The Snowboarder's Journal - The Snowboarder's Journal 20.4
FINDING FLOW With Dr. Chris Bertram
Words: Liam Gallagher. Photos and Design: Ari Marcopoulos 2023-01-24 08:19:58
Lucas Foster in the pipe at the Stomping Grounds Projects session in October, a gathering built to foster both progression and flow, in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.
You know that scene in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back where Luke Skywalker makes his X-Wing fighter hover with the wave of his hand? Yoda is just getting going with Luke and his process of learning to use the “Force,” and Luke wills a massive piece of machinery up and out of some sort of swamp and gets the thing to hover there in front of him. It is the ultimate display of mind over matter. A fantasy we’ve all certainly entertained. Telekinesis is the clinical term. Or psychokinesis, in which objects are moved without applying physical force. It’s long been used in media entertainment but hasn’t been scientifically achieved. As far as we know.
Thing is, there’s this guy I know, and he knows how to make things hover with just his brain. A lot like how Luke lifted that X-wing. For real. In fact, he works for the Canadian National Snowboard Team and he’s teaching them how to perform magic with their minds too.
Meet Chris Bertram: flow coach.
Have you heard of the idea of flow, or the flow state? Or maybe you’ve felt it. Flow can be both a feeling and a knowing. It’s a state of being. And one that can be great for pushing one’s physical, mental, maybe even spiritual limits. With the right set of maps, you can find flow. That’s where Chris comes in. He’s there to guide people toward that state. He’s got the maps. He’s like Yoda guiding Luke. So, does the team call him Yoda?
“No,” he laughs. “But, I’ll say, out of the various jobs and titles that I have, the job title of ‘flow coach’ with Canada’s national snowboard team is by far my favorite.”
Chris is, formally, Dr. Bertram. He’s an associate professor at the University of the Fraser Valley and director of applied neuroscience at EXOS, a performance institute that helps people be the best possible versions of themselves. He’s been working in the field of skills acquisition for 25 years as a professor and researcher.
“I’m studying how we get better, faster,” Bertram says. “And then ultimately what I’m interested in is: How do we set up the conditions for learning and progression in such a way that those skills will show up under pressure?” Only more recently in his career did he get the gig with the Canadian national team. He’s been working with some of Canada’s best and brightest snowboarders for about four years now. Bertram will tell you that this new job is by far his best chance yet to test everything he’s studied throughout his career.
“There is nothing more rewarding and nothing more interesting to me than trying to implement ideas in the most high-consequence environments that you could possibly imagine,” Bertram says. “Out of all the things I do, my job with these crazy talented riders is my favorite by far.”
Simply put, Bertram’s job is to help these snowboarders find flow. And the thing with flow is that, when you’re in flow, certain parts of your brain are sending off an identifiable electrical signal.
“You can measure the electrical activity that’s coming off the brain in pulses per second,” Bertram says. “We put an electrode on and see these pulses and depending on what the brain is doing, there’s very stereotypical patterns. If we’re having a conversation and we’re paying attention to each other, there’s a good chance the brain is giving off what are called beta waves, which is about 10 to 30 pulses per second. And what we know about the brain when it’s in its highest performance state—when it’s in what we call the flow state—it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of about eight to 10 pulses per second.”
So, then, say those instruments that are reading your brain are also communicating with a drone. Once you settle into eight to 10 pulses per second, the drone takes flight. Tap into flow and the proverbial X-Wing will fly. That’s what Bertram has done. It works. Shades of Yoda for sure. But there’s more sage advice from Bertram.
“The flow part is sexy, right?” Bertram ask. “It’s like, ‘Oh, you get to fly a drone with your mind’ and that’s cool and all, but there’s some skills that are underneath that we’re trying to work on too. Such as becoming more self-aware. We train self-awareness, we train how to regulate your nervous system through things like different breath work patterns. You can do these things anytime, anywhere. And the more reps you get with it, the more likely it is you’re gonna be able to dial in those skills when you get onto snow.”
One other practice that Bertram uses while coaching flow is the simple act of getting would-be flow-staters to visualize a time and place when they felt most in tune with their bodies, their performance and their mind. Picture a perfect run on a perfect day of snowboarding. Bertram pushes them to dive deeply into that memory.
“See it, smell it, taste it, feel the sense you had in your body and the butterflies in your stomach or whatever it was,” Bertram says. “I’ll tell them, ‘Close your eyes and try to embody that memory.’ And what happens is as they get deeper into it, the brain-wave patterns shift toward that range we know is associated with flow.”
Basically, it’s an attempt to conjure flow by remembering the feeling of flow. And it works.
Mikey Ciccarelli can attest. Ciccarelli was Luke to Bertram’s Yoda. He took to Bertram’s teachings quickly and found a lot of value in everything he was learning about flow. Now he sounds like a true believer when asked about the benefits. He backs what Bertram’s doing. It worked for him on the contest circuit and now he’s taking what he’s learned/learning to the backcountry.
“Over the last few years, I left the national team and transitioned into filming in the backcountry, and I really think that finding the flow state and learning how to use these flow triggers is even more important in the backcountry,” Ciccarelli says. “When you’re hitting a jump out there, you’re probably only going to have three or four goes at it, so it’s crucial to be riding at your best.”
Ciccarelli says another one of the techniques he uses, which he learned from Bertram, is as easy as looking up and all around and really taking in his surroundings—opening his awareness. For Ciccarelli this little life hack always seems to prime his system for finding that flow state.
“Just looking around and thinking, ‘Wow, look how amazing this place is,’ it really helps calm me down, it slows my breathing,” Ciccarelli says. “I won’t always go right into flow from there, but it definitely helps me get there faster.”
Bertram remembers a certain moment coaching Mikey. The team was just getting going on a jump session. The setup was fresh. Mikey came in way too hot, got bucked and somehow threw a cab nine double cork, stomped cleanly and rode away.
“I was like, ‘Mikey, what was that like?’” Bertram says. “Then Mikey says, ‘I knew I was going too fast. There was nothing I could do, but as soon as I got airborne, I just knew the only way out was the cab nine double.”
Betram was awestruck and psyched because, as he’ll tell you, this was a prime example of how finding flow can essentially serve as an injury-prevention strategy too. A certain level of risk is, in fact, a trigger for flow.
“That’s one of those moments we prime people for,” Bertram says. “We try to get the brain and the body ready. That’s another upside to this flow training—helping people stay safe and helping them be able to navigate out of tricky spots.”
Chris Witwicki is head coach of the Canada national team and has worked closely alongside Bertram for the last four years. Witwicki is a lifelong snowboarder and surfer and he knows flow. He knows it’s the place to be if you want to see just how far you can push yourself. As head coach he’s in charge of putting riders in a place where they can successfully push past their limits. He didn’t think twice about bringing Bertram on.
“We’re super stoked to have Bertram as part of our program,” Witwicki says. “He’s elevated our program to a whole new level.”
Bertram’s curiosity and calm demeanor really stand out to Witwicki. As he explains it, often Bertram is simply observing and only subtly offering advice to the snowboarders. Calm begets calm, so that’s what Bertram models. Of course, Betram’s on the job as well, this is what they pay him to do, so he’s also on a stage, expected to perform. Flow coach is trying to find flow too.
So do you think you could get the drone to fly?
Odds are Bertram would say you could. He’d surely want to show you how. The brain can do more than it thinks. Bertram seems to be on a mission to teach everyone just that. He’s generous with his knowledge. This research, coaching, his lifelong dedication to the field, it’s all a calling for him. And there’s this story he shares, about one time when he felt a profound sense of flow. He was in Hawaii on the North Shore of Oahu. He was in over his head, for sure. He grew up landlocked in Calgary, AB. So yeah, he was underqualified as a surfer out there in Oahu. But he was out there all the same. He took one on head, got pushed really deep, thought for an instant that he might die, but then, somehow, found a place of remarkable calm.
“I remember just being down there and being completely present and everything slowed down and I was really calm in that moment,” Bertram says. “I thought, ‘That’s really strange to be so present in a moment of such chaos.’ Looking back, that was probably the most profound early flow experience I had. And now, to know that there’s an actual reason we can point to and there’s science that explains what was going on inside my head, that’s really cool. We’re in a renaissance of high performance right now and I’m glad to be a part of it.”
There’s a lot to learn from flow. Betram sees a lot of potential in the field and he’s never been more excited about his work. For Bertram, flow is something any and all of us can benefit from and it need not be a practice reserved for elite athletes. For the flow curious, Bertram recommends a few books. Read The Rise of Superman by Steven Kotler, which details the exponential increase in athleticism among action sports athletes and how flow contributes to these meteoric advances. Also read Beyond Boredom and Anxiety and Finding Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who is credited with coining the term “flow.” And as for a daily practice to take away, Bertram says it can be as simple as pushing yourself every day.
“Wherever it is in your life that you feel like you’re bumping up against yourself, that’s a place to lean in and to push yourself a little bit out of your comfort zone,” says Bertram. “That’s where all the magic happens. That’s where we learn the fastest, when we are challenged. It’s where growth and development happens. That’s the lesson: If you want to get more out of life, you’re going to have to push yourself a little bit harder.”
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