Every movement skill occurs as a result of an electrochemical signal traveling along a circuit of nerve cells (neurons) in brain and nervous system. Relaxing neck muscles to Hang Your Head is a circuit. Feeling the water Cushion Your Head is a separate circuit. So is Visualizing a Laser. The more circuits you create for any Mini Skill, the faster you learn it. And the more times you send a signal across that circuit, the deeper that Mini Skill gets hardwired. The sequence for turning a new skill objective into a Muscle Memory is:
1. Create a Mental Blueprint.
What Stroke Thoughts will help me perform this movement correctly and what sensations should I feel when I get it right? You begin with a visual input – how it looks when done correctly – from video or watching someone perform it correctly.
2. Do a mindful repeat—and most likely miss the mark.
Mistakes are valuable information; they’re essential to course correction. With each additional repetition, you should be able to make subtler distinctions between sensations that are just-right and not-quite.
3. Adjust your approach and try again.
With each repetition you form a tighter loop between intention, sensation and action.
4. Repeat 3000 to 7000 times (strokes) correctly.
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An excerpt from the Effortless Endurance workshop manual written by Coach Terry Laughlin. A copy of this manual may be read in the TI Academy.
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