Recent advances in science of athletic performance have confirmed another one of the training methods used in Okinawan karate and in other martial arts for centuries.
Visualization for High Performance
Research in sports psychology and physiology show that mental imagery combined with physical practice provides huge improvement in performance. Visualization – which we use in kata practice – energizes the same neural pathways we use when we are engaging a live opponent.
It turns out that there is a complementary reciprocal relationship between imagery and physical action: the deeper your real experience, the greater the benefit you get from visualization, and the deeper your visualization the more your physical ability improves.
By visualizing our techniques precisely, we develop the neural pathways that we use in action. The brain-body connection is strengthened by vividly imagining performing a technique. A benefit of this is we can practice visualization training on off-days. This gives us a way to recover from a hard workout, but still continue to deepen our training.
A study involving basketball free throws found that players who only visualized making the shots showed a significant improvement in their actual performance, almost equal to those who physically practiced the shots.
Athletes who combined visualization with physical practice, showed performance improvements of as much as 45%.
Which accounts for why over 90% of Olympic athletes use some form of visualization technique.
In a 2004 study, Dr. Guang Yue found that people who visualized doing their training exercises over several weeks increased their muscle strength by 13.5% or more – just from mental exercise, without any physical training.
In kata practice – or in kihon or other solo or group practice – we are reminded or we remind ourselves to picture the incoming attack, and to do this until it becomes a habit. We engage with imaginary opponents for much of our training time.
Some people who are unfamiliar with real kata practice question the efficacy of “just punching the air.” Just punching the air is not a great way to train. It might get you a little fitness, but it will not help with using kata training for combative skill. Many people who do not know the kata bunkai, or who make up bunkai that would not really work, fall into this trap. They believe on faith that all their rote kata repetition will make them fighters. On faith because there is no evidence that that will work. You might improve your muscle strength or speed. But that omits most of what is available in kata for combative training.
You might even be a good fighter. But that is not a result of shallow kata practice, it is a result of good athleticism and a fighting spirit. Those talented people could make much more of their talents with real kata training – using knowledge of legitimate, effective bunkai applications for every move, and the habit of seeing and experiencing this application in every move of every kata.
Imagining your opponent’s attack, stopping it and defeating it, is an effective way to train. The more experience you have engaging with a live opponent, under pressure, with real risk of failure and real reward when your technique works, the more clearly you will be able to bring your movement in kata or kihon, to life. The better results in combative performance you will get from your training – in kata, kihon and kumite.
Researchers have noted that emotion as a part of visualization strengthens the neural pathways in the brain, and the mind-body connection, to deepen the effects of training. We have all experienced this and observed it in the people we train with.
If your training is fueled with emotion – excitement, defiance, a passion for victory, self-mastery or whatever it is that drives you – your mind will release dopamine and other potent neurochemicals associated with reward. That gives us a feeling of uplift, affirmation and success, an intensification of the mind-body connection, enhanced performance, and a desire to continue to train in order to get that good feeling again. The time will come to leave emotion behind, but it can be a valuable training tool.
Many studies have confirmed another performance enhancement that comes from mental visualization. Athletes not only perform better in competition and in training, but have an increased ability to learn new skills.
In the dojo people often notice that they not only learn but “learn how to learn.” It gets easier to absorb new kata, new techniques, new tactics as your proficiency increases, because our minds have become more malleable and our bodies are more our own, as a result of the combination of physical training and visualization training that we use, every day in every class.
Doing kata without knowing the applications can be good exercise. But that kind of shallow practice fails to make use of the potential for self-defense training that real kata training can provide.
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Notes
Di Corrado D, Guarnera M, Vitali F, Quartiroli A, Coco M. Imagery ability of elite level athletes from individual vs. team and contact vs. no-contact sports. PeerJ. 2019;7:e6940. doi:10.7717/peerj.6940
Blankert T, Hamstra MR. Imagining success: Multiple achievement goals and the effectiveness of imagery. Basic Appl Soc Psych. 2017;39(1):60-67. doi:10.1080/01973533.2016.1255947
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Post copyright © 2024 Jeffrey Brooks, MountainKarateNC.com, Yamabayashi Ryu, Mountain Karate, Saluda, NC
Photo Thao-le-Hoang via Unsplash
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