Psychology Today Canada on June 24, 2021 there was a Entry by R.Douglas Field Ph.D which explained "How Muscle Memory Works" and says "A recent study shows that interspersing short breaks between repetitions encodes skill memories better than back-to-back practice sessions".
This publication is interesting because as Coaching teaches us that students have a level of saturation when learning we now see the brain also needs a rest. In the recent article published on June 8 in the "Cell Report" Dr Field suggest that "Mental Saturation" occurs when our brain is over worked.
The "Cell Report" study shows " the presence of prominent, fast waking neural replay during the same rest periods in which rapid consolidation occurs. The observed replay is temporally compressed by approximately 20-fold relative to the acquired skill, is selective for the trained sequence, and predicts the magnitude of skill consolidation".
The article says "Building “muscle memmory,” that is, developing a new skill through practice, does not work the way you probably believe, (according to a new study published in the June 8 issue of Cell Reports.) You’ve no doubt had the frustrating experience in learning a new skill, that you continue to flub up even though you make repeated attempts over and over. Yet, if you put the challenge aside for a bit and come back to it later, you find that you are now much more proficient. In learning a new skill, it turns out that the breaks between repetitions are where the action is. By monitoring how neural activity in the brain changes during learning a new skill, researchers report that mental “instant replay” after each performance is critical to perfecting the skill. Moreover, these mental flashbacks have been missed by scientists previously for a surprising reason" .
And later writes "Why, then, is this essential post-performance mental rehearsal not obvious to us as we struggle to learn a new skill? It turns out that the “mental instant replay” flashes through the brain at warp speed—20 times faster than the original experience."
There are two interesting aspects of this article. First, “mental instant replay” is a part of Feedback after the practice has been done. Later when using these collected “mental instant replay” by the subconscious mind the athletic can switch from the memory of one "instant replay" to another "instant replay" memory, and with the new memory establish the actual distance to the target (Bowl or Petanque ball) of the intended action.
In the recent Subconscious Mind in Petanque blog it was interesting to see how inter-action of minds interfere with performance. In the article I used a 2024 Petanque Tête à Tête Competition to suggested as a game video for viewing in preparation for this subject matter.
A good profile of Dylan Rocher and his many good instructive videos (in French) under the KTMPetanqueofficial name can be found in french. We are lucky for these videos as he knows well his subject of Petanque. However, in the recent 2024 performance of Dylan's "Tête-à-Tête" , one can see there has been in this recent time a change to his performance. Many great athletics learn something new as they progress and although the performance result may remain the same; the new style of performance that has resulted shows how the conscious and subconscious mind conflict has modified their "self confidence". Being one of the Best Petanque players of our era; if we watch the "Take-out" performance of the above video and compare it to that of a few year earlier like the 2020 PPF Grand Final "Tête-à-Tête Final we agree that Dylan Rocher's performance against Michel Hatchadourian is as beautiful as expensive art. The Passion Petanque Francaise (PPF) final video was capture and made available on Youtube by B J Petanque which is still available. With Dylan's style of "Step into Shooting Circle" think.. decide.. and Shoot (Tir) we see a single arm swing resulting in a perfect take-out shot. Yes result and accuracy are important but an athletic can become tired quickly if these mental conflicts are not addressed by a profession like a Sport Psychologist.
By the two styles, of 2020 and today's 2024 we can understand how an athletic in an attempt to improve his performance should have the resources of professional coaches because as we compare these two videos, we can see Dylan's new style creating confrontation of the two minds. Now the 30 second performance is forcing game officials to check the need to apply duration of time rule for his performance. And any change in the athletic's style which catches the interest of officials is a mental strain which then leads to errors in the "Take-out" or "Tir" as the athletic now does a rushed performance.
This blog is intended to show why with these type of changes or performance improvement at this high level of development, all sports should offer their athletics a sport psychologist or top of the line coach with experience in these subconscious (mental) interactions and performance.
Also a lot can be learned from the comparsion of the two videos as I believe Dylan is mixing a retreival of "Memory Image" for the subconscious development or action with his normal shooting style. (as seen in 2020 video). Let me explain this a bit farther. Above we read of new studies which show that the brain needs time to store the data of a practice. And of course, we later, in this blog and others, explain that the subconscious can use a memory of a previous performance to calculate the distance to the target. Two new terms are introduced with this subconscious action. "tells" and "Tags" where a "Tag" is a small action placed in the Pre-shot routine to remaind the subconscious of an extra action of calculation. "Tells" are similar actions which indicate the athletic's communication with the subconscious.
Sometimes the "Tag" become a permanent part of the performance and likewise is also a "Tell" however very often a "Tag" is forgotten eventually when the reason for the "Tag" has been achieved. In the Youtube video of "Mark Wildeboer Petanque Shooting" we see such a ".Tell". Above, it was suggested that Dlyan Rocher has began using " retreival of "Memory Image" for the calculation of the distance by the subconscious. Mark Wildeboer can be seen (with a Tell) lifting his right toe a couple of times before doing his take-out shot. The tell suggests he is using a "Memory image" of a previous take-out shot and watching his ball in that memory fly to the target ball. Because the chosen memory is not of the correct distance Mark has changed his viewing "memory image". This sort of subconscious calculation occur in Lawn Bowls for the "Jack" distance.
A second possibility is that part of Mark's "Pre-shot routine" is to imagine his ball flying to the target and making contact. When you work on this type of subconscious calculation you are waiting for a feeling of confirmation that you distance is correct. If not you attempt it again and push the distance a bit farther. In this case or subconscious action, the toe-tap is a tell that he is viewing the take-out shot prior to actual performance. The different is in the first explaination it is a "tag" inserted to instruct the subconscious; while in the second it is a "Tell" what mark is think as he communicates with the subconscious. The difference is one ("Tag") was inserted and the other ("Tell") is a sign of mental actions during the "Pre-shot Routine.
Because of the several regular blog visitors and that I should respect their viewing of videos given as example of the blog; it is best that I use only one or two videos to make the point even if repeated in several blogs. In such a way, the reader having already viewed the videos, now can clearly recall what they saw and understand the subject of the blog. On the other hand, if the reader wishes to search Youtube for Petanque or Lawn Bowls video they can certainly find changes in athletic performances from year to year which show their training and development of the subconscious communication.
Secondly, as per the mention article (above) a "20-fold" increase is quite dramatic increase due to the mind's rest; and would suggest that the "athletic in working on their performance improvement" needs this extra time to establish a mental storage by the subconscious of the memories data acquired during their changement of the performance skill.
Because in Coaching Seminars it is suggests that a 15 minutes to 20 minutes practice session is sufficient with new students, this approach with created discussions can increase the speed a new player uses toward the learned skills. Of course the practice should be followed by a mental evaluation and discussion of the Performance and teach the student's Feedback as a continual post performance routine. The Cell Report also suggests that better acceptance of the training is possible with a rest period which allows for mental "re-organization" of the data collected and developed by the brain.
As a "Subconscious" mentor and a coach developer of "mental interruptions" within the "Subconscious action"; I often allow the student to "play" with their practice. If a coach is busy doing continual correction and endless suggestive advice during an athletic training session; the coach's action only increases the mental and personal saturation and results in the athletic reaching "Full Saturation" faster. By letting the student "play" as part of their practice, it allows for the athletic's mental evaluation of the coach's suggestion to become a part of their training. Better understand of the coach's instructions or suggestion then occur with these "play" sessions being a part of the practice session.
In Coaching you suggest a corrective action and explain the raison or the change it will cause in the final performance; but only with the "play" period of the practice will the student fully understand that change. The coach's suggestion is his projection of what that change should do as a physical and mental correction to the athletic's performance. But the athletic's "play" allows him to see various "what if" siturations and understand the intended resulting change of the coach's suggestion. The athletic not only see the change as it is produced but now understand the expectation of their coach. Good communication (listening skills) are very important as the student attempts to explain their view of the changes and the results they feeel it creates to the coach.
Sometimes these "play" sessions develop "Perfomance tools" which are useful later when the athletic's encounters the need for an adjustment to the performance. As in a "Lawn Bowls example where a smooth laydown roll of the bowl creates a constance result. The Lawn bowls coach has suggested "Do not allow a " bounce delivery" during the bowl's delivery because the energy of the delivery which would normally allow for the roll of the Bowl completely to the jack; will now be lost as the energy is now thrown into the playing surface and your bowl will finally stop short of the jack". Now knowing that the bowl loses about two to three feet delivery energy with this bad delivery, the student learns and begins working on improving the delivery by a better "laydown" type of delivery. The student also sees what level of change a bad delivery creates and understand their coach's attempt to correct it.
If student sees that the bowl is now stopping in front of the jack, he may attempt to correct the action but also the subconscious mind gather the idea of "with practice I can use this error as a "takeoff Tool". The student will probably during a practice use the "play information" to create a partial bounce (without damage or dent) and know what precise distance it will produce as the bowls now is stopping a precice distance in front of the jack.
This "Tool for Delivery take-off" was the coach's fine tuning of performance but also it is important the athletic understand the change in delivery (create a small bounce) during the conscious mind's instruction to the muscles. During this correction practice we remove the subconscious from the delivery routine and there is the danger of not allowing the subconscious to have that extra control and change which is a major part of the Subconscious performance.
As the "Muscle Memory" and "Memory retrevial" data has allows for a proper calculation of the jack distance in Lawn bowls or "cochon" in petanque, now you are doing a conscious action to create a different result. The athletic must understand how to allocate control to either mind during practice and know the interference.
Another aspect of an athletic's improvement is because there is a the pride of a good performance (delivery or take-out) the athletic has changed the objective of the Delivery performance With "Muscle Memory" we should always attempt this sort modifiction to the subconscious (instinctive) performance with a "Tag" (a small action in the delivery) rather then the athletic's conscious instruction of how to doing the change. We must always allow the subconscious to use its feeling of "Jack Distance" or "Take-out target" rather than use a "Tag" to modify or calculate that distance.
However, often the thought of the change is the "Tag" for auditive players or the view of the result is the "Tag" for the visual player; as the subconscious has now created a "Muscle Memory" instruction that does a "small bounce" (in Lawn bowls) to adjust it's calculation of distance and expected result of performance.
This example in Lawn Bowls show how the student changes his "tag" as to what is the objective of the "Muscle Memory" modification. When the student rolls up the green with an exact practice distance of the jack and then roll back down the green with again (measured) the same jack distance; they find that during the delivery going back toward the club house his bowl always stops two feet short of the jack. WHY ?? The coach should be ready to explain that maybe the raison may be that the large clubhouse behind the green causes the subconscious to miscalculate the distance; as the clubhouse makes the jack seem closer. This same happens with Petanque and a large building behind the court. Even with indoor Petanque where the opposite end of the court are windows to the outdoors the athletic will have a need to recalculate the target ball distance.
But also if the previous practice the coach was correcting the "bounce Bowl" and now the student sees this "short result" he will question his performance; especially if it was a "Muscle Memory" and he is now exiting the "Void of thought". To correct this miscalculation of distance the coach in a "subconscious" teaching "Tag" might suggest the athletic do a quick look at the clubhouse in their "Pre-Delivery" routine. This micro-second thought (vocal) or quick view (visual) of the clubhouse has remained the subconscious that the large clubhouse causes it to miscalculate the distance. In the similar Petanque miscalculation of distance the athletic may decide that looking at the top or bottom of the target ball is enough of an thought (vocal) or image (visual) (as a "tag") and lead to the subconscious doing a recalculation of of the distance.
A "Tag" is a "subconscious interruption" or action which was taking a micro second in the start of "muscle memory" performance and does a quick subconscious re-calculation. In the above example the quick look toward the clubhouse was used to make an adjustment of the subconscious feeling of the jack distance. The athletic may have found that such a "Tag" of looking pass the jack to the club house and back to the jack immediately prior to the "Muscle Memory" action is a confirmation which the subconsious then makes the adjustment wanted. I use the word "confirmation" because during a delivery there is a moment in the athletic's decision to transfer mental control to the subconscious to activate the "Muscle Memory". During the athletic's "Delivery routine" they have moved into the Subconscious with a "ok do the delivery" and "Muscle memory" then did the delivery. The "Tag" is always an mental action just prior to this confirmation and is sort of the last image (if visual) or thought (if verbal) that the "subconscious mind" see or thinks before "Muscle Memory" is activated.
Actually, as you learn to use "Tags" you will sort of feel that "pre-void" interruption as a feeling of something different. A strange feeling felt immediately as you exit the "void of thought" of the "Muscle Memory" delivery. As you exit that void your Delivery routine is now looking to the delivery result or bowl placement near the jack. Often the athletic feels that sort of satification that you have after performed a proper delivery. But in this case it is not "luck" as new bowlers experience but a satification of properly executed delivery with a "Tag".
