Tricky Things- Legs

[poliphilo]

I took Fabrizio out the back to kick a ball around. He was up for that, but even more interested in the big stone step between our yard and the path that runs along the back of the houses. He could get up it by himself- no problem- but getting down again was a challenge- and he had to hold my hand or he'd have fallen flat on his face. So what is the secret? What do you have to do with your legs to get safely from A (up here) to B (down there)? We practised the manoeuvre over and over and over.

Comments

[jfs.livejournal.com]

It's the difference between flying and falling.

When we climb up, we secretly hope we'll soar. When we climb down, we fear falling flat on our face.

Slightly less poetically, when we step up, we transfer our body weight onto the raised leg and then use that to lift us. It's a pretty stable movement as we're moving our centre of gravity forwards onto a higher place. When we step down, we're keeping our body weight on the higher leg and lowering the other one to meet the ground - it's far less stable as we're moving our centre of gravity forwards and dropping it at the same time.

Humans are much better at going up than down.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We forget that these things are skills and that they have to be learned. It's fascinating to watch someone trying to master them.

[jfs.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. One of the most important parts of my job, and of being a trainer in general, is remembering what's called 'beginner's mind' - what was it like before you had the skill you're trying to show someone?

It (hopefully) stops me saying things like "Now, it's obvious that ..." because from a beginner's mind, it often _isn't_ obvious.

I'm getting the same thrill from climbing (though there, it's me learning how to 'walk' again).

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

"Beginner's mind"- I like that. At the beginning everything has to be done deliberately- then it becomes instinctive. They say it's like that with driving a car- but I never got beyond the stage where I was having to think about every move.

[jfs.livejournal.com]

When I was learning and teaching Aikido, we used to express it like this.

First you learn it in your head.

Then you pull it down to centre and forget it in your head.

If you want to teach, you have to pull it back up to your head, while still keeping it in centre.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think that's really difficult- pulling things back to the head once they've become instinctive. I believe I can write, I know I've worked very hard at learning to write- but I don't think I could teach writing to save my life.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

That reminds me of this:

http://www.businessballs.com/consciouscompetencelearningmodel.htm

It's essentially what Donald Rumsfeld was wittering on about when he started talking about "unknown unknowns".

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

God knows I'm not a fan of Rummy's but I always thought that "unknown unknown" thing of his was pretty smart.