Learn by... Watching? The Lazy Way of Learning New Skills

During a Saturday afternoon training session with boxing guru, Eddy Kaliboti, we were asked to stand in a circle and observe the technique of everybody participating in the seminar. Eddy made an interesting point that watching the technique of others is useful in helping fine-tune our own technique.
 

Italian scientists observed a strange phenomenon in monkeys. When a monkey would see a human bring a peanut to their mouth, the monkey’s brain would fire as if they were bringing a peanut to their own mouth. Through observation alone, the monkey had activated this mental process in their brain for the task they just witnessed. The overseeing scientists suggested that humans have a similar ability to subconsciously imitate what we see. 

Whether or not Eddy was one of the scientists involved in observing the mental processes of the monkeys, they both had suggested a similar idea - that we can learn by watching.

This helps support the training methods of mental rehearsal and visualisation in refining your skills without physically performing them. It also suggests that by watching footage of the sport you are participating in, you may be picking things up without even realizing. More importantly, it provides a method to prevent detraining when you are injured. Serious injuries usually result in the athlete disappearing off the face of the earth until they are fully rehabilitated. If you are injured, keep rocking up to the gym – just by watching you can help stimulate the motor networks linked to the skills you are observing and reduce the loss of your skills through inactivity.

Strength and Conditioning is like a marriage, not a one-night stand (by Owen)

I've been with the boys from RT for about 4-5 years now. Over that time I've seen other athletes come and go. Some stay for a period trying to get ready for an event like a fight or a tournament, others just try it for a while, never to be seen again. However there's a core group of guys and girls who are there every week, week in and week out. Their reasons for staying vary, but the comforting thing is that their results keep improving as does their general and overall health. I can tell you that my body shape and lift numbers are changing all the time (usually for the better if I've had no sport injuries).

Ive also noticed other athletes who come back for just a specific time period preparing for an event train pretty hard too, whilst they have some great numbers relating to lifts and other parameters, I often wonder why they stop after their fights/events and don't come back till just before the next one?

The goal of strength and conditioning is to increase athletic performance, and cycling through the strength, power and endurance cycles mean that over time your parameters for each should improve too. Using a strength and conditioning coach to get you back to a place you have been already seems to me to be a waste. While you still may perform well, the added benefits of being more athletic than last time would mean a huge difference year on year. I can easily say that I'm a much better athlete this year than last year and this is a significant improvement on 2 years ago etc. Compared to when I was 20 I'm stronger, faster and much better built for combat sports now. If only I could recover from heavy workloads like I did back then....