Watch the Fight
16 April 2007 -- More links on the reticular activating system
I was intending to do a piece on the RAS and brain hemispheres with respect to learning, but a lot of time has gone by and we just haven't been able to get to it. So although this isn't a fight clip, I'm going to use this space to post some more links in addition to the ones I put in the Kyle Maynard post, yesterday. The idea I'm trying to get across is how the brain's ability to perceive reality is affected by the way the systems of the brain have been strengthened. The reticular activating system will organize information according to what you believe to be important. When you focus on something that you feel is important to you, the pattern recognition systems of the brain as well as the generative image pattern systems and limbic system are strengthened in a way that favours that particular focus. And over time and with practice, the alterations to the neural networks become ever stronger. We begin to see what we expect to see or want to see; this is an inevitable consequence of the way our brains are wired.
I've been saying for years that martial arts are a little like dough. The cookie-cutter shapes of karate exclude an awful lot of dough. And often the essential components of combative reality lie outside the cookie-cutter, and are discarded. By reading these articles you'll be able to see how the systems of the brain work, and if you apply a litte lateral thinking it's pretty obvious how the systems could be corrupted by practices that focus on irrelevant details. This can occur to the point where a practitioner can't even see or understand something right in front of his eyes, because it doesn't fit into the patterns that have been strengthened in his brain.
These articles also give support and some explanation to a phenomenon that I've observed over many years, which is that the higher the grade, the harder it is to change. And the more you perceive yourself as an authority, the harder it is for you to take in information that contradicts what you believe. An authority has too much invested in their belief to be able to step outside of it, intellectually or physically.
That's why I say, watch the fight. The fight is the reality check for a martial artist. Unfortunately, if you're watching the fight with cookie-cutter eyes, you still probably won't see it. That's where a little real-life experience of fighting goes a long way.
Article on Karting and the Brain
A lot of the guys over on KU, by the way, really seem to live in their left brain. That might work when you're sitting at your computer playing keyboard warrior, but it's not going to help you when the shit hits the fan. The two hemispheres have to coordinate and work together to get you through the demands of a fight. And the only way you can develop both sides of the brain together is by reality-based practice that will make the same kind of demands on the brain as a real fight does.
