All Wado Karate Forum

http://www.livescience.com/6041-reactio ... finds.html

GRNS

I enjoyed reading that article. Thanks for the link.

You´re welcome.

And thanks for the effort (of making this forum work.)

GRNS

I dont know why I thought of it but while I was reading this article I instantly thought of the scenes in Guy Ritchies' Sherlock Holmes film where Robert Downy Jnr ran through his head how he wanted the fight to go and then did it exactly how he had thought, diversionary tactics and accuracy of technique over speed and all that. I wonder if the screenwriter knew of this study. I bet Sherlock knew about it over 100 years ago! :-)

Good article.

shep

Hello,

This is called "The gunfighter's dilemma", in case someone wants to google more.

If reactive mode is quicker, why not react to the situation (or the glint in his eye) rather than react to the opponent's approach to the gun.

This was really interesting.

As I see it the stimulus comes from the initiator. Thus the initiator has to calculate when is the right time to begin the action. As indicated, this probably activates a different kind of brain mechanism, one that is more calculating (maybe left hemisphere). The reactive mechanism isn’t burdened with this calculation, it’s in one mode and the responses are pared down which keeps things nice and simple.

What may be of interest to us is when working in organised formal kumite; it’s sometimes interesting to instruct Uke to initiate one of two possible attacks in random order, each one eliciting a different formal response.

We’ve probably all done this in our home Dojo. In that situation you have three possible choices; firstly gamble on a 50/50, secondly look for a ‘tell’, thirdly sit your mind in neutral and try and pull a response from your pre-trained subconscious.

I suppose there are others; like, stand there and get punched/kicked.

All fun isn’t it.

Just my musing.

Tim

Tim49 wrote:This was really interesting.

As I see it the stimulus comes from the initiator. Thus the initiator has to calculate when is the right time to begin the action. As indicated, this probably activates a different kind of brain mechanism, one that is more calculating (maybe left hemisphere). The reactive mechanism isn’t burdened with this calculation, it’s in one mode and the responses are pared down which keeps things nice and simple.

What may be of interest to us is when working in organised formal kumite; it’s sometimes interesting to instruct Uke to initiate one of two possible attacks in random order, each one eliciting a different formal response.

We’ve probably all done this in our home Dojo. In that situation you have three possible choices; firstly gamble on a 50/50, secondly look for a ‘tell’, thirdly sit your mind in neutral and try and pull a response from your pre-trained subconscious.

I suppose there are others; like, stand there and get punched/kicked.

All fun isn’t it.

Just my musing.

Tim

Hi Tim
We sometimes do this with kihon 6 and kihon 7 but the attack in 7 must be a mawashi geri otherwise the defense will work for both.
Like you say, it can be fun.
Steve.

Hi Steve,

steveig wrote:We sometimes do this with kihon 6 and kihon 7 but the attack in 7 must be a mawashi geri otherwise the defense will work for both.

This is interesting also for the rest of the kihon kumite. The "defences" are so general in nature that they work interchangeably and against many other techniques also. Of course there are different openings for the wanted attack and the technique may have to be altered slightly but the general mechanisms work also against other attacks. Also the techniques bear a homomorphical resemblance with each other, which I think make them as a "package" realistic to really master in a situation where there is stress involved.
You don't have to learn too many fundamentally different responses. But of course when improving, details come along to bring better effect.

This is propably not the same thing and I am not sure if should deal archery here.... However, I think that to some extent archery share similar mind settings than wado.....

I found a little bit similar reaction-phenomenon in archery. I usually train with conventional, unmovable arcehry targets. I shoot instinctively (no aiming aids or other technical devices)

When I train my aim is to group arrows tight and try to lessen the percentage of bad shots. When I train I am not trying to hit the bull´s eye every time because I train for hunting and hitting very small spots is irrelevant. More important is to be able to shoot sponaneously and consistently groups small enough. One day I was practising in my backyard I realized an interesting thing. I was able to shoot accurately only to a certain point. After a four or five rounds my groups started to "spread" all over the target. I thought that I just lost my concentration for that day. ( it happens often) =) How wrong I was .... While I became highly frustrated I placed a tennis ball hanging in a line from the branch of a tree. Then I pushed the ball to swing. I picked my bow and walked back to shoot "for fun".. To my wonder, first arrow flew through the air and hit straight to the ball. I was sure it was pure luck. It can´t happen again. I was wrong - again

I was able to hit the ball most of the time. Finally I practiced for two hours and missed only a few arrows. I was amazed!!! What just happened ??? Afterwards I concluded that it was because I had no time to "build the aiming process" with conscious muscle work. I think my body was only responding to an action. That left me thinking that there are two modes of control. The first is conscious - the other is subconsious. Obviously, conscious control mode (aqcuired/practiced) tries to suppress the subconscious (innate hand eye coordination) control that has been programmed deep inside us in the processes of evolution. In this sense - practice and muscle work in instinctive archery is important but only to to a certain point. I came to a conclusion that I shouldn´t try to control my shooting too much. My body works fine if I let it respond without me interfering all the time =)

A fellow archer from Finland has a remarkable ability to shoot instinctively:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9qFhOvzy0g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwtqRFCOzyI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9lhm0jE ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0_4pCCg ... re=related