Mind excavation

The statement, "It's just like riding a bike" comes to mind. Cycling is such an automatic task that, once learned, doesn't require much additional training if you haven't ridden in a long time. You just jump back on the bike and start riding. However, what if the task was originally learned poorly or with an ineffective motor plan, now we have to do some mind excavation.

It's my job to take a task that is seemly very simple and automatic, bring to a conscious level of awareness, re-train it so that it's more efficient and then process it to the point that it is automatic again.

The process of making cycling a cognitive or conscious activity is actually very simple. I use software such as Computrainer Spinscan, video analysis (Dartfish) and rollers. This equipment quickly makes riding a bike a conscious experience.

The process of re-training is not always as easy. This is dependent on the riders ability to assimilate the information and make changes in the way they move. Each rider is unique in the type of information they need to make effective changes. Sources of stimulation include visual, auditory, vestibular and tactile(or seeing, hearing, balancing and touch)

Returning improved motor patterns to automatic requires repetition, repetition, repetition of the correct pattern.

Finally I can test how automatic a motor patter is by making cognitive challenges or ask questions that require the brain to process information. If the newly learned motor task is automatic, the brain is able to process information. If the motor task is not completely automatic, one of two things happens, the motor activity looses quality while the brain processes the information or, the brain is not able to process the information correctly. This occurs because the rider is using conscious thought to process the motor task.