How the Brain Works to Learn New Skills

The way science, sports, and education approach learning new skills does not follow the way our brain works. Science now knows the brain is a complex neurological organism that rewires itself as it learns and refines skills, but the science of how the brain learns has not been integrated into the lexicon yet.

Academia teaches as if the conscious, thinking part of the brain can learn by itself. The thinking part of the brain evolved after the older, sensory brain.

All input to the thinking brain comes from the sensory brain. In fact, the sensory brain processes millions of bits of information in any given moment, but sends just a fraction of that data (16 - 40 bits) to the thinking brain.

The sensory brain receives its information from the body, through the senses: what we hear, see, touch, taste, smell, and what touches us.

How are the senses activated? By movement. Science confirms all information the brain processes is through movement. Some neuroscientists such as Daniel Wolpert Ph.D. go so far as to say the only reason the brain exists is because we move.

Neuroscientists such as Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. have studied the correlation of movement with how we think. In one experiment he showed that as a skill is learned fewer irrelevant parts of the body are used, and that as the movements become more precise and refined, neurons fire faster. He further showed that the faster neurons fire, the faster we think. Another important study Merzenich conducted showed that our ability to think more clearly directly correlates with the quality of our movements.

How do we determine the quality of our movements? Science identifies which muscles should be used during a movement such as a golf swing. Sports and exercise focus on which muscles to use during an activity as well. The problem is if you are using the correct muscles to perform an action you feel nothing. Why would your brain need to let you know if you are using the "right"muscles? The focus should be on what muscles you feel and whether you are limited in some way during an action. Feeling the burn is your brain sending alarm signals to stop doing the movement in the same way. When you feel stiff, sore, discomfort, or pain your brain is telling you to change the way you are moving.

Science and sports/fitness focus on isolated parts of the body such as just using the biceps in a weight-training curl. The brain is concerned about how the entire structure is balancing through every movement such that the body is constantly adjusting. In addition every movement should travel through the structure such that no movement is isolated to a particular component (such as a lower arm). Great rock climbers know that to establish an effective hand hold they must be relaxed through the wrist, elbow and shoulder joint to allow the rest of the body to support the hold. Doing isolated movements to strengthen some parts of the body may unintentionally cause limitations to a particular skill. Every activity you do should be about how your entire body moves within it.

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