Combat Training Session: One

Mental Models: Impact on training, sparring, competition

When approaching an opponent it is good to have a plan, one that addresses the size, speed, and ability of your opponent.  Noticing distinctions allows mental skills to be developed and perfected. Much like physical skills, mental skills, can be thought of as a three-phase process (Fitts and Posner 1967).

• Cognitive:  focusing on the nature of the task.
• Associative:  development of better (1)proprioception and (2)kinaesthetics:  or (1) an awareness of body position, location and orientation as well as movement of the body;  (2) an awareness of the muscular movements of the limbs and body.
• Autonomous:  making this an unconscious process

The cognitive assesses the nature of the threat in front of you without being overwhelmed and "receives what comes", or is ready to handle what your opponent throws at you.  It is important to not focus too much on previous fights or future fights as it distracts you and separates the physical and mental connection needed to focus on what is happening right now. Through this we create mental models that shape expectations within the fight.  We analyze, compare, contrast, evaluate, synthesize, reject ideas or integrate those we choose to retain. This can impede or advance our mental model and overall mastery of the skill set we desire to learn.

The development of better proprioception and kinaesthetics comes from an understanding of how biochemistry works within the brain.  However, this can also be referred to as a fight or flight response coupled with lots of practice.  Understanding and analyzing opponents movements and reactions are one thing, but without actually sparring to familiarize the brain with repetitive body movements your chances of improvement in these areas is low.  This ties heavily into the autonomous process.  The combination of cognitive assessment and associative integration lead directly into the autonomous process.  This means we make sense of the sequence and connectivity of events, and our interpretations of them, and act based on our physical familiarity and mental model of a situation.

   







References:

FITTS, P. & POSNER, M. (1967) Human Performance. Belomont Brooks