Regardless of what weapons we study under the banner of HEMA, whether we are of the German or Italian or Bolognese or whatever other tradition, in which historical time period we place our studies notwithstanding, there is at least one thing upon which we can all agree: There is never enough time to train.
Which makes perfect sense. For as much as we would prefer to dedicate our working lives to the study and practice of HEMA we also have day jobs that interfere with training. Like everyone else, we wake when the alarm goes off, trudge our way into work, and then plod forward for the next eight hours or so. Then we come home tapped but still with dinner to make, errands to run, homework to do and kids to bathe. On some of those nights, we are lucky enough to get away for a few minutes to train with our fellow bedraggled partners.
So despite how much we might want to train more, there is only so much we can do in this physical universe.
However, not all is lost. We have some options.
In this two-part series, I'm going to talk about things that I believe can help supplement your regular training program. These suggested supplements I'm going to make are indeed just that: Supplements. They will never replace your regular training, and if these are all you do your skills will never be fully realized. But just like in regards to our eating habits, a well balanced, healthy diet can be much improved by the use of some regular vitamin supplements.
The first part of this series will be taking a look at the power of visualization and how it can help us train regardless of where we are or what else we're doing.
The act of visualization, at its most basic, is seeing something in your mind. Clearly, as this is something we've all literally been doing our entire lives, it's not like we're unaware of it.
However, visualization as an art to either motivate ourselves for some daunting task, to realize a goal, to help manage our emotions, or to prepare for an athletic event is something far fewer people are aware of. Not only are we not aware of it, I believe a great many of us in the HEMA community might be missing a powerful training tool because of that lack of awareness.
Let's spend some time talking about the deeper uses of visualization, and then we can take a look to see how it connects to what we do in HEMA.
Visualization is effective because of something called neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s ability to change throughout an individual's life. It has been shown that due to given environmental activities – both those we do intentionally and those that happen accidentally – brain activity associated with a given function can be transferred to a different location, the proportion of gray matter can change, and synapses may strengthen or weaken over time.
So, in other words, our brains do not reach adulthood ossified and unable to adapt, but rather flexible and able to change as needed. Every experience we have is able to alter our brains, indeed even down to the physical makeup of our brains, making us more capable, giving us different perspectives, or developing whole different paradigms.
One great thing about visualization is there is a certain element of fantasy involved with it. After all, our minds are the deep reservoir from which flow all dreams, imaginings, and innovations. What we can visualize is limited only by what we can think of, which is limitless.
Use this to your advantage. Think of some combination or attack vector that is completely new to you, some historically valid technique that you've just never tried before. Picture it in your mind, though you are not entirely certain how it will work in the real world. That's alright, because first in your mind you want to work out how it could possibly work. When you do this in the real world then you will have data to go back to and take apart, to tweak the visualization you use for this technique in the future.
And this process of going back in your mind brings us to the next way to use visualization...
Every time you fight someone, to the best of your ability, you should review and visualize what happened in your mind. This is especially true if you were particularly challenged by your opponent due to a specific technical reason (rather than they were faster than you, for instance).
As you do this, see how they reacted to your movements and what they did in response. Note how everything you did X they countered with Y, and it worked every damn time. See in mind how you could possibly respond; we'll say your possible reactions are Z1, Z2, and Z3. Now, usuing visualization, you accurately trace in your mind how your options will realistically play out. You see them in your mind, and work out what your best option is.
In this case, we'll say Z3 is your best alternative. If you don't have time to practice this against a training partner, you will now at least have a reasonable set of responses worked out in your head and will have already "practiced" them in your mind. Obviously, better is to train what you've visualized with a partner, but we know that sometimes that's not feasible -- like in a tournament setting, for instance. Visualization like this will allow you to adapt quickly and with flexibility when confronted with techniques that catch you off guard.
The story of Jim Carrey and the now famous 10 million dollar check he wrote to himself for "acting services rendered" which was dated five years in the future is fairly well known. This is a rather less clinical take on visualization often referred to as "manifestation and attraction," and while I won't comment on the details of this philosophy I will comment on how powerful it can be to visualize yourself as having already achieved a goal you have in mind.
The power of visualization is magnificent, the power of the mind -- from which visualization flows -- even more so. It is almost literally beyond reckoning or explanation.
There is a power, an indomnability that seems to emanate from us when we visualize ourselves as having already accomplished what it is we are tenaciously working on. It is almost like, having seen a future of our own choosing, our brains work faster, our legs move more gracefully, our hands are swift and sure. Having seen this goal as something of a predestined certainly, it is almost as if we're impatient to get through the formalities of actually going through the steps to get what we know is already ours.
If this seems odd or unreasonable, just flip the script for a moment: How empowered do you feel when you already see yourself as having failed? Whether it is a test in school, or a presentation at work, or your pools at a tournament, when you know you're going to fail, how well do you do? It's like our brains are dulled and our bodies wrapped in chains -- and all this just because we have seen ourselves fail! So if it is true for the negative, which we all already know it is, then how can it not also be for the positive?
I think it should be pointed out, as Jim Carrey has in interviews he's done on the subject, that this technique doesn't mean you see yourself crowned with glory and then go take a nap. No, it means you see that to lift yourself to a higher level of potential and then go forward kicking butt along the way. But when you combine an obdurate spirit that's lit on fire with someone working like a demon to achieve their goal, you become an unstoppable machine.
Sometimes, we need this skill to calm our minds, to relax, and to let go. From our HEMA perspective, this could be within the context of a tournament in which our minds are racing with techniques we want to keep in mind and nuanced skills we want to remember. Whatever the context, sometimes we just need to quiet the voices in our heads, and visualization can help there, too.
Imagine nothing. Nothing at all. A great vast expanse of quiet, calm, serenity. Place yourself in that calm expanse of quiet nothingness, and feel your mind be gently cradled. You do all of this while out here in the real world everything is chaos and confusion, or frenetic energy. You can do this in the middle of a fight, not thinking about what is happening but rather simply reacting, deep in the calm core of your mind as you allow your training to take hold.
This blog post has gone on for long enough, and there is still another part of this series to do later. Though rather long I really wanted to convince people of the efficacy of visualization and to encourage people to use it to supplement their more traditional training.
Have you ever used visualization in training? In what ways do you use it? Do you see yourself victorious, or to calm yourself, or to review, or perhaps in some other way? How often do you use visualization?
Stay loose, friends, and train hard!
-- Scott
Which makes perfect sense. For as much as we would prefer to dedicate our working lives to the study and practice of HEMA we also have day jobs that interfere with training. Like everyone else, we wake when the alarm goes off, trudge our way into work, and then plod forward for the next eight hours or so. Then we come home tapped but still with dinner to make, errands to run, homework to do and kids to bathe. On some of those nights, we are lucky enough to get away for a few minutes to train with our fellow bedraggled partners.
So despite how much we might want to train more, there is only so much we can do in this physical universe.
However, not all is lost. We have some options.
In this two-part series, I'm going to talk about things that I believe can help supplement your regular training program. These suggested supplements I'm going to make are indeed just that: Supplements. They will never replace your regular training, and if these are all you do your skills will never be fully realized. But just like in regards to our eating habits, a well balanced, healthy diet can be much improved by the use of some regular vitamin supplements.
The first part of this series will be taking a look at the power of visualization and how it can help us train regardless of where we are or what else we're doing.
Introduction: What Is Visualization?
The act of visualization, at its most basic, is seeing something in your mind. Clearly, as this is something we've all literally been doing our entire lives, it's not like we're unaware of it.
However, visualization as an art to either motivate ourselves for some daunting task, to realize a goal, to help manage our emotions, or to prepare for an athletic event is something far fewer people are aware of. Not only are we not aware of it, I believe a great many of us in the HEMA community might be missing a powerful training tool because of that lack of awareness.
Let's spend some time talking about the deeper uses of visualization, and then we can take a look to see how it connects to what we do in HEMA.
Visualization is effective because of something called neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s ability to change throughout an individual's life. It has been shown that due to given environmental activities – both those we do intentionally and those that happen accidentally – brain activity associated with a given function can be transferred to a different location, the proportion of gray matter can change, and synapses may strengthen or weaken over time.
So, in other words, our brains do not reach adulthood ossified and unable to adapt, but rather flexible and able to change as needed. Every experience we have is able to alter our brains, indeed even down to the physical makeup of our brains, making us more capable, giving us different perspectives, or developing whole different paradigms.
But these events that shape our plastic brains need not be random; we have a great deal of power and control over this based upon what sorts of activities we do. This is where visualization comes in to play. It has been well demonstrated that our minds can easily be convinced of the reality regarding images they themselves are creating. Even though in the cases of things like traumatic flashbacks the realistic nature of images our mind create can be utterly terrifying we can use this power to our advantage. We can choose to make it work for us.
Visualization has a long and well-respected history in mental health treatment. As I’ve said many times before, in my paid job I’m a psychotherapist; I have seen the power of its potential and have taught many patients to use this skill to help them manage life.
Now, even though I've written in the past about the potential connection I see between HEMA and good mental health, I don't want today's post to be about that -- more on that, actually, for Monday. But I do need to lay the foundation of just how powerful this is and the best way to do that is talk about some of the ways it is literally used to save people's lives.
Now, even though I've written in the past about the potential connection I see between HEMA and good mental health, I don't want today's post to be about that -- more on that, actually, for Monday. But I do need to lay the foundation of just how powerful this is and the best way to do that is talk about some of the ways it is literally used to save people's lives.
Visualization In Mental Health Treatment
One common example of this is what we’d call guided imagery, often used to help a patient with extreme anxiety or depression see a place in their minds that is their ideal, and place in which they can feel perfectly and totally at ease. We’d have them picture the environments but even go so far as to describe how it smells or feels or what they hear. This often has great effect once the patient is well-practiced in it, and can immediately and significantly reduce a person’s negative emotion in vivo.
Because this technique is unfairly dismissed as the poster child of modern psychobabble, infamous as the "happy place," the power of it often gets overlooked. Please don't fall into that trap. Guided imagery is a potent way of creating a reality in your head that can be as convincing as the one we see with our eyes.
When you create an image in your mind as clear as reality, and you then manipulate the course of that vision, it is like you are creating your own world. In that world, you can use what you are seeing to better control the events in this world.
Sound ridiculous? Sound unbelievable? Sound downright silly? Tell that to the US Navy Blue Angels, the highly trained group of jet fighter pilots who perform as a precision aerobatic team. To help prepare them for an upcoming show they will do what they call "chair flying," in which each member of the team closes their eyes and visualizes every aspect of what the flight will entail. Holding their hands in the proper spot to control a jet fighter they will see themselves taking off, doing twisting loops and turns, flying at 700 miles per hour with wing tips a mere 18 inches apart, etc.
Watch this clip of them doing their visualization.
Because this technique is unfairly dismissed as the poster child of modern psychobabble, infamous as the "happy place," the power of it often gets overlooked. Please don't fall into that trap. Guided imagery is a potent way of creating a reality in your head that can be as convincing as the one we see with our eyes.
When you create an image in your mind as clear as reality, and you then manipulate the course of that vision, it is like you are creating your own world. In that world, you can use what you are seeing to better control the events in this world.
Sound ridiculous? Sound unbelievable? Sound downright silly? Tell that to the US Navy Blue Angels, the highly trained group of jet fighter pilots who perform as a precision aerobatic team. To help prepare them for an upcoming show they will do what they call "chair flying," in which each member of the team closes their eyes and visualizes every aspect of what the flight will entail. Holding their hands in the proper spot to control a jet fighter they will see themselves taking off, doing twisting loops and turns, flying at 700 miles per hour with wing tips a mere 18 inches apart, etc.
Watch this clip of them doing their visualization.
Guided imagery is indeed powerful.
Another, less common example, is called the stop thought technique. Though there are many descriptions of this technique available, especially online, the technique properly done has the person yell “stop!” in their mind or out loud, then to imagine them literally gripping up and stopping their thought.
Another, less common example, is called the stop thought technique. Though there are many descriptions of this technique available, especially online, the technique properly done has the person yell “stop!” in their mind or out loud, then to imagine them literally gripping up and stopping their thought.
Then (and this is the significant part) they visualize two things: First, what happens if they don’t stop this train of thought? They are asked to visualize it and to explain to themselves the very realistic steps that would happen if they didn’t stop these unhealthy thoughts. After taking that to its logical conclusion, they are then asked to visualize what might happen if they do change the thought and start living their lives. Again, tracing this along realistic tracks they begin to see the life they truly want to live.
This works because it is essentially guided imagery in practice. The patient sees the life they don't want coming as a result of their choices in this moment, then they see the life they do want coming from the healthy choices they could make.
And perhaps most powerfully, visualization is literally used to keep people alive. It is a reality of the work we do that some of our patients want to kill themselves. Often they will have already used visualization negatively, to convince themselves their death will be a beautiful thing. They see themselves looking graceful in their deathly repose, their funerals will be gloriously heartrending affairs as family and friend weep bitterly yet reminisce happily. They see a skewed and unrealistic vision but see it they do.
To help combat this, Christine Padesky, Ph.D., and Professor Emily Holmes, of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, have worked with using visualization to counter those unrealistically lovely death images the patient might have. Though discomfiting, they would ask the patient to go an hour, ten hours, a day, two weeks into the future after their imagined death and see what their bodies would look like. They'd be asked to think about the person who eventually finds their body and how that might haunt them. They'd be asked to go beyond the funeral to the lives of their loved ones, now potentially wracked with guilt, shame, a profound sense of loss, perhaps anger and bitterness.
The gorgeous, fairy tale-perfect image of their imagined death falls to pieces as it is replaced with more realistic visualization, and hopefully, a desire to live replaces it. The power of the mind's eye is not to be doubted.
I think at this point the overall power of visualization has been well established. So having laid this foundation let's now take a look at some of the specific ways you can use this potent tool to train even when you're not training.
One of the most effective things any athlete can do in terms of visualization is to use the power of their mind to see all the likely possible outcomes before they begin. This is especially true of HEMA, given all the possibilities there are.
Before you engage your opponent, close your eyes and see -- not just imagine but see, truly see just as the Blue Angels see what they are doing -- your opponent. See yourself making the first move, and then they, and further see all of the possibilities from the bind. See how you will react when your opponent throws a spoiling move to what you planned. See your blade going where you want it and landing as you want it.
Do this again, then, in the quick breaks between hits, except now it's to be more focused on precisely what you have planned. Do you plan to throw a quick Unterhau to their arms as they come in? See it, in crystal clarity. Perhaps a Zorn straight to the head. See it. A thrust? See it. See, also, how you will respond to their various attacks, which you will also have already seen in your mind.
If you do this right it has the effect of almost having already seen the future, and now simply responding to what you already know is coming. Having gone through the possible permutations in your head nothing will take you by surprise, and will do what you have already seen yourself doing.
Watch this quick video by Akademia Szermierzy. It captures the essence of what I'm talking about perfectly.
This works because it is essentially guided imagery in practice. The patient sees the life they don't want coming as a result of their choices in this moment, then they see the life they do want coming from the healthy choices they could make.
And perhaps most powerfully, visualization is literally used to keep people alive. It is a reality of the work we do that some of our patients want to kill themselves. Often they will have already used visualization negatively, to convince themselves their death will be a beautiful thing. They see themselves looking graceful in their deathly repose, their funerals will be gloriously heartrending affairs as family and friend weep bitterly yet reminisce happily. They see a skewed and unrealistic vision but see it they do.
To help combat this, Christine Padesky, Ph.D., and Professor Emily Holmes, of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, have worked with using visualization to counter those unrealistically lovely death images the patient might have. Though discomfiting, they would ask the patient to go an hour, ten hours, a day, two weeks into the future after their imagined death and see what their bodies would look like. They'd be asked to think about the person who eventually finds their body and how that might haunt them. They'd be asked to go beyond the funeral to the lives of their loved ones, now potentially wracked with guilt, shame, a profound sense of loss, perhaps anger and bitterness.
The gorgeous, fairy tale-perfect image of their imagined death falls to pieces as it is replaced with more realistic visualization, and hopefully, a desire to live replaces it. The power of the mind's eye is not to be doubted.
I think at this point the overall power of visualization has been well established. So having laid this foundation let's now take a look at some of the specific ways you can use this potent tool to train even when you're not training.
Applications
1. See Everything Before It Happens
One of the most effective things any athlete can do in terms of visualization is to use the power of their mind to see all the likely possible outcomes before they begin. This is especially true of HEMA, given all the possibilities there are.
Before you engage your opponent, close your eyes and see -- not just imagine but see, truly see just as the Blue Angels see what they are doing -- your opponent. See yourself making the first move, and then they, and further see all of the possibilities from the bind. See how you will react when your opponent throws a spoiling move to what you planned. See your blade going where you want it and landing as you want it.
Do this again, then, in the quick breaks between hits, except now it's to be more focused on precisely what you have planned. Do you plan to throw a quick Unterhau to their arms as they come in? See it, in crystal clarity. Perhaps a Zorn straight to the head. See it. A thrust? See it. See, also, how you will respond to their various attacks, which you will also have already seen in your mind.
If you do this right it has the effect of almost having already seen the future, and now simply responding to what you already know is coming. Having gone through the possible permutations in your head nothing will take you by surprise, and will do what you have already seen yourself doing.
Watch this quick video by Akademia Szermierzy. It captures the essence of what I'm talking about perfectly.
2. Imagine Something New
One great thing about visualization is there is a certain element of fantasy involved with it. After all, our minds are the deep reservoir from which flow all dreams, imaginings, and innovations. What we can visualize is limited only by what we can think of, which is limitless.
Use this to your advantage. Think of some combination or attack vector that is completely new to you, some historically valid technique that you've just never tried before. Picture it in your mind, though you are not entirely certain how it will work in the real world. That's alright, because first in your mind you want to work out how it could possibly work. When you do this in the real world then you will have data to go back to and take apart, to tweak the visualization you use for this technique in the future.
And this process of going back in your mind brings us to the next way to use visualization...
3. Review and Rehearse
Every time you fight someone, to the best of your ability, you should review and visualize what happened in your mind. This is especially true if you were particularly challenged by your opponent due to a specific technical reason (rather than they were faster than you, for instance).
As you do this, see how they reacted to your movements and what they did in response. Note how everything you did X they countered with Y, and it worked every damn time. See in mind how you could possibly respond; we'll say your possible reactions are Z1, Z2, and Z3. Now, usuing visualization, you accurately trace in your mind how your options will realistically play out. You see them in your mind, and work out what your best option is.
In this case, we'll say Z3 is your best alternative. If you don't have time to practice this against a training partner, you will now at least have a reasonable set of responses worked out in your head and will have already "practiced" them in your mind. Obviously, better is to train what you've visualized with a partner, but we know that sometimes that's not feasible -- like in a tournament setting, for instance. Visualization like this will allow you to adapt quickly and with flexibility when confronted with techniques that catch you off guard.
4. Imagine Victory
The story of Jim Carrey and the now famous 10 million dollar check he wrote to himself for "acting services rendered" which was dated five years in the future is fairly well known. This is a rather less clinical take on visualization often referred to as "manifestation and attraction," and while I won't comment on the details of this philosophy I will comment on how powerful it can be to visualize yourself as having already achieved a goal you have in mind.
The power of visualization is magnificent, the power of the mind -- from which visualization flows -- even more so. It is almost literally beyond reckoning or explanation.
There is a power, an indomnability that seems to emanate from us when we visualize ourselves as having already accomplished what it is we are tenaciously working on. It is almost like, having seen a future of our own choosing, our brains work faster, our legs move more gracefully, our hands are swift and sure. Having seen this goal as something of a predestined certainly, it is almost as if we're impatient to get through the formalities of actually going through the steps to get what we know is already ours.
If this seems odd or unreasonable, just flip the script for a moment: How empowered do you feel when you already see yourself as having failed? Whether it is a test in school, or a presentation at work, or your pools at a tournament, when you know you're going to fail, how well do you do? It's like our brains are dulled and our bodies wrapped in chains -- and all this just because we have seen ourselves fail! So if it is true for the negative, which we all already know it is, then how can it not also be for the positive?
I think it should be pointed out, as Jim Carrey has in interviews he's done on the subject, that this technique doesn't mean you see yourself crowned with glory and then go take a nap. No, it means you see that to lift yourself to a higher level of potential and then go forward kicking butt along the way. But when you combine an obdurate spirit that's lit on fire with someone working like a demon to achieve their goal, you become an unstoppable machine.
5. Imagine...Nothing At All
Sometimes, we need this skill to calm our minds, to relax, and to let go. From our HEMA perspective, this could be within the context of a tournament in which our minds are racing with techniques we want to keep in mind and nuanced skills we want to remember. Whatever the context, sometimes we just need to quiet the voices in our heads, and visualization can help there, too.
Imagine nothing. Nothing at all. A great vast expanse of quiet, calm, serenity. Place yourself in that calm expanse of quiet nothingness, and feel your mind be gently cradled. You do all of this while out here in the real world everything is chaos and confusion, or frenetic energy. You can do this in the middle of a fight, not thinking about what is happening but rather simply reacting, deep in the calm core of your mind as you allow your training to take hold.
⚔
This blog post has gone on for long enough, and there is still another part of this series to do later. Though rather long I really wanted to convince people of the efficacy of visualization and to encourage people to use it to supplement their more traditional training.
Have you ever used visualization in training? In what ways do you use it? Do you see yourself victorious, or to calm yourself, or to review, or perhaps in some other way? How often do you use visualization?
Stay loose, friends, and train hard!
-- Scott
Comments
Post a Comment