mirror neurons - the power of training with others
It’s uncanny how many of the greatest sportspeople have an older sibling. Those that don’t tend to have parents who competed in the sport from a young age. Why is that? Our first son, Oscar developed a strange but effective method of getting mobile where he would sort of move around like a soldier moving under barbed wire. Only when he spent some time with other children who were crawling in more typical fashion did he switch to the more traditional method. Our second son, Arthur, watched Oscar from the usual immobile baby phase and then began walking at 9 months pretty much skipping the crawling phase. This seems to be quite common when I talk to other parents about their second child. Coincidence or is there something more?
The answer likely lies in what are called ‘mirror neurons’. Neurons that fire both when an animal acts and when an animal observes the same action performed by another animal. In the 1980s researchers discovered that certain neurons that fired in the promotor cortex of monkey’s brains when they grabbed a peanut also fired when the human researcher grabbed a peanut meaning that neural connections could be created or strengthened simply by observing other animals doing an action.
The scientific understanding of 'mirror neurons’ is still relatively shallow however their basic role makes very logical sense. Mirror neurons greatly assist humans and other animals in the learning and refining of gross motor skills needed to survive and prosper. Without them, it is argued, it would be very difficult for animals to learn how to perform highly skilled motor activities like hunting prey, running, eating various foods, flying, impressing a potential mate, learning sounds necessary to communicate and so much more.
Image @koruptvision
For athletes, it seems plausible that ‘mirror neurons’ could help you improve your performance simply by observing more competent athletes. As an N=1 example; I long ago realised that I get into the best swim shape when I’m swimming with great swimmers. In general, the quantity, quality, and frequency of my swim training stimulus rarely changes all that much but a common link to when I hit my best swim form tends to trace back to swim training blocks where I’m swimming with better swimmers. When I swim with Clayton Fettel, my ‘lats' hurt post-session because I engage the front end of my stroke much more powerfully in a similar way to how Clayton gets much of his momentum out of his very classic high elbow catch style stroke. When I swim with Josh Amberger, I noticed that my triceps were working more as sub-consciously, I was really maximising the back half of my stroke, using my triceps to drive water past each thigh, just like Josh does (minus his better speed and power).
Similarly, I feel I developed a different cycling style through watching triathlon re-runs on the trainer. I had always been told that it’s better to keep the body still while cycling but many of the great riders like Sebastian Kienle don’t do this at all implementing quite a rock and rhythm into their time trialling. From what I can remember, there was no conscious decision to start rocking when I was riding but I remember realising while leading a race a few years back that I was rocking and head bobbing along just like Kienle. Running is no different. Regularly watching many of the great runners in the sport I brought in a much stronger arm drive from the elbows for 70.3 and faster running.
Image @koruptvision
So, what you can do to take advantage of these clever little neurons to lift your performance? The most obvious thing is train with people that are better than you. Perhaps it’s not surprising that a squad environment, of an athlete’s choosing, often allows rapid improvement in total performance or weaker areas of their tri game, not to mention all the other motivational benefits of training with others. Of course, this is not always practical. Many of us can’t fit our schedule in with squads or we may not have superior-performing athletes available to leech benefits off. In that instance, perhaps the next best thing would be watching as much high-performance swimming, cycling and running as you can. It seems very likely you could get more out of your trainer session, watching something relevant to triathlon compared to ogling away at Netflix.
Mirror neurons also emphasise the potential value of visualisation. It is well accepted that you can strengthen the neural connections of performing a skill simply by practicing that activity in your mind. Even for skeptics, there’s nothing to lose by trying it. With everyone chasing ‘free speed’ through technological advances we often ignore the one clear trend in sports science research of increasing evidence that our brain is hugely responsible for our performance. Switch it on to switch on better performances.
