When I was a senior in high school, I decided to start learning how to play guitar because it was cool and more importantly, girls thought it was cool. Unfortunately, I did not possess the willingness or the discipline to thoroughly learn all the basic chords and scales. Instead, I took the Cliff Notes approach and bought a couple of song books that had all the chords diagramed out for you. Now, I think this would have been ok if I had a basic understanding of strumming and, you know, rhythm. But I had no clue about things like "fingering" and "chord progression." It's not that I wasn't capable; I just didn't give my brain and my hands any training. You see, fine motor skills like playing guitar require Neuromuscular Training (NT).
A great example of NT is the process of learning how to walk. It starts when parents hold us upright and put our feet on the ground. They guide us through the process, move our legs, reward us with praise, etc. The more we are introduced to this new stimulus (walking), the more our brains create new neurological pathways that develop muscular reactions based on pressure, sight, and other factors. In essence, through a series of attempted standing and falling, walking and falling, the brain-body connection becomes stronger and stronger until we have developed a new action or reaction, e.g. walking. So, when we're introduced to a new stimulus that requires neuromuscular action, our brains create new pathways. This is neuroplasticity.
When you're learning a complex set of movements for the first time, your body will rebel and the older you get, the harder it is. This is why adults learning traditional martial arts for the first time are often surprised at how difficult it is. Your eyes see the movement, your brain says, "Oh yeah, I can do that," but when you try to replicate that movement, your body produces something entirely different...kind of like me trying to learn guitar without proper instruction. Footwork and basic movement drills tend to trip a lot of beginners up because of new challenges to proprioception -- your brain's attempt to maintain your balance based on where your body is in a given space. When you walk up or down a hill, for example, your brain makes neuromuscular adjustments based on the terrain. You don't notice it because you've been doing it since your mom and dad held you upright and put your feet on the ground. But you had to fall down a lot before your brain made the necessary adjustments.
I worked with a lot of Parkinson's patients during my career in physical therapy. Parkinson's affects the lower motor neurons, the nerves responsible for muscular actions. This is why victims tend to walk with a broad gait, end up walking on their toes, etc. And they fall a lot because the messages coming from the brain get jumbled once they reach the torso and legs. Surprisingly, martial arts has been proven to help Parkinson's patients. In fact, Boxing Therapy (BT) has been shown in several longitudinal studies to help with balance, weight transference, even depth perception. Tai Chi is another form that has been successfully utilized with this disease as well as stroke victims, even people with Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI).
At this point, if you're still with me, you might be wondering if I'm working on my dissertation. No, I'm merely trying to point out that one of the many benefits to martial arts training is neuroplasticity. Specifically, hundreds of repetitions of the same basic movements and stances that grow in complexity as one's skills develop. This is one of the reasons I am a huge fan of "punching and kicking air," (kihon) and kata -- stylized movement patterns used in karate. Every single time you perform a kata, you are practicing neuroplasticity. So, you see, it's a lot more than just learning how to beat people up.
If you are currently studying a martial art and you are frustrated with your progress, you are in good company. I've been training for 40 years and I still have plenty of struggles. The struggle is whole point. In a world that is quickly becoming dependent on things like AI, it is increasingly necessary for us to develop skills other than "point and click." So, keep trying and keep training. Your brain will thank you.
Dave Magliano
Tatsu Dojo
Jissenkan Budo
Dojo Cho
Comentários