Sheila Thelen Of Vestibular Training Services On The Workout Routines Of Professional Athletes
An Interview With Maria Angelova
The vestibular system is part of the nervous system and provides special awareness (proprioception) and self-motion (kinesthesia). Vestibular Training Services provides training products to develop and improve vestibular awareness in athletes and others. We offer a rotating platform and harness system that allows a subject to learn spatial awareness and train proprioception in a safe noninvasive way.
As a part of our series about “How Athletes Optimize Their Mind & Body For Peak Performance”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sheila Thelen, President at Vestibular Training Services — based in Shafer, Minnesota, USA.
Sheila Thelen, President of Vestibular Training Services and Master Rated Figure Skating Coach, applied these world class vestibular training tools (US PATENTED) INNOVATION on how spinning affects the vestibular system and can improve the brain’s ability to balance the cognitive processes. How these sports innovation can help the entire general public.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! It is a great honor. Our readers would love to learn more about your personal background. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I grew up in the Apple Valley, Minnesota a suburb of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. I am an only child. My mom worked to pay for my (expensive) skating. I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s and was allowed to run free throughout the neighborhood. I rode my bike everywhere. I genuinely enjoyed and excelled at figure skating, thus spent a ton of time in ice arenas in my area. In the summer, it wasn’t uncommon for me to get dropped off in the morning at the ice rink and not get picked up until the evening. I learned to drive and navigate — based on going to various ice arena locations in the Minneapolis area and there are a lot of them. I really loved skating. It wasn’t until later, and I had my own kids, that I realized how much everyone in my family helped with me getting to the rink and having the opportunity to really train as an athlete.
I moved in to coaching after high school and continued to coach throughout college. I went to college at Hamline University, “Go Pipers”, and did some Masters work for the Israeli Antiquities Authority/human bone research. I was kind of like Indiana Jones without the running, jumping, and getting beat up.
What or who inspired you to pursue your career as a high-level professional athlete? We’d love to hear the story.
I would not be considered a great athlete nor a professional athlete. I had to pay to skate, not the other way around. I suppose I was inspired by the skaters of late 70’s and early 80’s, Dorothy Hamill & Michelle Kwan and such, they were great skaters. Coaching was where I really excelled in the sport of figure skating. I became a better coach by taking the work ethic that I learned when skating and applying that ethic to coaching. When skating, I understood that listening to a coach and being teachable was the best way to excel at a sport. When it came to coaching, I was great at figuring out “the problem” with a skater and applying the proper tools to FIX IT. I worked with lots of developing athletes while in the coaching trenches that created partnerships with some national and international and Olympic coaches. When working in a team environment, you can create world-class athletes — you really learn from other coaches to develop both personally and professionally.
None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Was there a particular person who you feel gave you the most help or encouragement to be who you are today? Can you share a story about that?
It is hard to pick out any one person, many national and international coaches have influenced me throughout my coaching career. I’ve worked with so many AMAZING COACHES and athletes, some of whom have medaled at World and Olympic competitions. I’ve tried to learn from many coaches how to decipher a problem and different methods to fix the problem. The same problem can vary among skaters and require a variety oof methods to fix the problem. So many have helped me develop my coaching techniques and training tools. Thousands of coaches and trainers worldwide.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting mistake that occurred to you in the course of your sports career? What lesson or takeaway did you learn from that?
So funny. I was probably 10 years old and received the most beautiful new baby blue colored skating dress. It was sooooo pretty. It has my first chiffon (floaty fabric) skirt. It looked amazing. So, I competed with this beautiful dress, looking at the floating skirt (my butt) the entire time. I just skated my entire program — looking at my butt/skirt. Obviously, I didn’t care about my last place finish. That dress was worth it.
What advice would you give to a young person who aspires to follow in your footsteps and emulate your career?
Develop a good work ethic, hard work can get you farther than just talent. Hard work can get you farther than desire. Getting up at 4:30 in the morning to train is not fun, getting up at 4:30 in the morning to teach kids who would rather be in bed is less fun. It is up to the coach to develop the relationship to get the most of the kids at 4:30 in the morning. Developing from an athlete to a coach, I realized that skating helped me establish the discipline to get things done. The athletes I have coached have become VERY successful in both sports AND life. Using the discipline, I learned in skating really helped outside of skating. I understand why people are okay with the status quo. There is so much more you can do if you just apply yourself, show some discipline and try. You may not succeed, but you can learn from your mistakes and make some positive out of a negative. I’ve gotten fired from and left a number of jobs, but I’ve tried to move forward, make better decisions, and learn from the past. The easiest way and instant gratification feel great in the moment, but planning and waiting for a delayed reward is almost always better in the long run. Patience, commitment to a goal, and a good work ethic will get you farther in life than settling for the immediate reward.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
In three words — Vestibular Training Services. Vestibular — this is all I want to talk about, do, think. (My family is annoyed with me — sick of me talking about vestibular.) We started Champion Skating Harness based over 28 years of experience in figure skating spinning & safety harness systems. Worldwide sales and service and seminars. Young children through many Olympic and World Class athletes worldwide. In 2020 (a terrible/pandemic year) we expanded our spinning harness company from figure skating into the general public.
The vestibular system is the system Training vestibular (how your inner ears system — processes the information from your eyes & ears) became my TOTAL OBSESSION.
The vestibular system is one of the body’s basic sensory systems, training the system can be applied to a variety of topics. These topics include:
• Improving Cognitive abilities/speed
• Improving Situational Awareness
• Improving Spatial Awareness
• Improving better Balance (even through the aging process)
• Reducing Vertigo
• Post Traumatic Brain Injury training and rehabilitation.
The vestibular system is part of the nervous system and provides special awareness (proprioception) and self-motion (kinesthesia). Vestibular Training Services provides training products to develop and improve vestibular awareness in athletes and others. We offer a rotating platform and harness system that allows a subject to learn spatial awareness and train proprioception in a safe noninvasive way.
Vestibular Training Services training techniques and methods emphasis: rotation, axis, balance, proprioception and crossing the midline. Our spinning equipment and processes have helped with vertigo, traumatic brain injuries, concussions, aging balance issues and sports performance.
Rotating along a person’s longitudinal vertical axis has been shown to increase balance and cognitive abilities. Rotational studies have included athletes that rotate while maintaining through various positions on different equipment and maintaining their proprioception. The VTS methods stimulate both sides of brain with a vertical midline cross while rotating the participant. The general public’s assumption is that rotating would only make these issues worse; however, VTS has found the opposite has been found to be true. Slow rotation can help a person become habituated to moving their head rather than keeping the head still, which exacerbates vertigo or dizziness. VTS can help improve: BALANCE & cognitive & non spatial disorientation & sleep. This is how you train ALL ATHLETES (and the general public). We can train “the dizzy” out of you.
Really, check our website — so you can SEE what we are talking about. This is a very visual product (not as exciting to read about). Super exciting to see them really spin/vestibular train on videos! SpinYourBrain.com
Do you use any special techniques with your vestibular training techniques?
Yes, the VTS methods include special techniques depending on who we are working with and what we are trying to accomplish. Slow rotations really help people with balance issues. We generally increase rotational speed to more athletic the person. Figure skaters, Professional Rugby & Professional Motocross have improved their performance by improving their vestibular system. The methods of rotating and crossing the vertical axis midline go a long way to improve balance, spatial awareness, and decision making. These improvements can be applied to other sports. At VTS we believe that we can improve the top 5% athlete can improve to become a top 3% athlete. This may be a small amount, but in the competition for a spot on a team or increasing your individual scores this can make a difference to the athlete’s success. Many people have said they can think more clearly after spinning.
How about your body? Can you share a few strategies that you use to optimize your body for peak performance?
SLEEP. YES SLEEP. This will help with everything. Especially: emotional regulation and focus. People who use the VTS equipment have reported that one of the benefits is their sleep has improved quantity and quality of sleep. Most people sleep between 7 and 9 hours a night. Sleep is important in allowing the brain to clean itself. Without an appropriate amount of sleep, people tend to get cranky, make poor decisions, and can have health problems. Sleep is super important and the right amount for you is even more important. Sleeping through the night is also important. Waking up every two hours or so doesn’t allow for deep sleep and can affect your health. Again we have heard that people using the VTS equipment experience better sleep.
These ideas are excellent, but for most of us in order for them to become integrated into our lives and really put them to use, we have to turn them into habits and make them become ‘second nature’. Has this been true in your life? How have habits played a role in your success? Repeating a movement or task is important to building muscle memory. Building that muscle memory is very important to becoming the best that you can be. The way to create athletic habits and muscle memory is called practice. The more time you can spend (with proper) practicing the better. Coaching is all about correcting what an athlete is doing to get the most out of them, but it takes practice for the correction to become second nature. We talk to athletes about the time when you did the perfect dive, hit the perfect ball, threw the prefect pass, did the perfect trick while skiing. You get a shot of dopamine during that “perfect” moment, sometimes called ”Flow” and you get the feeling of success, accomplishment, and happiness all together. The athletes try to repeat that movement until it becomes a habit. That’s what practice is all about. We see this happen all the time when athletes are using the spinner, they improve their balance and proprioception and want to do it again. We ask them “if they can feel their brain” and the usual answer is “yes”. Back to building a positive habit, training the vestibular system regularly helps balance, their proprioception, and with personal general wellbeing.
With VTS we start an athlete with slow rotations. Eventually, we increase the speed of rotation and, for figure skaters, increase the rotational speed to the max. That’s how we can get a skater to rotate 4 or 5 times a second. NASA was super interested in this as a way to keep astronauts healthy when they are in space for an extended period of time. We have discussed methods and talked to NASA about designs for a spinner on the space station. The goal is to keep the vestibular system active and force fluid movement within the ear so the astronaut can actually survive/move — when they come back to earth from space or land on Mars and have to then reorientation to gravity. The vestibular system is key to this success.
As a high-performance athlete, you likely experience times when things are in a state of Flow. Flow has been described as a pleasurable mental state that occurs when you do something that you are skilled at, that is challenging, that is meaningful, and comes with ease because you have practiced so much. Can you share some ideas from your experience about how we can achieve a mental state of Flow more often in our lives? I do have an idea; it is called VESTIBULAR TRAINING. This is what we are talking about. With our spinning training system, the brain and body connect. It just take 5 minutes. 2–3 times a week. Vestibular training focuses on active training of your vestibular system by means of stimulating both hemispheres of the brain utilizing warfighters appendages crossing the vertical axis midline of the body to increase balance, proprioception (tracking body awareness) and increase their spatial awareness. Variable speed rotation has been shown to increase proprioception of your body to the surroundings with minimal difficulty in a variety of locations and facilities. The VTS apparatus and techniques are non-invasive. VTS equipment and training can increase reaction time and decision-making abilities. Even slow rotation can improve balance and cognitive abilities. Athletes have also benefited from the proprioception training and increased cognitive abilities. Understanding your position in relation to your surroundings and other members of a team can in on-field situations when you need to know where you and your teammates are.
Ok, we are nearly done. You are by all accounts a very successful person. How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
VTS’s goal is simply to “change the world.” Since the vestibular system is a basic sensory system VTS the Vestibular Training Method and equipment to everyone can be applied to improve people’s by providing a means with which improvements can range from improving a person balance to decision making to general well being. I have experience working with multidisciplinary teams on instruction, preventative system training, pre-rehabilitation, rehabilitation and spatial awareness for NASA, NFL Alumni, NHL Alumni, Professional and Amateur Athletes. VTS is participating in holistic health and fitness instructing because of our unique training programs and ability to prepare active-duty personnel for performance at an elite level of astronauts, as well as collegiate and professional athletes.
We are currently supporting NASA training, NFL Alumni rehabilitation, Olympic athletes’ training, Concussion, TBI, mTBI, Blast Concussion rehabilitation, Autism therapy, Strength and Conditioning, Mental Skills, Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we both tag them :-)
*Elon Musk because you are not going to Mars without the help of Vestibular Training.
*US Congress: Vestibular Training Services is here for the USA Military & Aviation training.
*Shaquille O’Neal — WE ARE HUGE FANS! You would love this gear.
*Tom Brady & Rob Gronkowski — HUGE FANS! Post concussion training.
*President Biden — Helping with aging & balance.
*King & Queen of England — Helping with aging & balance.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent on this. We wish you only continued success.
About The Interviewer: Maria Angelova, MBA is a disruptor, author, motivational speaker, body-mind expert, Pilates teacher and founder and CEO of Rebellious Intl. As a disruptor, Maria is on a mission to change the face of the wellness industry by shifting the self-care mindset for consumers and providers alike. As a mind-body coach, Maria’s superpower is alignment which helps clients create a strong body and a calm mind so they can live a life of freedom, happiness and fulfillment. Prior to founding Rebellious Intl, Maria was a Finance Director and a professional with 17+ years of progressive corporate experience in the Telecommunications, Finance, and Insurance industries. Born in Bulgaria, Maria moved to the United States in 1992. She graduated summa cum laude from both Georgia State University (MBA, Finance) and the University of Georgia (BBA, Finance). Maria’s favorite job is being a mom. Maria enjoys learning, coaching, creating authentic connections, working out, Latin dancing, traveling, and spending time with her tribe. To contact Maria, email her at angelova@rebellious-intl.com. To schedule a free consultation, click here.
