OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Came across this article from a site called DAMN INTERESTING: http://www.damninteresting.com/the-scie ... #more-5038

This is a topic that I've wondered about for a long time, mainly because I do have a tendency to 'practice' or 'play out' games in my head, especially while lying in bed after a night of actual play.

I think the idea of improving your skills in a physical world by not having access to the physical components of the activity is a valid one. Here's a little snippet from the article:

"Skills that can rely on mental practise are also familiar to those who need to practise physical motions regularly, such as musicians and athletes. For instrumentalists, having an actual instrument to play is pretty handy, but it turns out that having a mental copy of one can be almost as good. The musical community in general has been aware of this for decades or more. Noted pianists Vladimir Horowitz and Arthur Rubinstein both employed the technique of mental rehearsal–playing pieces on an imaginary piano in their minds–and for different reasons. Horowitz was uncomfortable practising on any piano other than his favourite Steinway; Rubinstein simply disliked spending hours at a time sitting at a physical piano. A similar story is recounted by Matthew and Sandra Blakeslee in their 2007 book The Body Has a Mind of Its Own: a violinist spent seven years in jail without his instrument, but practised mentally every single night. On the very night he was released, the violinist gave an impeccable real performance on his violin. The imaginary motions that the violinist engaged in during his stint in jail were able to build, or at least maintain, his fine motor skills.

These days, neuroscience is beginning to catch up to musicians who practise mentally. Although the details are still somewhat elusive, the key to the success of mental imagery as a rehearsal technique is that most of the same neurological regions are invoked by mental practise as by real practise."

What do you guys think?

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Weapon 1: Andro Kinetic Supreme Hinoki/Zylon OFF-; Andro Hexer HDs (FH 2.1/BH 1.9)
Weapon 2: Ross Leidy 'Smokey'; Friendship 729-5s
Club1: Daylesford - since 2010
Club2: Ballarat - since 2011
Blog: A Naked Bear

And consider this:

Very similar, but even more striking, is the evidence from athletic training. As with rehearsing a piece on the piano, practising a complex physical task in the mind alone is nearly as effective a learning strategy as actually physically doing it. But it doesn’t stop there. In a 2004 study, a group of researchers from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation decided to find out whether mental practise of a minor exercise routine could actually result in physical changes to the target areas of the body. One group of subjects performed a regular exercise involving moving a finger sideways; a second group regularly imagined doing the same exercise but did not go through the physical motions; and a third (control) group did nothing unusual with their fingers at all. After 12 weeks of training, the physical finger-workout group showed an increase of 53% in finger strength; the control group did not show any changes in finger strength; and the mental-finger-stretching group showed an increase of 35%. In other words, the mental-exercise group physically increased the strength of one of their fingers by imagining, repeatedly, over the course of about three months, that they were exercising it. They didn’t have to lift a finger in order to convince their brains that they were, in fact, lifting a finger.

This result is not unique. A 2007 Canadian study targeting hip muscles had the same outcome: a group of college students using weightlifting increased their hip-muscle strength by 28.3%, a control-group doing nothing to their hip muscles exhibited no change in strength, and a group working on the muscles only via mental imagery showed an increase in the strength of those muscles by 23.7%. What this means is that imagining was almost as good as going to the gym, and probably cheaper as well. One can lie on the couch and build muscle just by thinking about doing those 200 push-ups or running those five kilometres, as long as one is careful and thorough."

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Weapon 1: Andro Kinetic Supreme Hinoki/Zylon OFF-; Andro Hexer HDs (FH 2.1/BH 1.9)
Weapon 2: Ross Leidy 'Smokey'; Friendship 729-5s
Club1: Daylesford - since 2010
Club2: Ballarat - since 2011
Blog: A Naked Bear

Quite interesting Oskar..

I often daydream about playing and winning does that qualify . When I'm not playing, I often review mistakes and strategies but not imagining of doing power loops to improve my loops.

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Enjoy the game. It is a never ending learning experience once you play and keep the ball on that 45 sq ft of space or should I say half of that space.

I think it certainly qualifies. The suggestion is that the mind truly is the master of the body, even to the extent that doing actual physical work is merely secondary. It's pretty way out there, but the implications are amazing. Of course, it still means you have to be disciplined.

Red Lion, keep it up!

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Weapon 1: Andro Kinetic Supreme Hinoki/Zylon OFF-; Andro Hexer HDs (FH 2.1/BH 1.9)
Weapon 2: Ross Leidy 'Smokey'; Friendship 729-5s
Club1: Daylesford - since 2010
Club2: Ballarat - since 2011
Blog: A Naked Bear

Very interesting read, has a lot of plausibility. Running simulations in your head can transferred and hopefully become second nature while at the table.

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My blade: Ross Leidy U-S-B
Talon in Red

I think it's also true that many sports' psychologists encourage elite athletes to use visualisation to enhance their performance.

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Weapon 1: Andro Kinetic Supreme Hinoki/Zylon OFF-; Andro Hexer HDs (FH 2.1/BH 1.9)
Weapon 2: Ross Leidy 'Smokey'; Friendship 729-5s
Club1: Daylesford - since 2010
Club2: Ballarat - since 2011
Blog: A Naked Bear

Oskar!

I definitely believe that these concepts have merit! I'm going to explore how I can incorporate this into my training. (actually, I injured my stomach muscles 8 days ago by shovelling 12 inches of heavy Canadian snow) So I think this is a GOOD time for me to try your idea! THANKS!

Keep us informed of your results. Although the level or quality of results might be questionable, I do think that provided you are disciplined enough (and this is the key factor), then there must be merit to this idea. I do suspect that part of my ability to play TT quite well comes from thinking or visualising the motions in my head. As I said, the mental discipline is probably the hardest thing, because it would seem easier and more natural just to do it in the physical world. But, as you suggest, there are times when the physical world might be limiting in what can actually be achieved.

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Weapon 1: Andro Kinetic Supreme Hinoki/Zylon OFF-; Andro Hexer HDs (FH 2.1/BH 1.9)
Weapon 2: Ross Leidy 'Smokey'; Friendship 729-5s
Club1: Daylesford - since 2010
Club2: Ballarat - since 2011
Blog: A Naked Bear

I really think this imaginative practice has been making me a better player. I don't have ready access to a table. All I have is my bat and a ball that has no where to go. Call it an obsessive compulsive disorder, but I do find myself imagining strokes, especially serves, and, even though I don't get much physical practice, I am getting better. I do suspect that there's only so far I can go, because, unfortunately, my imaginings lack a good coach. Maybe if I try hard enough one might come, but that's just foolish. Mad, even.

Anyway, my research and practice at putting in disciplined (?) mental visualisation is starting to pay off. At least I think so. And so do my opponents ... and many of them are real and not imagined.

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Weapon 1: Andro Kinetic Supreme Hinoki/Zylon OFF-; Andro Hexer HDs (FH 2.1/BH 1.9)
Weapon 2: Ross Leidy 'Smokey'; Friendship 729-5s
Club1: Daylesford - since 2010
Club2: Ballarat - since 2011
Blog: A Naked Bear

Start imagining doubles movements and returning weird shots that come back from your partners LP now then Oskar!

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I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
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Initiating self-program Alpha Omega Three!

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Weapon 1: Andro Kinetic Supreme Hinoki/Zylon OFF-; Andro Hexer HDs (FH 2.1/BH 1.9)
Weapon 2: Ross Leidy 'Smokey'; Friendship 729-5s
Club1: Daylesford - since 2010
Club2: Ballarat - since 2011
Blog: A Naked Bear

This is good, hmmmmmmmmmmmm

When my wife says you never lift a finger, I can now say " as a mater of fact.......)

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Blade Ulmo Duality| FH Tibhar mx-p Black, Dawei 388D-1 red OX
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She told me you never lift anything to satisfy her

_________________
I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

This stuff has to have some merit. I'm not one to subscribe to hocus-pocus. Been there; done that.

The reason I'm convinced is because I am getting better and there's very little physical, real-world influence. I don't have a table at home and I only play once a week when at the club. Sure, I get there early and leave late, but I still don't think it is the main contributor to my recent development. Sure, I might be fooling myself, but I do put in quite a bit of time simply going through strokes and plays in my mind. I can accept that this might be construed as quite weird behaviour and, if you need to, post your funny comments (see below).

The things I imagine and think about in a more-or-less constructive way are my serves, my forehand and backhand strokes and my footwork. I also find myself drifting off with determined thoughts about tactics.

Here's one to start you off:

Hello. Welcome to the Psychiatric Hotline.
If you are obsessive-compulsive, please press 1 repeatedly.
If you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2.
If you have multiple personalities, please press 3, 4, 5 and 6.
If you are paranoid-delusional, we know who you are and what you want. Just stay on the line so we can trace the call.
If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a little voice will tell you which number to press.
If you are manic-depressive, it doesn't matter which number you press. No one will answer.
If you are anxious, just start pressing numbers at random.
If you are phobic, don't press anything.
If you are anal retentive, please hold.

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Weapon 1: Andro Kinetic Supreme Hinoki/Zylon OFF-; Andro Hexer HDs (FH 2.1/BH 1.9)
Weapon 2: Ross Leidy 'Smokey'; Friendship 729-5s
Club1: Daylesford - since 2010
Club2: Ballarat - since 2011
Blog: A Naked Bear

Using your imagination to practice is kinda like stretching your imagination.

I don't think I can take it too far, with my short attention span, but I see this zen-type thing as just example of training efficiency.

Who needs to practice 2 hrs a day when they can practice once a week? According to New Jersey's Lilly Yip's daughter(forgot her name and could be wrong here) if you dont practice " your gonna lose touch" but she didn't say anything about frequency.

I say, if you practice everyday, look out for injuries. I think everyone's got their optimal weekly practice times and lots of factors are in affect here so if you suscribe to this shadow-boxing imagination thing, the more power to you. For me its a couple of minutes just thinking about what I did right vs what I did wrong and then OOAK for, uh, a few hours - the besst training without a ball, bat or table period!

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A big bag full of blades and long pimples, donuts and coffee!