Muscle memory article

[sureshs]

I got email and when I look at tennisplayer.net (@JohnYandell), I see:

In my first article I said that 3 weeks of muscle memory practice every other day is the optimal period to consolidate new muscle memory.

This means practicing on one stroke or shot, trying to hit several hundred high level repetitions, and not practicing any other shot. (Click Here for Part 1). According to the research, this is the time frame and the practice routine needed for the brain to undergo functional change.

Unless you are doing little else but working on your tennis, however, it may be difficult or impossible for you to practice this intensely every other day for 3 weeks. But I believe that--regardless of what may be optimum--you can make significant improvements with less work.

The intensive 3 week plan described in the first article is a generalization. Generalizations apply to large groups. Individuals vary. So what is needed for each individual may be different.

So here is a less ambitious protocol. Practice 3 to 5 times for one week. Again hitting only one shot and not practicing others. 200 or more high quality repetitions.


Apart from the advice of NOT hitting any other stroke, the email also says:

It might seem logical to worry that singling out one shot and not practicing any others would hurt the rest of your game. You know what? There is research that say that this type of practice might automatically improve everything else.

These seem to have never before been discussed and very counter-intuitive. It also has great implications for lessons and clinics, which usually try to drill every type of shot.

 

[Mountain Ghost]

How long it takes to develop a muscle memory has a lot to do with how much muscle memory must be changed ... meaning how much "demolition" must be done before you can "build" ... or "RE-build"! With a ball machine ... and being SUPER diligent about doing the correct thing ... without variation ... 500 a day can change things really fast. The ONLY problem being if you don't have a pro there watching you ... you will often think (and feel) you are doing the correct thing ... when you're actually not. Video is good ... but it lacks immediate response ... and the repetitive flow suffers ... with too much time thinking ... and "figuring" ... in between hits ~ MG

 

[r2473]

This is exactly what I do. I’m heading out right now to hit forehand slices off my machine

 

[Dragy]

Discussed here with @ADS a year ago

https://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/ind...to-establish-muscle-memory-per-science.623456

 

[sureshs]

I was not talking about how fast MM develops. I was intrigued by the suggestion to not practice any other shot

 

[heninfan99]

 

[Dragy]

I was not talking about how fast MM develops. I was intrigued by the suggestion to not practice any other shot

That was covered in discussion. Go through the thread, Archie did explain in details his ideas.

 

[Ash_Smith]

Discussed here with @ADS a year ago

https://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/ind...to-establish-muscle-memory-per-science.623456

And yet interestingly, most recent skill acquisition research will tell you that variable practice actually leads to long term, more robust skill development - which is at odds with the Archie Dan Smith article. Also worth noting that the references cited in that article are not specific to tennis (apart from one taken from his own book), are 20 years old or in one case point to the benefits of training specificity as opposed to the idea that training one thing after another will lead to the initial training being non-effective (as is suggested in the article).

Apart from the advice of NOT hitting any other stroke, the email also says:

It might seem logical to worry that singling out one shot and not practicing any others would hurt the rest of your game. You know what? There is research that say that this type of practice might automatically improve everything else.

These seem to have never before been discussed and very counter-intuitive. It also has great implications for lessons and clinics, which usually try to drill every type of shot.

It also goes against most of the current research into the acquisition of skill - would be interested to know what research is being cited as evidence.

 

[Dragy]

Most tennis- (choose whatever you want) specific data seems to be based on collecting, compilation and formalization into training programs of general scientific research. Multi-stage process from fundamental research through hypothesis on “performance” level to be checked, to further application. You can set up controlled study and get good data on simple skill acquisition. Not so much on making high level players acquire effective forehand stroke - too many uncontrolled variables.
I mean, all current widely accepted wisdom and training approaches cannot promise skill acquisition as fast as @ADS claims with his method. So it’s pretty easily verified, and he claims he has a number of cases of anecdotal evidence. You are not talking +10% possible efficiency to get this discussion to “most recent research...”.
I’m actually skeptical about much of sports “science” data. For example, videos have been posted recently from 2015 Tennis Congress, in one of which dr. Marc Kovacs claimed interval training to be best for tennis performance because it’s how we expend energy on court. But that’s just the surface, never touching the aerobic/anaerobic zones, lactate concentration and removing from muscles. Opposed to his opinion, aerobic capabilities of muscles create the “free of charge” basis for performance. There are multiple cases of evidence where exactly basic/aerobic training gave significant improvement for players’ results in tennis, as well as sports like alpine skiing (see Herman Mayer).
So, I beg you at least give some thoughtful attention to the concept, read some @ADS replies and clarifications, make some experimentation.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

@sureshs

And yet interestingly, most recent skill acquisition research will tell you that variable practice actually leads to long term, more robust skill development - which is at odds with the Archie Dan Smith article. Also worth noting that the references cited in that article are not specific to tennis (apart from one taken from his own book), are 20 years old or in one case point to the benefits of training specificity as opposed to the idea that training one thing after another will lead to the initial training being non-effective (as is suggested in the article).

It also goes against most of the current research into the acquisition of skill - would be interested to know what research is being cited as evidence.

This was my thinking as well.

Discussed here with @ADS a year ago

https://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/ind...to-establish-muscle-memory-per-science.623456

See ITF article, page 18

https://en.coaching.itftennis.com/media/284860/284860.pdf

The previous ITF article on page 15 (by Sahan, Erman, Ertekin) appears to be at odds with this one:

The effect of a variable practice method on tennis groundstroke learning of adult beginners

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of a variable practices method on groundstroke performance in tennis... A Tennis Skill Test (TST) was applied to all subjects with pre-tests and post-tests. Results showed that a variable teaching methodology in groundstrokes may have increased the ability of beginner and intermediate players to learn variations of groundstrokes more than the constant practice.

 

[Dragy]

There’s actually yet another way of looking onto things. The whole muscle memory concept focuses quite a bit on acquiring, ingraining some patterns to execute tasks without control. Yet many complex tasks, like execution of tennis strokes, are not uniformly similar instance to instance. Therefore they require control, and it’s very tough to draw a line between fully conscious control and subconscious control of motions.
We’d likely agree that the ability to directly control body motions is limited to one, or maybe few elements at a time. However, this doesn’t mean we cannot control some aspect here and another on the next shot. It seems to me, that the ability to control your body is extremely important and worth development to be able to successfully learn to perform complex physical tasks. The more you practice various things in various environments, the better you become in controlling your body, then easier it becomes to achieve proper execution, easier to recognize flaws and focus to adjust, and finally, the better you perform with mostly subconscious control of performance (though likely focusing on key elements here and there).
The above supports the varied practice concept, though shifting focus from direct skill acquisition to long term development.

 

[Nostradamus]

I got email and when I look at tennisplayer.net (@JohnYandell), I see:

In my first article I said that 3 weeks of muscle memory practice every other day is the optimal period to consolidate new muscle memory.

This means practicing on one stroke or shot, trying to hit several hundred high level repetitions, and not practicing any other shot. (Click Here for Part 1). According to the research, this is the time frame and the practice routine needed for the brain to undergo functional change.

Unless you are doing little else but working on your tennis, however, it may be difficult or impossible for you to practice this intensely every other day for 3 weeks. But I believe that--regardless of what may be optimum--you can make significant improvements with less work.

The intensive 3 week plan described in the first article is a generalization. Generalizations apply to large groups. Individuals vary. So what is needed for each individual may be different.

So here is a less ambitious protocol. Practice 3 to 5 times for one week. Again hitting only one shot and not practicing others. 200 or more high quality repetitions.


Apart from the advice of NOT hitting any other stroke, the email also says:

It might seem logical to worry that singling out one shot and not practicing any others would hurt the rest of your game. You know what? There is research that say that this type of practice might automatically improve everything else.

These seem to have never before been discussed and very counter-intuitive. It also has great implications for lessons and clinics, which usually try to drill every type of shot.

do you actually have to get on the tennis court and hit balls every other day for 3 weeks or can you just shadow swing at home and achieve the same thing ?

 

[Ash_Smith]

There’s actually yet another way of looking onto things. The whole muscle memory concept focuses quite a bit on acquiring, ingraining some patterns to execute tasks without control. Yet many complex tasks, like execution of tennis strokes, are not uniformly similar instance to instance. Therefore they require control, and it’s very tough to draw a line between fully conscious control and subconscious control of motions.
We’d likely agree that the ability to directly control body motions is limited to one, or maybe few elements at a time. However, this doesn’t mean we cannot control some aspect here and another on the next shot. It seems to me, that the ability to control your body is extremely important and worth development to be able to successfully learn to perform complex physical tasks. The more you practice various things in various environments, the better you become in controlling your body, then easier it becomes to achieve proper execution, easier to recognize flaws and focus to adjust, and finally, the better you perform with mostly subconscious control of performance (though likely focusing on key elements here and there).
The above supports the varied practice concept, though shifting focus from direct skill acquisition to long term development.

It should also be considered that the relationship between open-loop and closed-loop skill has a potential bearing as does the context in which those skills are used. For example, tennis is played in a complex, dynamic system and (serve aside) there is minimal chance any 2 shot situations will ever be the same - therefore adaptability of skill is vital and as such variable practice becomes more important?

 

[Dragy]

It should also be considered that the relationship between open-loop and closed-loop skill has a potential bearing as does the context in which those skills are used. For example, tennis is played in a complex, dynamic system and (serve aside) there is minimal chance any 2 shot situations will ever be the same - therefore adaptability of skill is vital and as such variable practice becomes more important?

We may consider, once again, stages and layers of skill. For example, let’s take forehand swing: backswing and transition to forward swing (with some degree of arm relaxation) should be initially learned, and it’s very likely it’s better learned in as strict and repetitive setup as possible. Because there’re some specific sequencing alien to general body performance.
You can argue one can learn this through practicing in more open setup, yet I believe initial learning might be significantly faster way here. Moreover, it may keep the student from working out own suboptimal solutions.

 

[dominikk1985]

In my experience the most important thing Is that you practice a new move daily. Doesn't have to be hundreds of reps, better 30-50 reps each day than once a week 300 times.

Sure you could do 200 repetitions but for most players those won't be quality ones but break down after 50 or so only making it worse. Maybe 200+ works with extremely highly trained individuals who can take that workload physically and mentally.

 

[r2473]

In my experience the most important thing Is that you practice a new move daily. Doesn't have to be hundreds of reps, better 30-50 reps each day than once a week 300 times.

Sure you could do 200 repetitions but for most players those won't be quality ones but break down after 50 or so only making it worse. Maybe 200+ works with extremely highly trained individuals who can take that workload physically and mentally.

200 reps is 1 to 2 ball machine hoppers. It will take about 1/2 hour.

I’ve been trying to turn my forehand slice into a weapon. It’s not a shot I’ve ever hit in a match, except when caught in a bad position. Then I’m just pushing or blocking it back.

Practicing it exclusively, I can hit it well off the machine. I played this weekend and predictably it was a mess in my match. Under pressure, I reverted back to my old pusher stroke.

So you need both. You have to hit it in a controlled, ball machine environment to gets lots of reps and learn / ingraine the stroke. But you then have to test in in real world conditions.

I think I’ll “own” the stroke in a few months

 

[sureshs]

do you actually have to get on the tennis court and hit balls every other day for 3 weeks or can you just shadow swing at home and achieve the same thing ?

How will you get feedback from just shadow swings?

 

[sureshs]

I also thought that repping one stroke exclusively might harm the others and at the very least, how could it improve them?

But here is a curious fact. I can hit 2-handed backhands without ever practicing that stroke. Somehow my forehand and 1-handed backhand have resulted in a 2-handed backhand.

It is not world-class like my 1 hander of course, but sort of OK.

How do you explain that?

 

[Nostradamus]

How will you get feedback from just shadow swings?

so you would probably need ball machines. good lobster ball machine on the court would be mandatory, I guess. you can't do this in drill groups or practice

 

[Ash_Smith]

You can argue one can learn this through practicing in more open setup, yet I believe initial learning might be significantly faster way here. Moreover, it may keep the student from working out own suboptimal solutions.

It's faily well accepted that blocked practice shows a quicker initial development, but it is equally well accepted in skill acquisition circles that variable practice (along with other principles) leads to longer term, more robust skill development (and by robust we mean more likely to be repeatable under pressure and in a complex system).

 

[ADS]

@sureshs

This was my thinking as well.



The previous ITF article on page 15 (by Sahan, Erman, Ertekin) appears to be at odds with this one:

The effect of a variable practice method on tennis groundstroke learning of adult beginners

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of a variable practices method on groundstroke performance in tennis... A Tennis Skill Test (TST) was applied to all subjects with pre-tests and post-tests. Results showed that a variable teaching methodology in groundstrokes may have increased the ability of beginner and intermediate players to learn variations of groundstrokes more than the constant practice.

@sureshs

This was my thinking as well.



The previous ITF article on page 15 (by Sahan, Erman, Ertekin) appears to be at odds with this one:

The effect of a variable practice method on tennis groundstroke learning of adult beginners

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of a variable practices method on groundstroke performance in tennis... A Tennis Skill Test (TST) was applied to all subjects with pre-tests and post-tests. Results showed that a variable teaching methodology in groundstrokes may have increased the ability of beginner and intermediate players to learn variations of groundstrokes more than the constant practice.

Practice types:





Thanks for the comment. I did a lot of reviews related to practice types: Variable/varied/ random/mixed, blocked, massed, constant, distributed, and learner adapted. Who knows, maybe something else. I especially reviewed practice. As you know, varied has good, superior results in many studies related to motor skill learning and retention.

I very much considered including a chapter on varied practice, etc in my book, and how I believe Muscle Memory Practice (MMP) is different. However, one criticism of my book is that it is too technical. Actually, my editor had me redo my original writings much because it was even more technical in the original ‘finished’ product. I had to revise and eliminate several sections. I concluded that most do now know about varied practice, etc, and that any discussion would be involved, and technical, so I decided to ‘not go there’. Also, the book already was getting maybe too lengthy. So I left it out.

Per your referenced article:

"In general, skills in the variable practice condition are learned by changing some aspects of the task such as, for instance: the distance, the speed and the direction of the shot. Practicing in similar conditions to the ones during the competition will also positively affect the performance (Williams, and Hodges, 2005). In this method, the skills should not be practiced in a repeated sequence. In variable practice conditions, each trial should be different from the previous and the next ones." This part of the article referenced a 1986 book , and then referenced two pages in the book. I was not able to access, so cannot comment on that.

A shorter possible definition is: "In the study learning and memory, varied practice (also known as variable practice or mixed practice) refers to the use of a training schedule that includes frequent changes of task so that the performer is constantly confronting novel instantiations of the to-be-learned information."

So a few points to address your comments:

-Most all of us are already doing this, that is varied practice, and seemingly have ‘plateaued’. Reread “Stuck” chapter in my book ("Muscle Memory and Imagery: Better Tennis")
-Since your are already doing varied practice, how much is your game improving? Are people asking how are your getting so much better? So quickly? etc
-Varied practice does not address what you need to improve your tennis game. Meaning,
“How does varied practice address your weaknesses (eg a lousy backhand)?” -
“How does varied practice really help improve your strengths so can close points?”.
To me, clearly at times you need to focus on one component of your game.

-Varied practice does not work well for complex skills. The greater the complexity of a task, the less well varied practice performs. Think if you tried to use varied practice to learn a dance piece or a music piece. A good article (Wolf and Shea, 2002) addressing this notes "research on more complex skills shows that the manipulation of practice variables that result in enhanced learning of simple skills are actually detrimental to the learning of complex skills."

-"The theoretical underpinnings of the varied practice approach stem primarily from a behavioral phenomenon discussed in the skill acquisition literature called contextual interference (Shea & Morgan, 1979)." ......."Consistent with this view, contextual interference is reduced or eliminated with more complex tasks (see Wulf & Shea, 2002). Across the various accounts of this complexity effect, the dominant theme is that as complexity increases, learners benefit more from the opportunity to repeat and refine their responses on successive trials."

This is what Muscle Memory Practice (MMP) does.

-As noted above, at times, clearly and obviously you need to focus on one component of your game. This is what MMP addresses. The MMP is about learning SPECIFIC new skills and/or refining existing motor skills. It is about incorporating new/improved technique into muscle memory.
-Varied practice emphasizes random requires more “cognitive”. I am going after muscle memory, which is very different from the conscious cognitive process (although always related so you can't really separate)
-This is about skill 'acquisition' (and/or refine meant of existing motor skills). Varied practice notes better retention (vs something like blocked practice) - although retention is not as good in some studies). However, with MMP, the retention part (I call it and prefer the term consolidation) is a major focus. It is specifically addressed and incorporated into the the structure of what I recommend.

Really one can argue back and forth - I'd rather not.
-I consider my proposed Muscle Memory Practice all theory/theories, it is a series of hypothetical proposals to be tested. However, I believe it, It has worked really well for me and the few others who have tried it. if you are not happy with your current game, then give Muscle Memory Practice a go for two weeks (three is optimal) and see what happens. I mean it is just a small bit of time, but if you do, please try to closely adhere to do exactly as recommended. (Simply put, to only do half of the recommended plan is like only doing a diet half of the time - that is, you are unlikely to see much benefit)

But, if you are happy with where your game is, then continue to practice in the random fashion.

No matter what, enjoy yourself!

 

[ADS]

I also thought that repping one stroke exclusively might harm the others and at the very least, how could it improve them?

But here is a curious fact. I can hit 2-handed backhands without ever practicing that stroke. Somehow my forehand and 1-handed backhand have resulted in a 2-handed backhand.

It is not world-class like my 1 hander of course, but sort of OK.

How do you explain that?

Looking over this I don’t think I ever addressed this. Sorry about that. I will carefully go over these posts this weekend to make sure I have. Not really specifically sure about you getting the two handed BH, but maybe this chapter from my book “”Muscle Memory and Imagery: Better Tennis” will help some. A bit long for the post, but this is the chapter that addresses this topic. (One Thing I like about my book, is that it proposes several reasonable hypothesis based of some research and personal experience. I just wish some academic and or grad students would move forward with it. It could have a lot of significance maybe?). I have also had others confirm this observation.

You may feel you are neglecting or hurting the rest of your game as you focus on only one aspect of one stroke for 3 weeks (for example, only the forehand cross-court shot) but that is usually not the case. Let’s say you only hit forehands for 3 weeks. You may be surprised to find that even though you did not hit any backhands, your backhand stroke improved. In fact, there is pretty good scientific evidence that your backhand could improve, even though you only practiced your forehand. Why?

From personal experience, when I was working on my forehand cross-court shot, although I did not hit any backhands or volleys, both the backhands and volleys also definitely improved. I think this is because I was so focused on Getting Set (getting my racket back before the ball crossed the net). Also, as I practiced, I started developing muscle memory, doing a Head Turn, really watching the ball, and hitting the Sweet Spot. I also had focused on a smooth stroke and following through. In effect, the other strokes improved because I was doing the “Fundamentals” (actually The Keystone Habits), which apply to all strokes. I really had started to automatically perform the most important rules of good stroke production on a better, more consistent level. I therefore did this even on the shots I did not practice, and the shots improved.

So I researched this further. The results show there is science to back up the proposal (theory) that if you focus totally on one shot, you may not be hurting the rest of your game and may actually be improving other strokes. My experience was the result of an observed scientific principle called “Positive Transference” (Seidler, 2010; University of Minnesota Duluth, n.d.). This means when you practice and learn one skill, then improvement occurs in a related skill. The learning of one skill set is helpful in learning another skill set. Additionally, previous learning of skills, such as the Get Set and the Head Turn, acquired while practicing your cross-court forehand, transfer to when you start working on your backhand strokes.

A further component of Positive Transference is called the “Bilateral Transfer of Learning” (Teixeira, 2000). This means that tasks and skills learned in one limb are thereafter acquired more quickly in the other limb. In other words, if you have learned how to hit a better forehand, then your backhand will also improve to some extent, even though you have not practiced your backhand.

The transfer occurs because there is a strong cognitive component. The first part of learning a new motor skill is telling yourself what to do to learn this new skill. You have to think to make it happen. Therefore, when one skill set is learned, the acquisition and consolidation of the second skill set is easier. I also strongly believe that some, but not most, components of good stroke technique can be transferred from the forehand to backhand side, and vice versa.

This is especially true for those skills that are learned in the cognitive phase. This means you are consciously telling/training yourself to do it differently. The conscious thoughts of the brain are planning the actions of the upcoming motor movements. Skilled motor tasks, especially in tennis, have a anticipatory component that is separate from the motor task itself. The ball is coming toward you. You anticipate and calculate the angle, speed, spin, etc. You need to figure out the proper distance of the ball from the body in order to hit it correctly. None of this is a motor action. It is all cerebral. It is all cognitive. Academically, this is sometimes referred to as “anticipatory timing”.

Transfer of learning from one arm to the other, the left to the right and the right to the left, has been observed to take place with hitting a ball with a racket (Teixeira, 2000). This is in large part due to learning to “anticipate” what is going to happen and what you will need to do when you see the spin, speed, and direction of the on-coming ball – the ball’s trajectory, height, etc. Your brain calculates and anticipates. You then Get Set as part of that anticipation in getting ready for the next shot. Again, all this relates to anticipatory timing (and planning). Then the Head Turn and Sweet Spot kick in (hopefully). These are still part of the self-conscious instruction and movement due to anticipating the path and movement of the ball and your upcoming stroke.

The transfer of anticipatory timing is relatively strong, although the transfer of the actual motor movement itself is weak. The critical aspect is starting the movement at the right time. Note this is not just theory, as it has been shown that the transfer of anticipatory timing control worked for both sides of the body, with “both hands benefiting similarly from previous practice with the contralateral hand”. In fact, related to this anticipatory timing, both hands “demonstrated the same capacity to maintain approximately 70% of the level of performance achieved with the contralateral practiced hand” (Teixeira, 2000).

This means, simply put, if you work on your forehand, the anticipatory skills that you learn will transfer, in part, to the backhand side, and if you improve on your backhand, then your improved anticipatory skills will transfer, in part, to your forehand.

Also, this obvious fact should be stated: The brain, although frequently divided into a right and left hemisphere, is one organ. One side of the brain freely communicates with the other. Any motor skill has a cognitive and a motor component. These skills, especially the cognitive skills, are readily transferred from one side of the brain to the other.

In essence, the brain transfers the “knowledge” (although not the specific motor movement itself) gained in obtaining the new skill set to a new situation that was not specifically practiced. That is, the skillsets you learned when hitting your forehand are now available, at least partly – and in a good way. These skillsets are already present when you begin hitting your backhand. Your positive performance in hitting your forehand is now positively influencing your backhand and volley. Neat!

So do not fret excessively that you are spending all of your practice time on only your forehand for 3 weeks. You may be surprised that your other strokes will not suffer, and could actually improve!

 

[ADS]

How did you like the book?

 

[ADS]

do you actually have to get on the tennis court and hit balls every other day for 3 weeks or can you just shadow swing at home and achieve the same thing ?

Both. The shadow swings really help esp with learning new technique or improving you new technique
Shadow swings create the precision necessary to lay down you MM (Muscle Memory)
It establishes the MM you want for Better Tennis
This is esp important in the beginning because you are laying down your core stroke
Goal is not how fast you develop it, but how perfect
Daniel Coyle – Spartek story - see book. A good quote for shadow swings
The current needs to not just be fired, but fired correctly
The best way to build good circuit is to fire it
Attend to the mistakes
Then fire it again, over and over

Grant Grinnell
Without Tai chi you have a relearning process
Because things are happening too fast in the practice session
The brain needs more time to engrave the full motor skill
A missed step can take hundreds of repetitions to correct
As a coach with over 50,000 hours on the court
At times I’d rather see my students do ten minutes of slow-motion drilling to fix a long term flaw
Than an hour and a half of court play

Forming MM is best accomplished by starting slowly. This is why I prefer to call it Tai chi strokes rather than shadow swings. The “Tai chi” emphasizes doing the stroke really really slowly, and breaking the stroke down into its component parts

Slowing it down t exactly reproduce the desired motor skill exactly
Slowing it down enables you to learn each aspect of the stroke correctly and perfectly reliably reproduce it. Not sure if you have read my book (I should mention my book is in Amazon Books “Muscle Memory and Imagery: Better Tennis “) but it goes back to the concept of “chunking” related to new motor skills.
(Go to "Chunking" section below)

From personal experience, I had a lot of difficulty in incorporating the unit turn into my stokes. Turning my body, esp upper body/shoulder, etc around, to set up - then unwinding from bottom up - moving my foot forward from ball of foot, then ankle, then lower leg and adding some rotation, then knee, then upper leg/thigh, then rotate hip and move from waist etc. it took about two minutes to do the first one and felt totally weird. But after 5 minutes a couple of times a day for two weeks, it stared to feel more natural. If you know much about martial arts/Tai chi, you can see the analogy. And that was just thinking about unit turn. I still had to work on the shoulder/arm/wrist etc movement .... and so on

Few times can you go for perfection, but with Tai chi strokes/Shadow strokes, you can
If one aspect is difficult, you may not feel comfortable
And why should it since you have never done it this way before
But consider that a plus because you have discovered a major flaw, part of a tennis skill for which you really do not know, and certainly have not mastered it

Chunking
To facilitate the learning of new motor skills the brain breaks segments of movement into smaller parts
Motor skill learning occurs in stages – chunks as referred by academics
In MM, your body learns by dividing the movement into chunks
This is the neurobiological basis for learning
Your brain is divided into different regions. It is the accumulation of small discrete movements
Different regions are different

You are chunking your strokes into several separate divisible parts
You break it into small pieces
Small part that you can understand and reliably reproduce
Consider each unit a separate practice
Create precision one movement at a time
Fix he errors. Work on the parts that you do not do well
Put everything you have into it

But doing it on the court IS different!!!! You go back to your old muscle memory paths. I recently had trouble with this. What seemed to help the transition from Tai chi swings to real on-court better technique was slowing the feeds on the ball machine down to where I could do a shadow swing between every hit. This helped a lot! But again, this is just personal experience, another anecdotal report. But I think it could perhaps be useful to others

 

[heninfan99]

How did you like the book?

I liked it very much. There's a section on Russian tennis.

 

[sureshs]

Looking over this I don’t think I ever addressed this. Sorry about that. I will carefully go over these posts this weekend to make sure I have. Not really specifically sure about you getting the two handed BH, but maybe this chapter from my book “”Muscle Memory and Imagery: Better Tennis” will help some. A bit long for the post, but this is the chapter that addresses this topic. (One Thing I like about my book, is that it proposes several reasonable hypothesis based of some research and personal experience. I just wish some academic and or grad students would move forward with it. It could have a lot of significance maybe?). I have also had others confirm this observation.

You may feel you are neglecting or hurting the rest of your game as you focus on only one aspect of one stroke for 3 weeks (for example, only the forehand cross-court shot) but that is usually not the case. Let’s say you only hit forehands for 3 weeks. You may be surprised to find that even though you did not hit any backhands, your backhand stroke improved. In fact, there is pretty good scientific evidence that your backhand could improve, even though you only practiced your forehand. Why?

From personal experience, when I was working on my forehand cross-court shot, although I did not hit any backhands or volleys, both the backhands and volleys also definitely improved. I think this is because I was so focused on Getting Set (getting my racket back before the ball crossed the net). Also, as I practiced, I started developing muscle memory, doing a Head Turn, really watching the ball, and hitting the Sweet Spot. I also had focused on a smooth stroke and following through. In effect, the other strokes improved because I was doing the “Fundamentals” (actually The Keystone Habits), which apply to all strokes. I really had started to automatically perform the most important rules of good stroke production on a better, more consistent level. I therefore did this even on the shots I did not practice, and the shots improved.

So I researched this further. The results show there is science to back up the proposal (theory) that if you focus totally on one shot, you may not be hurting the rest of your game and may actually be improving other strokes. My experience was the result of an observed scientific principle called “Positive Transference” (Seidler, 2010; University of Minnesota Duluth, n.d.). This means when you practice and learn one skill, then improvement occurs in a related skill. The learning of one skill set is helpful in learning another skill set. Additionally, previous learning of skills, such as the Get Set and the Head Turn, acquired while practicing your cross-court forehand, transfer to when you start working on your backhand strokes.

A further component of Positive Transference is called the “Bilateral Transfer of Learning” (Teixeira, 2000). This means that tasks and skills learned in one limb are thereafter acquired more quickly in the other limb. In other words, if you have learned how to hit a better forehand, then your backhand will also improve to some extent, even though you have not practiced your backhand.

The transfer occurs because there is a strong cognitive component. The first part of learning a new motor skill is telling yourself what to do to learn this new skill. You have to think to make it happen. Therefore, when one skill set is learned, the acquisition and consolidation of the second skill set is easier. I also strongly believe that some, but not most, components of good stroke technique can be transferred from the forehand to backhand side, and vice versa.

This is especially true for those skills that are learned in the cognitive phase. This means you are consciously telling/training yourself to do it differently. The conscious thoughts of the brain are planning the actions of the upcoming motor movements. Skilled motor tasks, especially in tennis, have a anticipatory component that is separate from the motor task itself. The ball is coming toward you. You anticipate and calculate the angle, speed, spin, etc. You need to figure out the proper distance of the ball from the body in order to hit it correctly. None of this is a motor action. It is all cerebral. It is all cognitive. Academically, this is sometimes referred to as “anticipatory timing”.

Transfer of learning from one arm to the other, the left to the right and the right to the left, has been observed to take place with hitting a ball with a racket (Teixeira, 2000). This is in large part due to learning to “anticipate” what is going to happen and what you will need to do when you see the spin, speed, and direction of the on-coming ball – the ball’s trajectory, height, etc. Your brain calculates and anticipates. You then Get Set as part of that anticipation in getting ready for the next shot. Again, all this relates to anticipatory timing (and planning). Then the Head Turn and Sweet Spot kick in (hopefully). These are still part of the self-conscious instruction and movement due to anticipating the path and movement of the ball and your upcoming stroke.

The transfer of anticipatory timing is relatively strong, although the transfer of the actual motor movement itself is weak. The critical aspect is starting the movement at the right time. Note this is not just theory, as it has been shown that the transfer of anticipatory timing control worked for both sides of the body, with “both hands benefiting similarly from previous practice with the contralateral hand”. In fact, related to this anticipatory timing, both hands “demonstrated the same capacity to maintain approximately 70% of the level of performance achieved with the contralateral practiced hand” (Teixeira, 2000).

This means, simply put, if you work on your forehand, the anticipatory skills that you learn will transfer, in part, to the backhand side, and if you improve on your backhand, then your improved anticipatory skills will transfer, in part, to your forehand.

Also, this obvious fact should be stated: The brain, although frequently divided into a right and left hemisphere, is one organ. One side of the brain freely communicates with the other. Any motor skill has a cognitive and a motor component. These skills, especially the cognitive skills, are readily transferred from one side of the brain to the other.

In essence, the brain transfers the “knowledge” (although not the specific motor movement itself) gained in obtaining the new skill set to a new situation that was not specifically practiced. That is, the skillsets you learned when hitting your forehand are now available, at least partly – and in a good way. These skillsets are already present when you begin hitting your backhand. Your positive performance in hitting your forehand is now positively influencing your backhand and volley. Neat!

So do not fret excessively that you are spending all of your practice time on only your forehand for 3 weeks. You may be surprised that your other strokes will not suffer, and could actually improve!

That is a lot of good information about positive reinforcement

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