In last week's post on Teaching Technique, I discussed the groupings that most sports fall into with respect to technical development and implementation. I also provided insight regarding how technique can be affected by certain variables including athlete age, emotional state, motivation and degree of natural ability.
The core of technique development or learning is in the action of achieving perfect sensory-motor habits. A sensory-motor habit is simply a "learned activity of sensory and motor processes intentionally practiced to the point of automitization". From a physiological perspective, this entails creating a permanent conditional reflex connection that enables the exact same motor reactions to respond to the same stimuli. The development of a sensory-motor habit occurs through many stages:
1. Generalized excitation of motor centers in the cortex.
Application:
When young athletes are first learning a new skill, they will often become overly tensed as they concentrate hard on performing that skill correctly. This often leads to needless additional movements and a lack of ability to ‘zero-in’ on movement or skill execution perfection.
2. Concentrated excitation in the appropriate motor centers.
Application:
This is when young athletes become much more comfortable with a new skill. The movements become much more economical, flowing and precise. Young athletes’ attention is drawn more towards the rhythm and speed at which skills are performed as well as specific details of the technique.
3. Automitization of the entire action.
Application:
There is no need for any sort of conscious effort with respect to movement control. The skill is performed in the right situation, in the correct way and all via automitization.
Sensory-motor habits are either ‘open’ or ‘closed’ –
* Open Habits – are variable or adaptable to unexpected situation changes.
* Closed Habits – are suitable for when the movement is being executed in a static situation or environment.
In sports involving closed sensory-motor habits, athletes practice precise and preprogrammed movements. The athletes learn via feedback from their body’s and are eventually able to detect very small divergences from proper execution; divergences which would lead to a poor result or performance. Elite figure skaters or track and field throwing athletes for example, will know immediately upon executing a jump or throw whether or not it was their best effort based on the feedback their body gives them in relation to an automatic understanding of what perfect execution feels like.
In sports relating to open sensory-motor habits, once the essence of the technique has been taught and perfected, the young athlete should be placed in constantly changing situations that will demand that the athlete learn to make quick reactive choices and maintain the ability to apply the learned technique in varying conditions. True aptness or perfection of open sensory-motor habits involves making them more plastic. This is a neurological reference that means making these skills more adaptable to a variety of situations.
- Brian Grasso
www.DevelopingAthletics.com