I mentioned this topic in a recent post and return to it here to describe it in more detail and how the ideas have helped my riding.
My interest in motor engrams was first piqued when it was referred to in a book on movement relating to rock climbing called "Performance Rock". I then came across them again in a book that had influenced many of my training routines for all sorts of sport "The Inner Game of Golf". I have repeatedly found that understanding the concept has helped me pick up new physical activities efficiently.
A motor engram is a program stored in our brains that once activated can control physical motion with little or no conscious thought required. Walking is a good example, as is driving a car. For both these activities we have very few built in instructions when we are born but by repeating the activity many times a set of neural connections are built in the brain that can run the activity with no conscious input at all.
Once such a program is set in motion it can actually be difficult to interrupt it. One aviation psychologist once related a story to me off accidentally tipping an entire bucket of coal down his toilet. He had gone out to collect coal, had decided to stop at the toilet on his way past for a quick pee but the engram was still running. The engram instructed his body to pour the coal into a larger bucket next to his fire place, but it turned out any large container would do !!
We use engrams when riding as well of course. The act of moving with the horse as they walk, trot, canter is one class of such programs. But they have to be learned, how to ride a horse is not built in to our brains. It is tempting when learning a new engram to analyse the required motion to death and try to consciously control all the required muscles to achieve the required motion. This is a very inefficient, if not impossible, way to learn. By way of illustration I invite you to walk, but whilst doing so try to consciously control all the required muscles in the correct sequence. I expect that you will struggle to perform this complicated task.
How then is it best to learn a new engram ? In the "Inner Game of Golf" it is suggested that we need to give the conscious brain a task to perform which, whilst giving useful feedback to the subconscious, is sufficiently taxing that the conscious brain has little spare capacity to interfere with the subconscious brains' vastly superior capacity to learn new physical activities. In the example of golf the book suggests saying the word "back" at the back of the back swing, and "hit" as the ball is struck. To get the timing of this right is actually quite hard, thus stopping the conscious brain from interfering with the subconscious learning process, but still giving useful feedback.
I have found over the years that it is important to regularly change the feedback thought. As the conscious brain gets better at producing the feedback thought it regains spare capacity to start interfering with the subconscious again. In effect the conscious brain is a bit of a control freak that needs to be kept in check with increasingly difficult homework.
I was having real problems on my return to riding with maintaining a seat contact whilst cantering, I kept bouncing. No matter how I consciously tried to control this bouncing I could not seem to quieten it down enough. I then remembered the engram idea and decided to apply it to the problem. Whilst on a 22 foot line Ritchie circled me on Bonitao at canter. I closed my eyes and thought about nothing but the pressure of the saddle through my bum. I did not try to prevent the bounce I just relied on the subconscious to build an engram that would solve the problem for me. Within a few laps 90% of the bounce disappeared and I was finally starting to sit the canter. With the renewed confidence this inspired I was now able to concentrate on other aspects of cantering and rely on the engram to be reinforced and improved by the subconscious.
Now I am not suggesting for a moment that we can learn to ride by turning our conscious brain off. We still need a vision of what the end result should look and feel like. We then need to carefully select the area of the new activity that the conscious brain should concentrate on and allow that concentration to inform the subconscious as to how to build the required motor engram. But maybe, just maybe, by looking at a difficult task using this idea you can make progress where before there was just frustration, it has repeatedly worked for me in horse riding, rock climbing, ice climbing, gliding ......
My interest in motor engrams was first piqued when it was referred to in a book on movement relating to rock climbing called "Performance Rock". I then came across them again in a book that had influenced many of my training routines for all sorts of sport "The Inner Game of Golf". I have repeatedly found that understanding the concept has helped me pick up new physical activities efficiently.
A motor engram is a program stored in our brains that once activated can control physical motion with little or no conscious thought required. Walking is a good example, as is driving a car. For both these activities we have very few built in instructions when we are born but by repeating the activity many times a set of neural connections are built in the brain that can run the activity with no conscious input at all.
Once such a program is set in motion it can actually be difficult to interrupt it. One aviation psychologist once related a story to me off accidentally tipping an entire bucket of coal down his toilet. He had gone out to collect coal, had decided to stop at the toilet on his way past for a quick pee but the engram was still running. The engram instructed his body to pour the coal into a larger bucket next to his fire place, but it turned out any large container would do !!
We use engrams when riding as well of course. The act of moving with the horse as they walk, trot, canter is one class of such programs. But they have to be learned, how to ride a horse is not built in to our brains. It is tempting when learning a new engram to analyse the required motion to death and try to consciously control all the required muscles to achieve the required motion. This is a very inefficient, if not impossible, way to learn. By way of illustration I invite you to walk, but whilst doing so try to consciously control all the required muscles in the correct sequence. I expect that you will struggle to perform this complicated task.
How then is it best to learn a new engram ? In the "Inner Game of Golf" it is suggested that we need to give the conscious brain a task to perform which, whilst giving useful feedback to the subconscious, is sufficiently taxing that the conscious brain has little spare capacity to interfere with the subconscious brains' vastly superior capacity to learn new physical activities. In the example of golf the book suggests saying the word "back" at the back of the back swing, and "hit" as the ball is struck. To get the timing of this right is actually quite hard, thus stopping the conscious brain from interfering with the subconscious learning process, but still giving useful feedback.
I have found over the years that it is important to regularly change the feedback thought. As the conscious brain gets better at producing the feedback thought it regains spare capacity to start interfering with the subconscious again. In effect the conscious brain is a bit of a control freak that needs to be kept in check with increasingly difficult homework.
I was having real problems on my return to riding with maintaining a seat contact whilst cantering, I kept bouncing. No matter how I consciously tried to control this bouncing I could not seem to quieten it down enough. I then remembered the engram idea and decided to apply it to the problem. Whilst on a 22 foot line Ritchie circled me on Bonitao at canter. I closed my eyes and thought about nothing but the pressure of the saddle through my bum. I did not try to prevent the bounce I just relied on the subconscious to build an engram that would solve the problem for me. Within a few laps 90% of the bounce disappeared and I was finally starting to sit the canter. With the renewed confidence this inspired I was now able to concentrate on other aspects of cantering and rely on the engram to be reinforced and improved by the subconscious.
Now I am not suggesting for a moment that we can learn to ride by turning our conscious brain off. We still need a vision of what the end result should look and feel like. We then need to carefully select the area of the new activity that the conscious brain should concentrate on and allow that concentration to inform the subconscious as to how to build the required motor engram. But maybe, just maybe, by looking at a difficult task using this idea you can make progress where before there was just frustration, it has repeatedly worked for me in horse riding, rock climbing, ice climbing, gliding ......
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