Been thinking about that.....and I think she's got a key element of the puzzle. I'ver always been poor at double tasking. The traditional view is that women are better than men because they have to deal with children and many other things at the same times whereas us males just had to stick a spear in a mammoth.
And there is concern that one may loose quality with increased quantity.
But the point is that this is a sort of applied mindfulness........nicely simplified.
As one focuses on a solitary task so one has less cognitive action whirling around in the brain.
And it's a good simple, action-based skill to learn for all kinds of practice. And for moments on the trail when the attention may wander.
An advanced version of this may be needed for when the s*** hits the fan and a simple action suddenly becomes complex.......your line goes wrong or you loose control. here you may have to do a lot of things suddenly, together. Hopefully by then you are in emergency mode and working hyper efficiently.
Second:
Mental Rehearsal.
Typically, one was supposed to start this skill/process by shutting the eyes and "playing your movie back". One could use slo mo or other speeds and viewpoints......either from in to out (the impression of the move from your own impression) or the birds eye view of a spectator. Surprisingly different.
Then one could add other cues and sensations.........like you suggest with "feeling".....in this case sensory sensations.
There is a lot of literature available on all this and it is well used technique.
My experience is that it works best for simple actions.
When the movements become more complex it becomes trickier to find the chain of events that will flow the separate actions together into a well coordinated and synchronized action.
It may help to immense oneself in a video (visual) as you practice the mental rehearsal.........something to forge a link between the mental and the physical.
You will have picked up that I have some reservations about how we work with our brains. I'm not against it totally, and I can see that there can be some useful outcomes, but I'm uneasy about our success at accurately understanding the brain. In spite of digital processing and modern scanning.
When we base an action on our "construct" of how the brain works, we may be forcing that square peg into the round hole?
What works best for me, perhaps because of my bias, may be to focus on your initial excellent video analysis work which gives me a clear objective and maybe some muscle memory and then work on a constructed piece of equipment (small jump).
You still need some analysis, to define what you want and to analyze your success but it seems to be a more integrated, organic process. I fancy it may also work better if/when you get into an emergency and have to react quickly.
In this mode, your idea of individualized video critique and feedback would be a natural progression.
Your research and experimentation will be an interesting journey.
I think it depends on what you mean by “simple actions.” The book I’m following (Sports Psyching) has an example (golf swing) with 5 long paragraphs. And thus far, my narrative description of the bunny hop is pretty long. And yes, I merge the narrative with a video while practicing Mental Rehearsal.
Regarding the brain:
I think previous constructs about how the brain works and learns (“it’s like a computer!” “you can make it stronger like a muscle!”) are giving way to advances in science that go far beyond “digital processing and modern scanning.” That’s part of what I intend to show with MTB Practice Lab. I’ll deliver it piecemeal as I learn it and try to apply it so you’ll need to be patient while remaining skeptical!
I'm afraid you got me going:
First..........Renee's comment on double tasking.
Been thinking about that.....and I think she's got a key element of the puzzle. I'ver always been poor at double tasking. The traditional view is that women are better than men because they have to deal with children and many other things at the same times whereas us males just had to stick a spear in a mammoth.
And there is concern that one may loose quality with increased quantity.
But the point is that this is a sort of applied mindfulness........nicely simplified.
As one focuses on a solitary task so one has less cognitive action whirling around in the brain.
And it's a good simple, action-based skill to learn for all kinds of practice. And for moments on the trail when the attention may wander.
An advanced version of this may be needed for when the s*** hits the fan and a simple action suddenly becomes complex.......your line goes wrong or you loose control. here you may have to do a lot of things suddenly, together. Hopefully by then you are in emergency mode and working hyper efficiently.
Second:
Mental Rehearsal.
Typically, one was supposed to start this skill/process by shutting the eyes and "playing your movie back". One could use slo mo or other speeds and viewpoints......either from in to out (the impression of the move from your own impression) or the birds eye view of a spectator. Surprisingly different.
Then one could add other cues and sensations.........like you suggest with "feeling".....in this case sensory sensations.
There is a lot of literature available on all this and it is well used technique.
My experience is that it works best for simple actions.
When the movements become more complex it becomes trickier to find the chain of events that will flow the separate actions together into a well coordinated and synchronized action.
It may help to immense oneself in a video (visual) as you practice the mental rehearsal.........something to forge a link between the mental and the physical.
You will have picked up that I have some reservations about how we work with our brains. I'm not against it totally, and I can see that there can be some useful outcomes, but I'm uneasy about our success at accurately understanding the brain. In spite of digital processing and modern scanning.
When we base an action on our "construct" of how the brain works, we may be forcing that square peg into the round hole?
What works best for me, perhaps because of my bias, may be to focus on your initial excellent video analysis work which gives me a clear objective and maybe some muscle memory and then work on a constructed piece of equipment (small jump).
You still need some analysis, to define what you want and to analyze your success but it seems to be a more integrated, organic process. I fancy it may also work better if/when you get into an emergency and have to react quickly.
In this mode, your idea of individualized video critique and feedback would be a natural progression.
Your research and experimentation will be an interesting journey.
I’ll get back to you ASAP Rusty. I’m camping off the grid
Rusty, regarding mental rehearsal:
I think it depends on what you mean by “simple actions.” The book I’m following (Sports Psyching) has an example (golf swing) with 5 long paragraphs. And thus far, my narrative description of the bunny hop is pretty long. And yes, I merge the narrative with a video while practicing Mental Rehearsal.
Regarding the brain:
I think previous constructs about how the brain works and learns (“it’s like a computer!” “you can make it stronger like a muscle!”) are giving way to advances in science that go far beyond “digital processing and modern scanning.” That’s part of what I intend to show with MTB Practice Lab. I’ll deliver it piecemeal as I learn it and try to apply it so you’ll need to be patient while remaining skeptical!