You've probably marveled at basketball players who seem able to drive in at just the right moment to make a shot or football players who could arrive at just the right second to complete a pass. Maybe you've been in a car when the oncoming driver is passing in your lane and you wonder how much time you need to slow down so you don't hit him. Perhaps you've admired the quick wit of a comedian. What do those things have in common? Timing.
We are creatures of time. I write this a few days after the spring time change (where we shift time ahead an hour to create an evening with more light as we await the early morning sun). Bodies and brains are working to adjust sleep/wake cycles to the new clock time. It takes about a week. We do this twice a year. Notice all the time references!
Our body clocks are very definite timekeepers. We function on monthly or quarterly cycles. Babies know when they are ready to be born. We get hungry on cue. We yearn for the change of season.
When our timing is off, we can generally feel it. The sluggishness, tiredness, slowness. Or the out-of-control hyperactivity of either body or mind. The human nervous system reacts to circumstances with either a stress response or a calm response. Our personal wiring determines which happens most regularly. Most of the time we think that wiring can't be changed. What we're born with is what we live with.
However, with the right encouragement, it can most definitely be changed.
How is change possible?
The basic idea is to start with a person's own timing and allow it to feel regular. This is often calming to the mind and body with erratic timing (though calm isn't always a welcome feeling for these folks). From there it's necessary to begin matching timing outside the body that's faster or slower than one's own. And then the challenges begin: use just one part of the body, move a combination of body parts simuiltaneously, cross the midline smoothly, maintain the pattern for a longer time.
It's no acdcident that all of these involve movement. From infancy we use movement to learn about the world and allow the body and brain to grow and mature.
What do we use?
The short answer is TOYS!
For young children I begin with rocking (laps, hoops, bands), and then ball bouncing. Bounce and catch requires hand/eye coordination, eye tracking, listening skills, and upper body dexterity. We pass and toss/catch sand bags (using eye, ear, hand coordination) and then start creating more complex patterns. All of this builds balance, coordination, and timing.
When a person has a certain amount of timing ability, we move to the Interactive Metronome, a system that generates a tone/flash on the beat and measures a person's reaction within milliseconds of right on the beat. It can be used to diagnose and set up treatment plans.
As a practitioner, I monitor progress and ov
erwhelm. This is not a quick process, but persistence makes it happen. Changes are noticeable over time as movement habits change and thinking improves. The movements in the body translate through theperipheral nervous system to the brain, where it allows communication processes to work moreefficiently from hemisphers to hemisphere and from the frontal lobe to the middle and back parts of the brain.When communication is fast enough, processing will speed up. Then attention, thinking, problem solving all becomes easier and more effective. Learning new material is simpler. And patterns become easier, so work that involves repetition is more manageable.
For more information, see Building Better Focus and Summer Intensive. Feel free to contact me with questions.
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