THE SCIENCE
Remember that widely known saying, Practice Makes Perfect? Well hold on...
The saying may still need tweaking…
- Human movement contains tiny variable differences in supposedly repetitive motions. Seemingly identical movements may not be identical, after examination of tiny micro-variations in motions of sport skills.
- There may be a correlation in elite motor performance and the ability to adapt to this inherent movement variability.
- Current pedagogy techniques like occlusion training, compensation and basic cross-training already encourage neural adaptations in movement. The concept movement of variability provides support for the mechanisms behind the effectiveness of these techniques.
- Research suggests the ability to adapt (movement adaptation strategies) can be taught, to help an athlete adjust to the inherent movement variability for better performance.
- Purposely training the ability to adapt, i.e. training kinesthetic awareness, instead of training to perfect, will improve motor performance.