mind training?

[undeadcheese]

In a class I recently took at school I Recently saw a video on how the brain interacts with the muscles. To summarize Stanford Psychology Proffessor Phillip Zimbardo found that when you are immagining practicing an activity, the muscles fire in the same sequence as when you are physically practicing te same activity, due to the brains innability to distinguish real stimmulus from immaginary. What are your thoughts on this ? And how would you apply it to your art?

 

[Shaderon]

I know i'm not a Karate person but I do know this works. I am a student of metaphysics and have looked at various experiments, and have carried out my own using this. You do have to imagine yourself in the situation though, and not just see yourself from the outside doing it.

Personally how I apply it, I sit at work and in quiet moments I shut my eyes and go over techniques we've done in class, I imagine myself doing them,.I'd go as far as saying it's a meditation of sorts (There's lot of different types). Sometimes in bed if I can't get to sleep, I will do my patterns in my head, it's helped me remember them and it's also helped my stances and arm positions.

Sometimes in class, when we do something new, I will stand and watch someone else doing it first, I will do it quickly in my head and then have a go... e.g. jumping kicks, it looks like I'm psyching myself up, but I'm actually doing a virtual jump in my head, after that, it feels less awkward.

 

[Yeti]

While I definitely agree that mental imagery goes a long way (and use it as a tool myself), there is an inherent danger as well. There is a HUGE difference between holding and image in your mind that you are doing something and the body actually doing it. Balance, coordination, timing, distance and "feel" are the physical components that build muscle memory to supplement mental imagery. The mind and body must work together.

Not that you implied this, but to think that just because you've gone through a technique 100 times in your head, that you know it cold, is a bad mistake. I for one have been guilty of this from time. For example, if a new technique is made up of a handfull of techniques that I already know, I'll tell myself it's easy...it's just X+Y+Z. BUT...when I go to do that new technique, it's almost never as easy as I think...sometimes painfully opposite! Mental imagery is a part to the whole.

Good post!