mattbell: (Ph)
mattbell ([personal profile] mattbell) wrote2009-07-24 01:56 pm
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Not practicing makes perfect??

I use a video game (Dance Dance Revolution) for aerobic exercise.

I usually play around three times a week.  However, I didn't play at all between mid-January and this week.  Six months of no practice.  The first time I played this week, I was not as good as I used to be.  However, the second time I played this week, I broke my all-time records on five of the ~40 songs.  This is kind of shocking.  I don't know if it was my running around the world and feeding my brain lots of interesting data that led me to be more nimble at this well-practiced skill.  Maybe it was also those brain games I started playing around with earlier this week that are helping me track the arrows faster.  Maybe it was a complete fluke.  Unfortunately, running a controlled experiment on this one would take a lot of time.

Generally being an expert at one skill (eg tennis) actually interferes with your ability to perform a related skill (eg racquetball).  However, perhaps at my fairly moderate level of physical dexterity, picking up a variety of physical skills instead of purely focusing on one makes them *all* better. 

[identity profile] ekesobriquet.livejournal.com 2009-07-25 05:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Here's an activity to consider to build that cognitive fortitude:

[identity profile] nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com 2009-07-27 05:37 am (UTC)(link)
Wow... I wonder if he's taking in all the visual info in real time or if he has sections of it memorized.