What do you think about when you are trying to figure out the crux move on your project? Do you analyze every little part of the movement and obsess over the minutia of what your right foot is doing? How about your friends and climbing partners? Do they chime in telling you what they think went wrong when you are hanging back on the rope or sitting down on the crash pads?
Here’s an article by Will Anglin from his blog willanglin.squarespace.com (link no longer available) that explores how motor learning patterns work for the complex movements involved in climbing and whether or not all the obsessing over beta and analysis by your friends is really helping you learn movement patterns in the longterm.
“As a teacher (coach) and a learner (climber) I get obsessive not just about learning, but how to learn. We are constantly discovering more and more about how humans (and rats) pick up new motor skills. There are many theories/hypotheses about ways to increase rates of learning and retention, some more substantiated than others. I’d like to single out three of the more interesting and useful ideas I’ve found and apply them to how we can increase our ability to learn new climbing movements.” – Will Anglin
The three ideas that Will describes in detail are:
- Feedback Frequency
- Physical Assistance
- Focus of Attention
Follow the link below and see what Will had to say about how these three ideas affect motor learning. It’s an interesting read and may just change how you think about evaluating movement in your climbing.
Click Here: Notes on Motor Learning (link no longer available)
(Photo courtesy of willanglin.squarespace.com)
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