Benchmark, Practice, Progress

Benchmark, Practice, Progress
David Amerland practicing the essence of The Sniper Mind http://geni.us/SniperMind

#thesnipermind

Originally shared by David Amerland

The Gap Between What We Know and What Our Neural Connections Can Do

This is a fitness exercise that’s designed to surface weaknesses. There are several components to it the most obvious ones being speed and endurance (I do ten sets which delivers 400 kicks within 22 minutes). But the really important ones that surface here are: Precision, Foot Placement, Body Positioning and Arm Placement.

Precision is about where the kicks strike. These are three mid-section kicks and one head-height. But two of the mid-section ones are linear, while the third is circular and so is the head-height one. The foot shape changes each time to alter the striking area of the foot and, obviously, change the striking area on the target. Foot Placement also determines speed to some extent because it is a direct function of distance travelled from the ground (where the foot is resting) to the target. The legs should retract, each time adjacent to the standing leg so the feet are really close to each other. That way the kicks are delivered as if the target is completely stationary. I travel a little in this video because it’s been a long time since I have done this exercise. Body positioning has to do with foot landing. Ideally the foot lands each time after kicking in the perfect position to move the body to deliver the next kick. This is also a function of speed (though really it is just good technique). It minimizes downtime between kicks and makes the whole thing appear effortless. Finally, arm placement. The face should always be protected by the arm on the inside.

I usually do ten sets of ten which gives me 400 kicks inside 22 minutes (you can hear me count reps in the video) and the shades are because it was really bright and really hot and training in the sun produces its own set of challenges as the thermic load on the muscles builds up.

I am at the point in my life where I am fighting to retain skills that used to come naturally. Seeing this exercise (and I’ve slowed down one segment at a quarter of the speed so you can see the kicks more clearly) I realize I need to do a lot more work to get back to some semblance of quality. The more important point however is that there is a disconnect between the mental model of this in my head (which is perfect) and the neural connections that the body activates to make it happen (which here you can see are rusty, which is why I have picked my execution of it apart).

I will be doing this a lot this summer so it will be interesting to see the time frame it takes for improvements to actually take place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWFueX5WoZ0