Spinning Back-Kicks and The Scientific Method

 I've finally gotten around to reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance, I'm probably just over 1/3rd of the way through it at the moment. There have been a ton of ideas and quotes that have struck me so far (which you could see by the number of tabs I have in this book lol) but one idea in particular really made a lightbulb go off in my brain. 

I just got to the part discussing the scientific method and I realized,

I am using the framework of the scientific method to navigate through my learning of a particular technique. I am testing hypotheses with every single spinning back kick I throw.

(ok maybe not every single one, but it sounds more dramatic when I put it like that) 


1) Make an observation. -> I suck at spinning back kicks

2) Ask a question. -> What am I not doing, that I should be doing (i.e. what have I been taught to do?)

3) Form a hypothesis, or testable explanation. -> "Is there a measurable difference in the quality of my kicks when I engage my eyes?"

4) Make a prediction based on the hypothesis. -> we've been reminded over and over to lead with our eyes, and locate the target before striking so I predict engaging my eyes will generate a measurable difference in the quality of my kicks

5) Test the prediction. -> throw the kick while properly engaging my eyes

6) Iterate: use the results to make new hypotheses or predictions. -> the kick become constantly higher quality when I engage my eyes, make sure to continue this during future testing


Then I move on to try testing something else (keeping in mind what I tested before), "is there a statistically significant difference in the quality of my kicks when I counterbalance with my arms?" "on average are they of higher quality when I try this, or this, or that, or this?" Creating a hypothesis (what if I move like this?), testing it (throwing the kick), and analyzing the results (that felt better). 

And just like any good study design I need to make sure I have a large enough sample size to get more accurate results so I'm trying the same thing over and over to get an average of what this change is doing because there are always outliers, I don't want to try something once, conclude it was more harmful than helpful, but not realize it's actually because I forgot to engage my hip (or one of the other thousand things I sometimes forget to do). 

Just trying to poke and prod the technique from as many different angles as I can; not to try to throw better and better kicks in succession, but just trying to understand the kick on as deep a level as possible. I don't want to try to stack my victories on top of one another, I want to intentionally seek out things that will break my kicks, i.e. I don't want polished but ultimately mediocre, I want every stumble and fumble and whiff if it means I get closer to true understanding. Because once I have that fundamental understanding of the kick I can use that to inform how I'm practicing so I can translate that knowledge into skill, but if I'm practicing without asking those specific questions, if I don't have that understanding then I have no idea what to do to improve, I have no road map to follow, and no skill will manifest because there is no true knowledge behind it. 

The timing of this kick and all its fast moving parts is like a confusing complex natural phenomenon to me, so just like the book describes, I realized I am using the scientific method to discern better and increasingly accurate understandings in order to answer my initial big question, "how can I make my spinning back kicks better?"

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