We are delighted to welcome Renzie Hanham to the Exercise as Medicine® team. Renzie’s primary role will be to use his experience working as a mental skills coach with high-performance athletes to help members of the NeuroGym® navigate the mental and emotional challenges presented by long-term health conditions.
Renzie is an 8th-degree black belt in Seido Karate, one of two senior instructors in the world. He has also been inducted into the World Martial Arts Hall of Fame.
Renzie is co-developer with Dr Ceri Evans of the Red2Blue mindset model, which is a practical framework that helps individuals and organisations manage pressure and perform effectively in high-stakes situations. Red is the reactive, emotional state where pressure leads to anxiety, distraction, doubt and decreased performance. Blue is the optimal, high-performance state of clarity, focus and control. The Red2Blue framework teaches the skills to deliberately recognise and transition from red to blue.
Renzie’s clients include the All Blacks, the Crusaders and the Silver Ferns. In 2016 conducted workshops in Brunei for the Royal Gurkha Rifle Regiment. He has consulted for Lincoln University’s Sports Scholarship programme and is trained in the Kübler-Ross Change Curve®. Renzie was awarded the Queen’s Service Medal in 2012.
He is also an annoyingly talented, award-winning graphic designer and musician, but he’s reassuringly useless at DIY 😊
What’s all this got to do with long-term health conditions?
Before the All Blacks’ victories in the 2011 and 2015 World Cups, they faced criticism in the media and from fans that, despite being the best team in the world, they “choked” under pressure. When the chips were down, they defaulted to Red. Once they learned how to stay process-focused and not jump to outcomes, they began to focus on what they could control, make good decisions and thrive under pressure.
Where our attention goes, our energy flows. Understanding where we are placing our attention helps to keep us on track. When we do have divisive thoughts, we accept them. It doesn’t mean we like them, but we don’t get trapped in them, and that allows us to change state. The Red2Blue model enables us to shift our attention, take control and move from a state of [mental] paralysis to clarity.
“A key learning for us all is that as humans, is that we share similar themes that create community and connect us. It’s been a delight to see this in action with this group,” says Renzie, “I’ve been involved with household names performing at the highest levels of international sport, but I can honestly say that what I’ve experienced at the NeuroGym® is an inspiration (I do not say that lightly).”
For more on Red2Blue, watch Renzie’s interview with James Laughlin