Well, its been awhile since I started a war on the board so I thought it was about time to throw out a challenge.
As you all know I'm a school psychologist. One of my doctoral minors was in neuropsychology so naturally I am interested in recent research in the feild of neuropsychology and learning. I have just been reading some research that is very interesting and could have implications for, well just about everything we want to learn.
I have been reading about how 'plastic' the brain is. That is, how the brain can 're wire' its self when stimulated in a certain way. The research is showing that with extended sensory stimulation, the area of the cortex where the sensory stimulation was being 'recorded or recognized' grew larger. (okay, no cheeze jokes here). Some other researchers began asking if the mind could change the brain... in other word can thinking change the brain?
So, this group of scientists came up with some research. One group of volunteers practiced a five-finger piano exercise, and a comparable group merely though about practicing it. The second group focused on each finger movement in turn, essentially playing the simple piece in their heads, one note at a time. As expected, the actual physical practice produced changes in each volunteer's motor cortex. BUT, so did mere mental rehersal. AND the change was as big as the physical practice. (I want to say here, that I haven't actually read this study, just a summary of it. I plan to look it up and read it though.)
Wow, what implications if this finding can be replicated. I use visualization techniques on a regular basis. That is, I watch my coach and other swimmers and visualize myself doing the same thing. I do think it helps and maybe what I have been doing and not realizing it is 're wiring' my brain. Do any of you use visualization, what do you think, does it help or not?
I have no scientific background, but speaking personally and anecdotally, the answer is unequivocally YES! Visualization is very real, very effective, and very important, provided of course that it is positive visualization and not negative (see yourself catching the ball, swimming the race, hitting the turn . . . do not focus on "don't drop the ball," "don't miss the turn," which will yield exactly what you don't want).
My $0.02
carl
I long ago accepted the premise that visualization helps master a physical act. Note, how many professional atheletes attribute their improvement to specific vizualisation techniques.
I remember a wonderful course I took in graduate school at UConn (Go Huskies) in Motor Learning. Yes, mental imaging and practice is beneficial in learning and refining a motor skill.
I always spend time swimming the race in my head many times before I swim it in the pool. Works for me!!:)
Wasn't this the premise of Professor Harold Hill of The Music Man in having the people THINK about the music before they even had the instruments? Then when they actually received the instruments they were able to play (badly but they did play!).
Shortly after the initial post the other psychologist with whom I work came into my office. We started discussing neuroplasticity and she related a story she had read somewhere along time ago. She thinks it was in one of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books...
A man was taken prisioner in Viet Nam. Every day he was in capitivity he played golf in his mind. He played it in 'real time'... meaning his visualization was real enough that it took him as long to visualize the game as it would actually take him to play the round in real life. He changed, weather conditions, golf courses, his strokes etc. When he was released, returned to the states, and played golf again he had knocked several strokes off his game.
That is what I was meaning. Do you think visualization changes our brains? Can we, through the power of our minds, actually change our brain structure so that we improve our strokes?
How about this? A swimmer usually swims 4,000 meters during a regular workout. Now a big meet is coming up and he/she begins a taper. He/She drops down, to lets say, 2000 (to make the numbers easy) but visualizes the rest of the workout up to 4,000 (ie the 2,000 meters not swam). I wonder what effect (negative or positive) that would have on his/her performance.
Here's my best guess Lainey . . . visualization is great for skill/technique . . . but has nothing to do with strength or cardovascular fitness . . . so while visualizing swimming a good race is one thing, visualizing a work-out will do nothing (in my best non-expert guess) for strength and endurance. Unlike golf, which is nearly all skill based and not strength or endurance based, swimming involves skill, strength and endurance.
Lord knows that if I could visualize my 4,000 meter am workouts and get the same results, I'd be in my bed on cold mornings instead of on a freezing deck . . . but maybe that's just me.
carl
Back in high school, I had both swim and tennis coaches using visualizing techniques. The key (of course) is to find the right role model, so you can visualize the right technique.
There was an amusing anecdote in "The Warrior Athlete" by Dan Millman. He was talking about a gymnast, who kept falling off the balance beam. Her coach encouraged her to visualize her routine. The next day, the coach walked by the gymnast, who had her eyes closed, and was saying, "Oops, damn!... Oops!".
In my personal case...
I have to think through what it is I'm about to do. Once I know, then I can do some practicing to get my body to follow, sort of practice execution till it's perfect.
Same with making changes in technique, I need understand mentally what I need to do, then practice doing it.
With swimming though, there is so much technique related that I still don't know so the mental picture is often fuzzy.
On the other hand, during practice times there is often physical feedback, so sometimes I realize that something just 'felt' right, then I experiment with it, and often it fills in a piece of puzzle. Lot of times after a stroke drill, often even after each 25 yards I stop for a few seconds and mentally recap what I think I just did and how it felt. I almost never just mindlessly crank out laps.
Perhaps that's why I like the long swims, there's lots to think about. Frankly, I don't quite get people that get bored doing that.
Other times it is a tip that I hear from the coach or someone else that fills in a piece of the puzzle and clarifies the picture. Then follows the practice to execute it. I suppose you practice it till the 'right way' becomes a habit.
I suppose the feedback goes both ways, mind to body, body to mind, and they work together. I never really followed 'visualizations' officially so I don't know what to say about that, or if I'm using the 'proper terminology' for what I'm describing. I do have the ability to picture things, even as far as putting a somewhat complex gadget in my head, and then go (to Home Depot) and assemble it. It's just something I was always able to do, even as a kid. Same probably works with sports, figuring out mentally how things work.
Wouldn't watching the videos of what you do and what other people do be sort of a similar thing? A visual aid to for visualizations?
Well, to oversimplify it, the mind is a part of the body, so, I'm gonna venture a wild guess it is meant to be used in concert with the rest of the body. They came attached to one another, why separate them? ;)
I don't think that body alone, or mind alone can accomplish what you;re talking about, I think they need to work together.
Laneybug... In your Vietnam prisoner example, sounds like the guy already had pre existing training in golf, at least some, so in his case, shaving the strokes.... Visualizations apparently helped, but they don't seem to have done it alone. The brain had already had feedback from the body on how certain things 'felt' and had the baseline to work from, so it's not likely that it was mind alone that shaved the strokes. It seems clear thought that it helped.
in a previous thread i mentioned that i flew model helicopters,now i know this is a different thread but i can see some links...when learning new maneouvres i have to visualise,repeat then try out on simulator then and only then do i even attempt to do them on the real bird.I guess that i have to agree that visualisation is only good when it comes to technique,the actual doing is somewhat reliant upon fittness etc
also timing cannot be visualised,only practice can help timing.
