Motor Imagery and Martial Arts Skills Development

"Struggle is not an option: its a biological requirement"

- Daniel Coyle

To begin, I want you to close your eyes. With your eyes closed think about a 10 foot by 10 foot room. Old brick walls, sun shining through one window. In the middle of the room there is a punching bag hanging from the ceiling. Stand in front of the bag and throw one punch. What kind of punch was it? A jab? a cross? a hook? Was it thrown with correct technique, form? Could you feel the power and speed behind the punch? Go ahead and open your eyes. We just talked through the motor imagery scenario and some part of your brain just lit up like a Christmas tree. 

Motor imagery/ visualization is the ability to mentally create or recreate a functional movement within your mind. You may have come across many martial artists and web pages that talk about how visualization can improve your martial arts in a very generic personal experience and or anecdotal way without really explaining how it works. I wondered if there was any truth behind these claims. So let us review some scientific studies to see if can draw some reasonable conclusions. But first lets scope down what we are talking about.

I will only focus on whether or not motor imagery/ visualization can help you in self defense and or martial sports training. I will not delve into mental training areas like the "zone" or the "success" mindset. That can be explored at another time. Alright let us jump into some science.

Dr Stephen Kosslyn, a Harvard Neuroscience professor, wrote a paper on the Neural Foundations of Imagery. Stating that before 2001, mental imagery existed only in the realm of philosophy and psychology. He writes, "Researchers agree that most of the neural processes that underlie like-modality perception  are also used in imagery... Imagery not only engages the motor system, but also affects the body, much as can actual perceptual experience". 

Six years later in 2007, a study published in Perceptual and Motor Skills (1) researched karate practitioners to determine the effects of mental imaging on the development of skilled motor actions. The 30 practitioners were split up into three groups and tested every 7 days. One group did nothing, a second group practiced ura shuto uchi physically everyday. The third group practiced mental imaging of ura shuto uchi everyday. (Here is an example of a shuto uchi, to get an idea what they were performing)

The results:

Group 1 showed no improvement. Group 2 showed improvements on strength, power, speed and physical reaction. Group 3 showed improvements on strength, power and mental activity, but not speed and physical reaction.

Next Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience (2) published a study in February 2015. The researchers studied 14 individuals to perform an isometric pinching task. 

The results:

They found activation in parts of the primary motor cortex of the brain. These data suggest that the ability to activate the primacy motor cortex with motor imagery to improve simple task performance and accuracy.

If you noticed the trend, before 2001 motor imagery/ visualization was shrouded in philosophy and psychology. In 2007, some progress was made that practicing a hand strike in your mind could improve the physical hand strike. In the latest study, more progress was made to show that the  motor cortex, aka the brain lights up with when performing tasks in the mind. Did you notice anything missing from these successful improvements? Where is the failure?

Talent Code written by Daniel Coyle introduced that world class skills are a byproduct of myelin cellular insulation.  Myelin wraps neural circuits and reinforces a skill path in the brain. He says, "Deep practice is built on a paradox: struggling in certain areas of your ability, where you make mistakes, makes you smarter." This is a key statement when it comes to motor imagery and visualization. It would seem we cannot improve motor skills as much, unless we experience failure. And I generally do not believe many people intentionally visualize failing. 

So what can we take away from these studies and what are some of the downsides. On one hand, science is starting to prove that visualization and motor imagery can help actually improve motor functions. Just like the scenario we imagined at the beginning of the cast, we might have just possibly improved your punching function a little bit by mentally practicing.

However on the other hand. The sample size of the studies are very small and more research is necessary to continue to proof out motor imagery and motor functions. Secondly, the motor imagery tasks seem to be restricted to simple motor functions. Which may just be part of the human mind that needs to simplify. Who knows, more research is necessary. Lastly, failure breeds the best success. Learning and skill development seems to be predicated on the notion of failing. Without failure it appears that development of skill will not improve as much.

A reasonable conclusion could be motor imagery can help improve simple martial arts techniques, but is probably most promising in collusion with constant feedback (mistakes) from physical actions.

Let me know your thoughts and or comments, this is an absolutely fascinating subject.

-Dwight

 

 

 

Here is the corresponding Podcast

 

References:
(1) GIULIANO FONTANI, SILVIA MIGLIORINI, ROBERTO BENOCCI, ANGELO FACCHINI, MARCO CASINI, and FAUSTO CORRADESCHI (2007) EFFECT OF MENTAL IMAGERY ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF SKILLED MOTOR ACTIONS. Perceptual and Motor Skills: Volume 105, Issue , pp. 803-826.

doi: 10.2466/pms.105.3.803-826

(2) Blefari ML, Sulzer J, Hepp-Reymond M-C, Kollias S, Gassert R. Improvement in precision grip force control with self-modulation of primary motor cortex during motor imagery. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. 2015;9:18. doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00018.