"Errors" are Necessary for Perception and Skill [How We Learn to Move, Chapter 2 Companion]

Functional variability occurs on every level of system analysis, including human perception and movement systems. It's not just inevitable--it's vital.

This is post 2 in the Combat Learning Companion series to How We Learn to Move by Rob Gray.

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“It didn’t work because you didn’t do the move correctly.”

“You got hurt because your technique was wrong.”

Have you heard this before? I mean, let’s be real. You’ve totally said it before, too. Don’t even front.

(I’m guilty as charged.)

Movement variability is the enemy of the traditional view of coaching and training.

The second your knee slides over your toes, it will explode into a million pieces and you’ll be crippled for the rest of your life. If you don’t punch with your elbow straight down, your ribs will collapse into a black hole, never to recover.

Source: literally everyone everywhere ever.

Here’s the thing. This is definitely (not) a conspiracy theory. The Matrix is everywhere…it’s all around us. Even now in this very room…

You feel it when you go to training, step out for a run, watch your knees get dangerously close to your toe line during squats…

It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.

You lean forward. “What truth?”

After this there is no turning back. You take the blue pill: the story ends, you wake up on the mat, and shrimp across the floor alone for 15 minutes.

You take the red pill: you stay in wonderland, and I show you just how deep the rabbit hole goes.

Ready?

The truth is…