My favorite illustration of Libet’s work is the behavior of a top tennis player returning serve. If you ever get a chance to sit close when a guy like Nadal or Federer is playing, I recommend observing this feature as closely as possible. There is literally no time to react to where the ball is going. There are some back envelope calculations (by Libet and many others) that the reaction time is shorter than conscious thought processing time, but my opinion is the pro returning serve can sense from his own behavioral synchronization with the server the direction the serve will be going before the server’s racquet strikes the ball.
A top ping-pong player told me that when he’s playing ping-pong, time slows down. I’ve also heard this from a martial artist. Possibly extreme expertise and focus uses neural circuits in a way that provides a reaction faster than those circuits do when operating in the general-purpose mode. The back-of-envelope calculations would be based on observation of the general-purpose mode.
Yes. What intense training can do is move the bulk of the neuron message passing down into the reflex circuits—the ganglia that do things like reflex your lower leg when your doctor taps your kneecap with his little rubber hammer. This would be interesting to try and decouple from the part of the movement mechanics where you are engaged in a type of dance with your opponent, and you are anticipating and the nervous system signal processing is ongoing before the arbitrary time zero of when an observer can detect the event to begin happening.
My favorite illustration of Libet’s work is the behavior of a top tennis player returning serve. If you ever get a chance to sit close when a guy like Nadal or Federer is playing, I recommend observing this feature as closely as possible. There is literally no time to react to where the ball is going. There are some back envelope calculations (by Libet and many others) that the reaction time is shorter than conscious thought processing time, but my opinion is the pro returning serve can sense from his own behavioral synchronization with the server the direction the serve will be going before the server’s racquet strikes the ball.
A top ping-pong player told me that when he’s playing ping-pong, time slows down. I’ve also heard this from a martial artist. Possibly extreme expertise and focus uses neural circuits in a way that provides a reaction faster than those circuits do when operating in the general-purpose mode. The back-of-envelope calculations would be based on observation of the general-purpose mode.
Yes. What intense training can do is move the bulk of the neuron message passing down into the reflex circuits—the ganglia that do things like reflex your lower leg when your doctor taps your kneecap with his little rubber hammer. This would be interesting to try and decouple from the part of the movement mechanics where you are engaged in a type of dance with your opponent, and you are anticipating and the nervous system signal processing is ongoing before the arbitrary time zero of when an observer can detect the event to begin happening.
I’ve read that, in order to hit a fastball, a professional baseball player has to begin his swing before the baseball leaves the pitcher’s hand...