THE NEED IN CHANGE OF ACTIVITY AND TRANSFER OF TRAINING RING

HOW THIS ARTICLE APPEARED

The idea to write this article flashed in my brain early in the morning, at Apr 17, 2017, 06:25 AM.

Later I called to Prof. Vadim Rotenberg and discussed it with him.

Vadim fully supported my idea about need in change of activity as a result of Search Activity Concept (developed by him together with Prof. Arshavsky).

ABSTRACT

Mastering of specific motor skill or art leads to increasing the urge of introducing of new complementing additional activities (ADACTs) in training schedule as it's predicted by Search Activity Concept (SAC, developed by Prof. Rotenberg and Prof. Arshavsky).

Then the Transfer of Training effect on the main motor skill happens. This influence can be positive, negative or neutral. Of course the strong positive influence is a most desirable one. The problem is that normally while choosing the new activity we don't take in account the Transfer of Training.  Actually there are great number of Transfers of Training that occur in all directions between main skill and ADACTs and ADACTs themselves.

The same problem occurs when we perform special exercises in order to improve our daily regular natural activities like walking, sitting, standing stance and general motion. This problem has the utmost importance for the most of us.

The article will offer some ideas how to increase the positive effect of such new activities. 

THE GENERAL IDEA

Learning of new motor skill or art always starts from learning of the general trajectory or form of the motion. After this initial level individual can progress to automatization, standardization and stabilization levels of the motion (according to Prof. N.A. Bernstein) in order to achieve full mastery. During the mastery of the last two levels individual achieves the maximal usage of inertial and reaction forces, which make the motion to be the most effective.

It is important to mention that not every motor activity or art uses inertial forces, for example, many pointing movements are not inertial. Nevertheless, the absolute majority of our motor activities can use inertial and reaction forces.

In all cases we have to consider the body not as a monolith block, but as a construction consisting of stiff parts connected by joints. The motion can be performed only as a result of rotations of these parts in joints.

The mastery over inertial and reaction forces therefore is about mastery over the motion of these parts and their harmonious cooperation, including mutual neutralization of their movements.

According to the SAC all living beings that have considerable learning abilities also have considerable need in changing and diversify their mental and motor activities. That's why we always have to change our training routine and add new games, exercises and ADACTs to get out of usual main training and to diversify it.

We usually choose and add these ADACTs without to pay too much attention to the future Transfer of Training. As a result, some of these ADACTs produce neutral or negative Transfer of Training instead of positive one. Then these ADACTs harm our main training and in some cases even really ruin it instead of improve it. If the damage is serious or this process lasts long it can result in disappointing and mental exhaustion of the practitioner or in his or her mental and physical stagnation. 

Therefore, ADACTs are unavoidable and the main problem is how to find the pool of ADACTs providing positive Transfer of Training.

I believe that the most important ingredients which define the Transfer of Training are the general form of movement trajectory, the accelerations and decelerations of the moving body-parts, the maximal usage of inertial and reaction forces and their coordination, the SAIM – Self Annihilating Inertial Motion and inborn behavioral reflexes. All these must be done automatically, on the level of automations, of the lower level of motor control comparatively to the main motor task. All these are interconnected and mutually dependent. The main achievement of any training is the ability to perform any motion effortlessly, which means with maximal usage of inertial and reaction forces and of SAIM.

More will be the similarity of these ingredients, and especially of inertial and reaction forces and SAIM to those of the main training more positive will be the Transfer of Training.

In some cases, original motion uses no considerable inertial and reaction forces and SAIM, or their usage is only partial. Then the Transfer of Training will have the same restriction also.   

Why I think so? The explanation looks simple. Every activity uses automations which belong to the lower levels of motor control (according to Prof. N.A. Bernstein). These automations are responsible for Transfer of Training. Every new activity with new meaning of motion actually initiated in new part of cortex, but it "looks" for chains of automations it can use. If it finds these chains the learning will fast and easy and we can speak about positive Transfer of Training.

Transfer of Training happens all the time we move because every motor, mental or emotional activity and their combinations influence any other activity and in the same time they are influenced by them also. This process produces the Transfer of Training Ring, similar to the Reflex Ring by Prof. N.A. Bernstein. Every activity therefore participates in great number of Transfer of Training Rings with dynamically changing values of transfer.

One of the most important points here is the mutual influence of our regular usual daily activities and training. Daily activities are mostly based on inborn reflexes such as statokinetic reflexes and inborn behavioral reflexes (like FFF – Fight, Flight or Freeze) while during special training sessions we mostly abandon them. Great majority of people train in their regular usual daily activities much more time than in any other skill or art. So this kind of training rightfully must be considered as a most influential training for all.

The more effective, more natural our regular usual daily activities the closer they are to inborn reflexes and more harmonious the relationships between them.

In previous chapters I already wrote about Natural Motion and Pure Natural Motion. I believe they are the best way to perform all our motor activities, including usual daily activities.

I believe we can surely say that in Natural Motion trajectory and other ingredients "serve" effortlessness, while in the most of the human created movements effortlessness and other ingredients "serve" trajectory and manner of movement. It means that in Natural Motion the motor task is performed with the maximal possible effortlessness and this will define the trajectory and other ingredients of the motion, while in the most of the artificially created movements desired trajectory and manner of movement define the maximal possible degree of effortlessness.

There a lot of artificially created movements, activities and games. Some of them even imitate Natural Motion of humans or animals. Many practitioners of these activities expect that their regular daily movements will improve as a result of this training, but usually it doesn't happen. The reason for that is that automations of their regular daily activities such as walking, running, etc. mostly are oriented on effortlessness, while artificial movements, even the imitations of Natural Motion, first of all provide external form, emotional and artistic value, etc. It means that these two groups of activities have no common automations, no common base for positive Transfer of Training.    

If main motor activity and all ADACTs will be performed with Natural Motion, the Transfer of Training Ring will be all positive and most effective. The Pure Natural Motion will be the core, the heart of the positive Transfer of Training. It will cover also our regular usual daily activities, which probably is the most important. Than we can truly say: "Life is a training and training is a life".