abs. Yeah. Looking forward to it.
0:27 Jon
This is going to be a big year. This week, we're going to talk about contraction expansion.
0:33 Ted
Yeah, the contraction expansion discipline. So, this is now we had a week of reruns or Greatest Hits through the holidays a little bit. Yes. So now we're picking back up where we left off. This is the fourth pptx discipline that we've now discussed.
0:52 Jon
Okay. So, you wanted to give us the origin story of your recognition of this discipline?
0:59 Ted
Yeah. How did this how did this come to be? This whole concept of contraction expansion? So first, what does this mean even contraction expansion. So, at some point, everyone who's embarking on anything new is going to get challenged. And they're going to have the feeling that they need to go back to go backwards or to shrink back into their previous state. Yeah. Right. So that's, that's a contraction. So, as you begin to go forward, the brain pulls you back to the familiar, returned to the familiar. So that's not revolutionary as a concept. That's a pretty well fleshed out concept in psychology, and neuroscience, and sports performance, etc, etc. But this is also something that really, as I begin to observe this, from a coaching standpoint, I begin to see this really as almost like, the heartbeat of the universe. Because we can observe this everywhere, you know, breathing yourself the way that we're, we're manufactured and we have blood pressure, right? We have a heartbeat, right? Our lungs breathe, and so they expand and they contract were brought into this world, the process of giving birth, yeah, it was through a series of contractions and expansions even arrive everything pulses.
2:17 Jon
Everything pulses, there's this energy flow.
2:20 Ted
Right. So even like in concepts like in physics, you know, the torus, or toroidal structures like that energy flow process, natural disasters, and other regularly occurring phenomenon, hurricanes, tornadoes, there's a magnetism around planets, entire galaxies themselves are all toroidal energy systems where there's this pulse, like you mentioned, there's a realization, there's a rhythm to everything. So that was kind of my first bit of this is seen as from a coaching standpoint, and then observing it in other places, like we mentioned. So, if you extend this observation, or you start thinking relationally, or in PPT, but we'd call it using the concept of fractals, then we can observe the consistent presence of this flow form, even in the subatomic realm. Okay, so you really start to see it everywhere. So, we can surmise, then, that atomic structures and systems are also made of the same dynamic form, waves, muscles contract and expand everything that we can view has this pulsation or this rhythm to it?
3:24 Jon
Yeah, entire galaxies, undoubtedly.
3:27 Ted
So, everything that surrounds us and everything that we're made up from. (Yeah) So, when I had that epiphany, that was kind of a big deal. Because it would seem that we're surrounded by this natural phenomenon where it doesn't exist outside of us. It exists from the moment of conception, through our birth, and then every single moment of our life through our breathing in our heartbeat, that if we can observe this in other ways, that this would be something important that we would, we would want to be able to figure out that we're not just at the whim of this. And what I mean by that is, I begin to observe,
4:07 Jon
Well, let me pause for a second because we are less in control of certain things like our heartbeat. And we can, however, take a deep breath. Yeah, you know, we can control our breathing, and then we find out that in controlling our breathing, we begin to take control of the other systems. Okay, good. So, is this what we're talking about?
4:28 Ted
Well, I like that, because that's kind of what we're going to be getting into, okay, is if we can recognize this thing. Can we take control of this? Yeah. So, where I initially started to form some of these ideas, is I would see this happen. In the gym, to the athletes, I was coaching all the time, they would have some big breakthrough, maybe something that was part of their stated mission, their goal, their ultimate outcome. And this was, you know, it was it was a powerlifter maybe they finally got their elite total and then they just vanish. If it's one of my fighters, wow, that's
5:03 Jon
big. That's a big contraction. I was maybe like, wow, you just hit that, you know, you got a PR for a set or whatever. And then you then you didn't for a while, but you're talking about somebody achieving an elite total, and then just not showing up very well.
5:18 Ted
Or what you're saying, yeah, there's equal relevance, right. That's the fractal. When I would be training fighters, you know, they come off a big win. Yeah. And then instantly go back into a place where they're not applying themselves. Wow, we see this in body comp. Right. And in fact, one of the one of the things, one of the predominant things you see in the rest of the industry around body comp or the concept of weight loss as people lose a bunch of weight, yeah. All back. So that's expansion, followed by the contraction. So, it's not just contraction expansion, it's contraction, expansion back into contraction back into expansion. Hopefully, hopefully, that's, that's the pulsation. Yeah, that's, that's kind of the rhythm on how everything works. So, what really drove this home for me, though, because at this point, so I'm recognizing this from a coaching standpoint as something that we need to be aware of, okay. But I didn't really have all the tools yet, I was already able to recognize this across different platforms, like we mentioned in the beginning, where it's natural phenomena in nature that it seems to mirror our behavior, not just our physiology.
6:31 Jon
Yeah. But our behavior, also, the actions we seem to take, that we seem, they seem to choose that we...
6:36 Ted
it's, so that might be the illusion of having some consciousness behind it. Where what is the real driver? That was the question I asked. So, there's one athlete in particular, we were training for a world championship. And we had a series of starts and stops because this person was new to Diablo and culture, that can be a little bit of a shift. Yeah. Where if I'm training someone for this high-level event,
7:01 Jon
you have to be all in and competing at that level, this person is no stranger to being all in.
7:05 Ted
One would think. Okay, so there's, so there's standards and expectations that might be different in one environment to the next. Yeah. And that was part of the challenge. Because for this person coming in, it wasn't, you're just going to show up on these days and do whatever it's, this is how we're doing it. And so, there was a number of paradigm shifts, and I began to notice for this particular individual, that as we made a breakthrough, what would seemingly almost immediately happen is some kind of a contraction. Okay, we would be on track for the first time nailing all the elements and training and nutrition on the psychology side and have some kind of a demonstratable breakthrough. And then instantly, something like out of nowhere. I'm going to be going on a trip for the next five days. I just wanted to tell you, for the next five days, like well, where you go Hold on champion, like, no, no, that's that's not going to happen. Yeah, that's not what the World Championship by Diamond. So we can have this huge breakthrough. But it was it was such an obvious thing at each and every one. Yeah. And so, what really brought this to my attention was the speed in which this would happen for this person. It was immediately after the big breakthrough, there would be this commensurate regression. And that's something that there's actually whole statistical models based on something we call regression toward the mean. Sure, yeah. So again, this this, this concept of contraction expansion, it's everywhere, it surrounds everything that we do.
8:39 Jon
Yeah, regression to the mean, is a concept that is most readily recognizable in baseball seasons. Because in baseball, you have 162 games in a season. So, if a team goes on a tear, and they have a 10, game winning streak, at some point, everybody just waits around, because you can't sustain that, right? It's the assumption is, yeah, it's a 10-game winning streak, they'll regress to the mean. And then they'll lose eight games after the 10-game winning streak.
9:07 Ted
So why can't you sustain it? Well, that was that was my aha. So, this, because we instantly fall into this concept or this construct? Yes. Of it's not sustainable. Right. My question is why so here's, here's, here's the deal on this. If we're regressing toward the mean.
9:28 Jon
Yeah. And I know your question is why, but then the next question is how?
9:32 Ted
Well let's, let's see if let's see if we can carve this thing out. Okay. So, the how and the why of it. Yeah. And this is one of those parallels to one of the technologies that comes out of Diablo and that's the emotional sobriety movement. And that curriculum is all about getting into the how and the why of you of yourself beliefs. Yes. So, we talk frequently on this show, about how the brain and the body work. The overwhelming majority of our waking moments are spent tied to the programming that we received in the first part of life. Right? That it's estimated that 95%. And again, I think that's a conservative estimate of our waking moments as adults, every new bit of information, or every situation we encounter is filtered through our brain, which is a machine of association. And it looks for what does this mean in comparison to what I already know? Yeah. So we have an identity. And as information comes in, we compare it to that identity. So we can decide what's true and what's not
10:36 Jon
True. That sounds so silly when you put it like that?
10:39 Ted
Well, this is kind of at the heart of this whole deal. And so, what I would observe is when someone begins to display qualities, yeah, that are no longer commensurate with their initial self-beliefs, or their initial set of limitations. You can only go so far past those self-beliefs before at some point, that line that imaginary tether Yeah, that hooks them to that original thought, is going to snap the Matthew back. It's yanks them back. You win 10 games in a row; you lose eight out the next 10. Yeah, right. And eventually, your winning percentage is like 600. Yeah, right. Three out of five, if you're great. But if you can win 10 games in a row, or if you can win any game, right.
11:24 Jon
When why couldn't you win? 162 of them?
11:27 Ted
Yeah. And that's not been done in that sport yet. Right. But it would be a potential. And, you know, so there's, there's a potential every year we have.
11:37 Jon
Well, if you're a Cubs fan,
11:40 Ted
Right, and so, they had about anything. This this in different sports, it would seem that that potential exists in a slightly different place. So, there have been teams in the NFL, that have gone undefeated.
11:55 Jon
Yeah. You know, we almost saw those there been 72? Dolphins? Yeah. Has there been? Has there been one since there? Was that run? The Patriots went on? I don't think they made it and make it.
Ted O’Neill
12:03
I thought I thought one of the more recent teams there, but it has happened before? Yeah. In basketball. You know, being in the Bay Area. We saw the Warriors go 73. Nine, a couple years ago. And so that's, that's pretty darn close. Right? Remarkable. But um, yeah, in baseball, you're not seeing that. Because the more you play, the more you have to stretch past this belief. Yes, especially in a sport that is so dominated by statistics. So, they're operating within a framework of belief. Yep. So, you know, for a team, you can see there's a collective framework that dictates how we approach things and how we think about things. As an individual, that framework is part of it. But where we sit in that framework has to do specifically with our self-beliefs. So, as we begin to pull ourselves up by the proverbial bootstraps, and we begin to expand our horizons farther and farther away from those initial things. If we're not aware of how to use this discipline, then we are going to get snapped back. And sometimes we don't just get snapped back toward the beginning. We get snapped back to a place that is prior to where we started. Yeah. And I believe the so your example was you win 10 games in a row, then you lose eight out of your next 10. Yeah. And then you factor those two numbers together. And that's kind of your average, right? But if you've lost eight out of 10, that's worse than your average. Yes. So, to get back to average, you actually do worse for a little bit. Yeah. And I think what happens there is by going so far back, the little steps that you then take to get back to the mean, or to your individual average, gives you the illusion of progress. I'm going forward again. No, you're not. Yeah, you're just getting back to where you started. Yes, regressing to the mean. Yeah, you regress to the mean by doing worse than you normally do after doing way better. And then you take these little steps just to get right back to the starting point to replay this cycle over and over again. So, this week, we're going to go a little deeper into this. And we're going to finish this over the next couple of days by giving you some action steps on how you can prevent that from happening to where you can then become a master of this discipline, a master of this natural phenomena contraction and expansion
Well, here we go. Welcome to the Ted O'Neill program. Today is Monday. It's the first Monday of the year.
0:24 Ted
Whole New Year, Jonny abs. Yeah. Looking forward to it.
0:27 Jon
This is going to be a big year. This week, we're going to talk about contraction expansion.
0:33 Ted
Yeah, the contraction expansion discipline. So, this is now we had a week of reruns or Greatest Hits through the holidays a little bit. Yes. So now we're picking back up where we left off. This is the fourth pptx discipline that we've now discussed.
0:52 Jon
Okay. So, you wanted to give us the origin story of your recognition of this discipline?
0:59 Ted
Yeah. How did this how did this come to be? This whole concept of contraction expansion? So first, what does this mean even contraction expansion. So, at some point, everyone who's embarking on anything new is going to get challenged. And they're going to have the feeling that they need to go back to go backwards or to shrink back into their previous state. Yeah. Right. So that's, that's a contraction. So, as you begin to go forward, the brain pulls you back to the familiar, returned to the familiar. So that's not revolutionary as a concept. That's a pretty well fleshed out concept in psychology, and neuroscience, and sports performance, etc, etc. But this is also something that really, as I begin to observe this, from a coaching standpoint, I begin to see this really as almost like, the heartbeat of the universe. Because we can observe this everywhere, you know, breathing yourself the way that we're, we're manufactured and we have blood pressure, right? We have a heartbeat, right? Our lungs breathe, and so they expand and they contract were brought into this world, the process of giving birth, yeah, it was through a series of contractions and expansions even arrive everything pulses.
2:17 Jon
Everything pulses, there's this energy flow.
2:20 Ted
Right. So even like in concepts like in physics, you know, the torus, or toroidal structures like that energy flow process, natural disasters, and other regularly occurring phenomenon, hurricanes, tornadoes, there's a magnetism around planets, entire galaxies themselves are all toroidal energy systems where there's this pulse, like you mentioned, there's a realization, there's a rhythm to everything. So that was kind of my first bit of this is seen as from a coaching standpoint, and then observing it in other places, like we mentioned. So, if you extend this observation, or you start thinking relationally, or in PPT, but we'd call it using the concept of fractals, then we can observe the consistent presence of this flow form, even in the subatomic realm. Okay, so you really start to see it everywhere. So, we can surmise, then, that atomic structures and systems are also made of the same dynamic form, waves, muscles contract and expand everything that we can view has this pulsation or this rhythm to it?
3:24 Jon
Yeah, entire galaxies, undoubtedly.
3:27 Ted
So, everything that surrounds us and everything that we're made up from. (Yeah) So, when I had that epiphany, that was kind of a big deal. Because it would seem that we're surrounded by this natural phenomenon where it doesn't exist outside of us. It exists from the moment of conception, through our birth, and then every single moment of our life through our breathing in our heartbeat, that if we can observe this in other ways, that this would be something important that we would, we would want to be able to figure out that we're not just at the whim of this. And what I mean by that is, I begin to observe,
4:07 Jon
Well, let me pause for a second because we are less in control of certain things like our heartbeat. And we can, however, take a deep breath. Yeah, you know, we can control our breathing, and then we find out that in controlling our breathing, we begin to take control of the other systems. Okay, good. So, is this what we're talking about?
4:28 Ted
Well, I like that, because that's kind of what we're going to be getting into, okay, is if we can recognize this thing. Can we take control of this? Yeah. So, where I initially started to form some of these ideas, is I would see this happen. In the gym, to the athletes, I was coaching all the time, they would have some big breakthrough, maybe something that was part of their stated mission, their goal, their ultimate outcome. And this was, you know, it was it was a powerlifter maybe they finally got their elite total and then they just vanish. If it's one of my fighters, wow, that's
5:03 Jon
big. That's a big contraction. I was maybe like, wow, you just hit that, you know, you got a PR for a set or whatever. And then you then you didn't for a while, but you're talking about somebody achieving an elite total, and then just not showing up very well.
5:18 Ted
Or what you're saying, yeah, there's equal relevance, right. That's the fractal. When I would be training fighters, you know, they come off a big win. Yeah. And then instantly go back into a place where they're not applying themselves. Wow, we see this in body comp. Right. And in fact, one of the one of the things, one of the predominant things you see in the rest of the industry around body comp or the concept of weight loss as people lose a bunch of weight, yeah. All back. So that's expansion, followed by the contraction. So, it's not just contraction expansion, it's contraction, expansion back into contraction back into expansion. Hopefully, hopefully, that's, that's the pulsation. Yeah, that's, that's kind of the rhythm on how everything works. So, what really drove this home for me, though, because at this point, so I'm recognizing this from a coaching standpoint as something that we need to be aware of, okay. But I didn't really have all the tools yet, I was already able to recognize this across different platforms, like we mentioned in the beginning, where it's natural phenomena in nature that it seems to mirror our behavior, not just our physiology.
6:31 Jon
Yeah. But our behavior, also, the actions we seem to take, that we seem, they seem to choose that we...
6:36 Ted
it's, so that might be the illusion of having some consciousness behind it. Where what is the real driver? That was the question I asked. So, there's one athlete in particular, we were training for a world championship. And we had a series of starts and stops because this person was new to Diablo and culture, that can be a little bit of a shift. Yeah. Where if I'm training someone for this high-level event,
7:01 Jon
you have to be all in and competing at that level, this person is no stranger to being all in.
7:05 Ted
One would think. Okay, so there's, so there's standards and expectations that might be different in one environment to the next. Yeah. And that was part of the challenge. Because for this person coming in, it wasn't, you're just going to show up on these days and do whatever it's, this is how we're doing it. And so, there was a number of paradigm shifts, and I began to notice for this particular individual, that as we made a breakthrough, what would seemingly almost immediately happen is some kind of a contraction. Okay, we would be on track for the first time nailing all the elements and training and nutrition on the psychology side and have some kind of a demonstratable breakthrough. And then instantly, something like out of nowhere. I'm going to be going on a trip for the next five days. I just wanted to tell you, for the next five days, like well, where you go Hold on champion, like, no, no, that's that's not going to happen. Yeah, that's not what the World Championship by Diamond. So we can have this huge breakthrough. But it was it was such an obvious thing at each and every one. Yeah. And so, what really brought this to my attention was the speed in which this would happen for this person. It was immediately after the big breakthrough, there would be this commensurate regression. And that's something that there's actually whole statistical models based on something we call regression toward the mean. Sure, yeah. So again, this this, this concept of contraction expansion, it's everywhere, it surrounds everything that we do.
8:39 Jon
Yeah, regression to the mean, is a concept that is most readily recognizable in baseball seasons. Because in baseball, you have 162 games in a season. So, if a team goes on a tear, and they have a 10, game winning streak, at some point, everybody just waits around, because you can't sustain that, right? It's the assumption is, yeah, it's a 10-game winning streak, they'll regress to the mean. And then they'll lose eight games after the 10-game winning streak.
9:07 Ted
So why can't you sustain it? Well, that was that was my aha. So, this, because we instantly fall into this concept or this construct? Yes. Of it's not sustainable. Right. My question is why so here's, here's, here's the deal on this. If we're regressing toward the mean.
9:28 Jon
Yeah. And I know your question is why, but then the next question is how?
9:32 Ted
Well let's, let's see if let's see if we can carve this thing out. Okay. So, the how and the why of it. Yeah. And this is one of those parallels to one of the technologies that comes out of Diablo and that's the emotional sobriety movement. And that curriculum is all about getting into the how and the why of you of yourself beliefs. Yes. So, we talk frequently on this show, about how the brain and the body work. The overwhelming majority of our waking moments are spent tied to the programming that we received in the first part of life. Right? That it's estimated that 95%. And again, I think that's a conservative estimate of our waking moments as adults, every new bit of information, or every situation we encounter is filtered through our brain, which is a machine of association. And it looks for what does this mean in comparison to what I already know? Yeah. So we have an identity. And as information comes in, we compare it to that identity. So we can decide what's true and what's not
10:36 Jon
True. That sounds so silly when you put it like that?
10:39 Ted
Well, this is kind of at the heart of this whole deal. And so, what I would observe is when someone begins to display qualities, yeah, that are no longer commensurate with their initial self-beliefs, or their initial set of limitations. You can only go so far past those self-beliefs before at some point, that line that imaginary tether Yeah, that hooks them to that original thought, is going to snap the Matthew back. It's yanks them back. You win 10 games in a row; you lose eight out the next 10. Yeah, right. And eventually, your winning percentage is like 600. Yeah, right. Three out of five, if you're great. But if you can win 10 games in a row, or if you can win any game, right.
11:24 Jon
When why couldn't you win? 162 of them?
11:27 Ted
Yeah. And that's not been done in that sport yet. Right. But it would be a potential. And, you know, so there's, there's a potential every year we have.
11:37 Jon
Well, if you're a Cubs fan,
11:40 Ted
Right, and so, they had about anything. This this in different sports, it would seem that that potential exists in a slightly different place. So, there have been teams in the NFL, that have gone undefeated.
11:55 Jon
Yeah. You know, we almost saw those there been 72? Dolphins? Yeah. Has there been? Has there been one since there? Was that run? The Patriots went on? I don't think they made it and make it.
Ted O’Neill
12:03
I thought I thought one of the more recent teams there, but it has happened before? Yeah. In basketball. You know, being in the Bay Area. We saw the Warriors go 73. Nine, a couple years ago. And so that's, that's pretty darn close. Right? Remarkable. But um, yeah, in baseball, you're not seeing that. Because the more you play, the more you have to stretch past this belief. Yes, especially in a sport that is so dominated by statistics. So, they're operating within a framework of belief. Yep. So, you know, for a team, you can see there's a collective framework that dictates how we approach things and how we think about things. As an individual, that framework is part of it. But where we sit in that framework has to do specifically with our self-beliefs. So, as we begin to pull ourselves up by the proverbial bootstraps, and we begin to expand our horizons farther and farther away from those initial things. If we're not aware of how to use this discipline, then we are going to get snapped back. And sometimes we don't just get snapped back toward the beginning. We get snapped back to a place that is prior to where we started. Yeah. And I believe the so your example was you win 10 games in a row, then you lose eight out of your next 10. Yeah. And then you factor those two numbers together. And that's kind of your average, right? But if you've lost eight out of 10, that's worse than your average. Yes. So, to get back to average, you actually do worse for a little bit. Yeah. And I think what happens there is by going so far back, the little steps that you then take to get back to the mean, or to your individual average, gives you the illusion of progress. I'm going forward again. No, you're not. Yeah, you're just getting back to where you started. Yes, regressing to the mean. Yeah, you regress to the mean by doing worse than you normally do after doing way better. And then you take these little steps just to get right back to the starting point to replay this cycle over and over again. So, this week, we're going to go a little deeper into this. And we're going to finish this over the next couple of days by giving you some action steps on how you can prevent that from happening to where you can then become a master of this discipline, a master of this natural phenomena contraction and expansion
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