Visualization Training

Groinstrike · Pre-Black Belt

Has anyone ever practiced this one purpose??

For example its late, you are by yourself, just sit there and try to get yourself amped up by imagining a scenerio and your response to it. What if someone busts through the front door. What if you are subject to multiple invaders inside your home. What would be your course of action?

This seems to me like a great mental excersise, especially in dealing with with the unexpected.

Anyone have thoughts on the merits of such training?

tallgeese · Black Belt

I'm a big fan of it. It goes to hardwiring responses and shortcuts the decision and action phases of the OODA loop. Mental rehearsals have been show at high levels of athletic competition to improve performance in single blind studies. I'll have to hunt thru some materials to find the reference if anyone is interested.

Grossman is a fan of it as well and offers what I think are some good points. You've heard some of them before, but they are worth repeating. First off, they actually have to be used like training. Not ninja killing fantasies. I can be guilty of this from time to time.

Realism is key to imagery. The more detailed the better. The more realistic attacks used the better. The more accurate your responses the better. Try to get the environment detailed as well. Include your senses beyond sight once you get better. Smell, feel, ect. A high level of this is also imagining the physiological effects that the combat will have on you. This lets you work on controlling your heart rate and breathing as well. Of course, getting these last parts right will mandate either previous combative experience or realistic physical simulation.

There is some debate about how deep you should go into putting yourself in the weeds. Obviously, you don't want start visualizing getting a curb stomping level beat down each time you do this. Some will say to avoid it all together. Others, will advocate working thru negative elements to ensure victory. You'll have to do the research and decide for yourself. Personally I"ll work thru setbacks and injury from time to time but never let myself loose the encounter. I'll get injured in these from time to time, but with the idea of pre-encounter preparing myself for that possibly and fighting thru it.

Just my thoughts.

MasterPain · Black Belt

That is one good use. Another is simply mental reps of technique. It's a good supplement to physical training. I believe this is a major tool for cognitive and behavioral psychological therapists. It helps to condition a response before the stimulus is actually there. If you think about it, martial arts is just creating conditioned responses to stimuli until it is habit.
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My fists bleed death. -Akuma

tallgeese · Black Belt

That's a really good point. I think that's why note taking works well for me. Because it makes me mentally rehearse the movement I'm annotating after class several times to get it to paper. Then again when it get put to hard drive. It's likely the mental rehersal that aids me more than the actual notes, of course when I review that again give me the opportunity to mentally image the movements again.

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