We talking about practise
Malcolm Gladwell’s famous proposition that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to achieve mastery of a skill not only applies to the arts, sports and trades, but is just as relevant in the rehabilitation process. Most people don’t normally think of sitting, standing and walking as skills - they’re just god given abilities. However we forget that we’ve already mastered these movements long ago as toddlers. Fortifying the neural pathways and movement patterns through our early years so that they feel second nature to us today.
But as soon as our body’s homeostasis is disturbed (due to a neurological insult or a musculoskeletal disorder) these inherent skills suddenly become laboured, awkward or even impossible. And we find ourselves having to relearn all the movement patterns that were once reflexive for us.
Having to start from scratch again is very frustrating, especially in an age where most things can be obtained “on demand”. Gung ho individuals that rush into standing and walking right away at the beginning of their rehab journey are faced with the harsh reality that they’re simply not ready for those tasks yet. In most cases a graded approach is required where gross motor skills such as sit-to-stands and walking are broken down into their constituent movements and practiced in parts.
Like in our formative years we’d have to learn to balance in standing before attempting to step, then practise stepping before we try to walk. Progressively layering rudimentary motor skills upon one another to build compound movement patterns like walking and running.
And once we have established these compound movements, next comes the refining process where we practise these movements until we have them down pat.
As you can see a common theme in the rehabilitation process is becoming apparent, practise practise practise and MORE PRACTISE is required to regain the premorbid independence that one previously enjoyed. Like other skills the more time dedicated to deliberate practise the faster the skill acquisition. However it’s not just about quantity, quality is important too. When laying down neural pathways and establishing motor patterns it’s imperative to train the correct kinematics otherwise we risk forming bad habits that will be hard to correct in the future.
This is where the trained eye of an experience therapist makes a difference. There’s still no escaping hard work and dedication in the pursuit of success but having a good guide can make the journey a lot smoother.
