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Question of the Week / Re: How does training affect free will?
« on: 07/07/2013 01:06:21 »
The object of training in many instances is to replace conscious action by a motor program - a skill - and eventually to the level of a conditioned reflex. Walking upright is a conscious action for a baby, a learned skill for a child, and walking at a constant pace, adjusting stride length to suit the gradient, is a conditioned reflex for most adults.
Free will is the decision to walk from A to B, to play a particular piece of music, or to sign up for a boxing match. You don't abandon it whilst doing the task because you can always choose your pace, vary your interpretation, or decide to throw in the towel - literally.
The difference between an amateur and a professional in almost any business is that the amateur trains until he can get it right, and a professional trains until he can't get it wrong - judging the terrain, reading every note, or deciding where and how to punch, have become at least motor skills, and dealing with trips, fast passages or opportunist punches have become conditioned reflexes.
Problems can arise if the skills become conditioned reflexes which may be inappropriate in some circumstances. Video studies of top level cricketers have shown that, facing a really fast bowler, an international batsman will have started moving his feet before the bowler released the ball, because he has studied the bowler's action and gaze (it's pretty well impossible to bowl fast without staring at the point where you want the ball to hit the ground) and the execution of the stroke is a reflex. So how can a slow bowler take wickets? The real masters stare at the batsman's eyes or feet, and bowl by motor skill. The "wrong" spin, a slow ball from a fast approach, or pitching the quicker ball somewhere other than your apparent gaze point, means that the batsman's reflexes are inappropriate. Serious batting is always overlaid by a free will decision to attack (high risk, fast scoring) or defend, depending on the state of the game, but part of the art of bowling and field setting is to tempt the batsman into a high risk stroke and deliver the "wrong'un" at the right moment.
Free will is the decision to walk from A to B, to play a particular piece of music, or to sign up for a boxing match. You don't abandon it whilst doing the task because you can always choose your pace, vary your interpretation, or decide to throw in the towel - literally.
The difference between an amateur and a professional in almost any business is that the amateur trains until he can get it right, and a professional trains until he can't get it wrong - judging the terrain, reading every note, or deciding where and how to punch, have become at least motor skills, and dealing with trips, fast passages or opportunist punches have become conditioned reflexes.
Problems can arise if the skills become conditioned reflexes which may be inappropriate in some circumstances. Video studies of top level cricketers have shown that, facing a really fast bowler, an international batsman will have started moving his feet before the bowler released the ball, because he has studied the bowler's action and gaze (it's pretty well impossible to bowl fast without staring at the point where you want the ball to hit the ground) and the execution of the stroke is a reflex. So how can a slow bowler take wickets? The real masters stare at the batsman's eyes or feet, and bowl by motor skill. The "wrong" spin, a slow ball from a fast approach, or pitching the quicker ball somewhere other than your apparent gaze point, means that the batsman's reflexes are inappropriate. Serious batting is always overlaid by a free will decision to attack (high risk, fast scoring) or defend, depending on the state of the game, but part of the art of bowling and field setting is to tempt the batsman into a high risk stroke and deliver the "wrong'un" at the right moment.