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| By Leith Darkin
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| March
2004 |
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Abstract
In skill development part 4 we are going to look at “Advanced motor
skill development” and how to implement a structured learning progression
to improve your “perception skills”, your “decision making
skills” and your “movement execution skills”. |
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| SKILL
DEVELOPMENT AND ABILITY |
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When looking at
“skill development” in particular “advanced motor skill
development” it is important to consider the ability of the individuals
you are training. Ability is a genetic factor, it’s something you
are born with and the ability you are born with will determine what type
of skills you will excel at and what type of sports you will be best suited
to (it’s the ability you are born with that will help you master the
skills needed to excel at your chosen sport).
Those of you that have been involved in martial arts for a while, in particular
those of you that have been instructing martial arts for a while, would
have seen students that try hard and practice all the time, however they
just don’t have the balance and coordination that is needed to excel,
likewise there are some students that after a few lessons you can tell that
they will go along way if they are dedicated and committed enough. The difference
between these 2 types of students is the ability they were born with, if
both students put in the same amount of practice each week, the students
who were born with the ability that better suits them to martial arts will
master the skills, balance and coordination at a faster rate and with greater
ease than their counterparts, who were born with abilities that would better
suit them to other sports, hobbies etc. |
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| OVERLOAD |
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| When looking at
developing skills, you need to apply the same training principle that you
would use to develop strength, endurance, flexibility etc, the principle
being overload. The brain is no different to any other part of the human
body in that it is a product of its environment and if challenged with a
step by step learning progression that compliments your genetic ability,
will adapt to greater levels. The key to skill development is truly mastering
1 level properly, then challenging the brain to a level of overload greater
than it is accustomed to. |
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| A
STEP BY STEP LEARNING PROGRESSION |
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| In this article
we will again use leg kicks and leg checks (from an orthodox fighting stance)
as a means of explanation to help give you a better understanding of a step
by step learning progression. We will start off with simplistic drills then
progress to advanced drills. |
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| Our initial defense against
an outside leg kick is to learn the movement pattern of a roll check, once
you have mastered the movement pattern of a roll check, you then need to
stand a training partner in front of you and get them to slowly throw outside
leg kicks at you to develop your perception skills. As this is a set drill,
your decision-making skills don’t come into play. |
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| Your next progression is to
learn the defense against an inside leg kick, once again you need to learn
the movement pattern of a cross check, once you have mastered the movement
pattern of a cross check, you need to stand a training partner in front
of you and get them to slowly throw inside leg kicks at you to develop your
perception skills. As this is again a set drill, your decision-making skills
don’t come into play. |
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| So far you have
learnt the movement patterns of a roll check and a cross check and by standing
a training partner in front of you, you have started to develop your “perception
skills”. Your training partner will now alternate between an outside
leg kick and an inside leg kick, this next progression once again has no
effect on your “decision making skills” as this is a set drill
with a pre determined outcome. You are still practicing your perception
skills although you haven’t increased the overload on your “perception
skills”. You have however increased the over load on your movement
“execution skills”, now when defending against leg kicks you
have to competently move your body from a position of balance where you
can defend against an outside leg kick to a point of balance where you can
defend against an inside leg kick. |
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| Once you have mastered
the balance and coordination (or your “movement execution skills”)
needed to move from one defense to another, your next progression is to
get your training partner to take a random approach to kicking. No longer
will your training partner alternate between outside leg kicks and inside
leg kicks. Taking a random approach will place overload on your “perception
skills”, your “movement execution skills” and for the
first time will bring your “decision making skills” into play
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For your next level
of progression you will add another striker, both strikers will be positioned
where the defender has to use their full field of vision.
Most if not all traditional defensive drills are performed with the training
partner standing directly in front of you, this is OK if you plan on fighting
your opponent in a narrow hallway where you know your opponent will always
be standing directly in front of you, however striking contests are performed
in an area large enough for your opponent to freely move around you and
strike you from different angles. If you have fought or spared competitively,
I’m sure you can relate to being hit by the strike you didn’t
see coming, this is often the result of you only partly training your full
field of vision. Your perception skills will only pick up what you train
them to pick up (your performance is a product of your training) and limiting
the use of your full field of vision in training drills can lead to your
demise as a competitive striker. |
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The defenders field
of vision is forwards of line A.
Line B represents the division of the striker’s territory.
Strikers can be placed at a range where footwork is required to make distance.
Strikers can also be placed at a closer range where there’s no safety
distance between the striker and the defender, this will cut down the delivery
time and further increase the pressure on the defenders information processing
skills. |
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| For your next level of progression,
2 strikers will be positioned as in the above picture and will take it in
turns randomly throwing either an outside leg kick or an inside leg kick.
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| Incorporating 2 strikers into
the drill has significantly increased the over load to the point where the
defender will more often than not, look at the strikers feet to see where
the next strike is coming from. To alleviate this problem you will incorporate
a random jab or cross to the head (the defender won’t know when the
head strike will be thrown) in your next level of progression, this will
bring the defenders focus back up to a point where they have to use their
full field of vision. |
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For your next level of progression,
strikers will randomly throw round kicks to the legs and the upper body
as well as straight punches to the head.
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For your next level of progression,
strikers will add a random front kick to the body along with the other strikes.
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| Once you have mastered
this level, you could continue to add different strikes, however you have
covered strikes to the legs, strikes to the midsection (with the midsection
being struck from the front and side) and strikes to the head. At this point
I prefer to go in a slightly different direction. For your next level of
progression you will add a trainer, the trainer will be positioned directly
behind the defender where the defender cant see the trainer, however both
strikers can (as depicted in the next diagram). In the previous 2 on 1 drills,
both strikers have taken it in turns to throw strikes, the defender never
new what strike was going to be thrown next, however the defender did know
which striker was going to throw the next strike. Now we have a trainer,
the trainer will randomly point to the strikers to throw strikes, this will
put more pressure on the defenders field of vision and in turn their “perception
skills”. |
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| Once you have mastered
this level you will add another striker, positioning them directly in front
of the defender and moving the original strikers further around to the sides
as depicted in the next diagram. The trainer is once again in charge and
will randomly point to the strikers to throw strikes. |
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Our goal with this
drill is to truly perfect this drill at the highest level possible with
the strikers throwing faster strikes, with absolute minimal pause between
one strike and the next and with the drill running as fluently as possible.
Once you have mastered this drill you could continue to make the drill harder
as there is no limit as to how far you can take these drills, however truly
mastering this drill and continually practicing this drill will take your
defensive skills to the highest of levels. |
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| GUIDELINES
FOR DRILLS |
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1)
Use these drills at the beginning of training sessions after a light aerobic
warm up. Keep rounds short e.g. 30-45 seconds, you can increase the length
of the rounds however you‘ll have to watch the intensity, If lactic
acid starts to accumulate then the quality of your practice session will
suffer (lactic acid has an effect on your nervous system and these drills
are all about training your nervous system). Another reason for keeping
the rounds short is a high level of concentration is need especially when
defending against multiple strikers. I tend to match up 3 students whose
skill development is similar and rotate all 3 students every 30-45 seconds.
2) When incorporating a trainer into the drills, it is
up to the trainer to make sure the drills run smoothly, the strikers rely
on the timing of clear hand signals so they can execute a smooth flowing
drill. When using the last drill with 3 strikers, the trainer has to ensure
that the middle striker can see the hand signals aimed at the strikers on
the left and right sides and when signaling to the middle striker the trainer
raisers a straight arm overhead.
3) When progressing to a new level it is of utmost importance
that the previous level has been properly mastered.
4) When defending against punches and checking kicks, the
defender should use blocks and deflections that will least effect their
balance, otherwise the defender wont be back on balance quick enough to
defend against the next strike e.g. When incorporating a straight punch
to the head the defender brings their forearms to the head to block the
strike rather that slipping the punch which would take their bodyweight
forwards and over their left leg making it hard to check round kicks. If
you were to use these drills for boxing then slipping a punch would be an
appropriate defense to practice.
5) When performing these drills, the amount of force the
strikers apply is minimal, the striker’s objective is to throw quick
precise strikes as fluently as possible, in time with the other striker/strikers.
These drills are designed for the defender to master their technique in
an environment that puts tremendous pressure on their nervous system as
opposed to absorbing large amounts of impact. |
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| CONCLUSION |
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| If you have a good
understanding of the requirements of your sport and a basic understanding
of information processing, you’ll find that with a little imagination
you’ll be able to create a structured step by step learning progression
specific to your form of combat. You’ll find that with a structured
step by step learning progression, you will have an accelerated learning
process that will really compliment those students that have that natural
ability that suits them to your form of combat. Once you start to master
the harder levels of skill development where you have 2-3 strikers throwing
volumes of strikes at you from all angles, defending yourself against one
combatant when sparing or fighting competitively will become a much simpler
task. |
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