Why slow movement? (part1)
There are few reasons why slow and gentle technique develops coordination. One reason is based on the principle of Weber Fechner rule. The Weber Fechner rule describes the relationships between a magnitude of a particular stimulus and the brain’s ability to sense the differences in the amount of stimulus.
The basic rule is that as stimulus increases, the ability to sense the difference in the amount of stimulus decreases.
This is simple, imagine if you are in a dark room with one candle lit, it will be easy to tell if one more candle is lit, but if there are hundred candles it will be hard to tell if one more candle is lited.
This rule works with all varieties of sensual perception including sensation of muscular effort, imagine that you are blindfolded and hold 1lb potato, if a bird lands on it, you will sense it, but if you hold 50lb potato, you will not sense the bird landing on it, it will have to be an eagle for you to sense the difference.
The point is that when you increase the weight from one pound to fifty pounds you become fifty times less sensitive to the changes in the amount of muscular force you use to lift the weight.
This is very important, if we want to develop more efficient karate techniques, we want to be aware when we are working too hard. If we slow down we increase our ability to sense differences in muscular effort level, increase the brain’s ability to sense and correct any potential excess and unnecessary effort. Imagine that every time you extend the hip, such as in back kick, or step and punch, you, at the same time slightly contract the hip flexors instead of relaxing them, this is a contradictory effort that means that you work harder than needed in hip extension. You will be much more able to sense and inhibit this co contraction if you move slowly and gently. By contrast, if you always move fast, you will never be able to sense the problem.
In next segments I will discuss other reasons.