Myelination: The Most Holy Grrrrail of Martial Arts

Discussion on the three big Chinese internals, Yiquan, Bajiquan, Piguazhang and other similar styles.

Re: Myelination: The Most Holy Grrrrail of Martial Arts

Postby Chris McKinley on Wed Jun 27, 2012 9:24 am

yeniseri,

Great work but you guys are making CMA into rocket science!


More like neuroscience, to be accurate. There's no implication that anyone needs a post-graduate-level academic education in order to be an effective practitioner of martial arts. I've simply applied the knowledge I gained in that field to a study of how that learning takes place. If someone else were a trained psychologist as well as a martial artist, it might not be particularly surprising for them to explore the topic of combat psychology. I've just done the same with neurophysiology. The improvements in modern sport performance as a result of sport science/exercise physiology in the last 20-25 years have produced results considered unachievable just a few years prior. They have also informed the modern practice of coaching and training sport performance to such a degree as to completely revolutionize it in some cases.

Likewise, the information obtained and insights gained from the work I've done in this area for the last 20+ years have allowed me to develop similar improvements to the training of combat skills. As a result, I can now routinely expect results for my purposes which dramatically surpass those of more common and/or traditional training approaches. These improvements would not be possible without the curiosity to explore the process in the first place.
Chris McKinley

 

Re: Myelination: The Most Holy Grrrrail of Martial Arts

Postby XiaoXiong on Fri Jun 29, 2012 10:38 am

I have been taking lion's mane mushroom for a while now, which has been shown to stimulate myelination and nerve regeneration among other things.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hericium_erinaceus
Jess
Truth enlightens the mind, but won't always bring happiness to the heart.
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Re: Myelination: The Most Holy Grrrrail of Martial Arts

Postby SteveBonzak on Tue Jul 10, 2012 3:42 pm

Chris-

For the purposes you have described, is it important to focus on a smaller number of movements per training session for maximal effects? In other words, train one set of movements and be done, or train twice the amount of time and go over two different sets of movements?

Thanks
-Steve
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Re: Myelination: The Most Holy Grrrrail of Martial Arts

Postby Chris McKinley on Tue Jul 10, 2012 5:25 pm

Steve,

I'm not completely clear on what you mean by number of movements. Are you referring to numbers of postures within a given form, such as the 108 movements of the Yang Taijiquan form? Or are you referring to, say, simultaneously moving your arm and your foot? Generally speaking, the answer will be the former of your two options though. Smaller chunks of more specified work, over shorter, more numerous training sessions is almost always going to be more productive.
Chris McKinley

 

Re: Myelination: The Most Holy Grrrrail of Martial Arts

Postby SteveBonzak on Tue Jul 10, 2012 7:41 pm

Chris-

When you say "more productive" you mean productive in terms of training the nervous system, correct?

So there are many ways to divide your training time. Would it be better neurologically to work on single palm change for 30 min and then be done for the day, or would it be better to train single palm change for 30 minutes and then double palm change for 30 minutes? The second requires substantially different movements so I am wondering if it will create too much noise in the system for the first part of the workout to take hold. Does that make sense?

Thanks
-Steve
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Re: Myelination: The Most Holy Grrrrail of Martial Arts

Postby Chris McKinley on Tue Jul 10, 2012 10:23 pm

When you say "more productive" you mean productive in terms of training the nervous system, correct?


With the single exception of endurance, I mean it in any way, shape or form you want to word it. It's better in terms of distinct and noticeable improvements over the course of a single training session, as well as in the retention of the maximum percentage of that improvement from one training session to the next.

Would it be better neurologically to work on single palm change for 30 min and then be done for the day, or would it be better to train single palm change for 30 minutes and then double palm change for 30 minutes?


It would be just fine to work on both in the same day. The really important thing in terms of time is to take a short, approximately 5 minute break after each of those 30 minute training periods, during which you would ideally do either nothing at all or something utterly unlike the activity you were just practicing. This is called a Zeigarnik break and it does wonders for your learning retention percentage. I've mentioned it briefly in these threads:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11428&p=199158&hilit=+zeigarnik#p199158

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5456&p=96147&hilit=+zeigarnik#p96147

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3322&p=59203&hilit=+zeigarnik#p59203
Chris McKinley

 

Re: Myelination: The Most Holy Grrrrail of Martial Arts

Postby Bhassler on Wed Feb 20, 2013 4:14 pm

Chris McKinley wrote:
When we train a variety of movements, are we encoding each movement in toto, or are we encoding an array of smaller movements, and simultaneously encoding a bunch of discrete relationships between those movements that can later be combined any way we choose?


Excellent question. The answer is, perhaps inconveniently, most definitely the former. This tendency is what gives rise to the principle of specificity. Its converse is also equally extremely important to an understanding of learning theory. If the concept is a two-edged sword, the other 'edge' is that there is a strong tendency for that engram to be reinforced as an average composite of the performances of it within a given single session of practice. This has more to do with the cognitive aspects of that engram rather than purely motor aspects, but these are vital in regard to accessibility and long-term memory storage. I mentioned more about that topic here:

http://www.rumsoakedfist.org/viewtopic. ... cy#p199158

and here:

http://www.rumsoakedfist.org/viewtopic. ... cy#p210794

Existing separate motor engrams can be associated together through the very same kind of practice, but their associated actions would still have to be performed simultaneously in order to create a new integrated motor engram that includes them both.


Hey Chris,

Here's an interesting model some sciency guys did that may relate to this. It's just a model, and doesn't mean anything other than that it could be possible our brains work that way, but I found it interesting and it fits with how I would like things to work, so I may have to write an exercise book based on it and pass it off as my own brilliant scientific discovery. I'll buy you a steak and some beer with a (very) small portion of my earnings.

http://www.pnas.org/content/91/18/8651.full.pdf
What I'm after isn't flexible bodies, but flexible brains.
--Moshe Feldenkrais
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