Blog

Knowing where our limbs are

Hand-eye co-ordination is an everyday life skill, knowing where our limbs are without having to look at them.  We don’t look at our feet as we’re walking, or our hands as we pick something up.  It’s know as Proprioception, our hidden sixth sense, and there are steps we can take to improve it.

 When we move, cells in our muscles and joints process sensory information, which tells our brain where our arms, leg and body are at any given moment, known as proprioceptive feedback. 

 This allows us to grade our force and speed of movement, for example, when we sip a drink we don’t look at the cup all the way to our mouth.  The proprioceptive sense we have ensures our movement is smooth and that we don’t crash the cup into our mouth.

 Referencing this our karate training or Bonsai Chi, this sense enables us to know where our left arm is as we’re moving our right, ensuring smooth, equal, movement.  We move our limbs simultaneously, and independently, to the exact same position, height and place without having to look.

Punching forward at the same target, left arm followed by right arm, it allows us to land the technique at the same place without punching our own fist as its being pulled backwards to our hip (hikite).

 Movement is felt throughout our body.  When we lift our leg into chamber for a karate kick, or lifting our knee in Bonsai Chi, the proprioceptive sense detects the movement in our standing leg, feeding it back to the brain so it knows what’s happing to our foot, ankle, leg, body, core, at that precise moment.  This in addition to our vestibular system, primarily responsible for sense of balance, ensures we don’t fall over. 

The proprioceptive sense is also different to touch sensory, it’s our muscles and joints feeding information back to the brain, not our skin.

Our body uses combinations of senses to understand what our body is doing.  When we step on an uneven surface, vestibular information is fed from our inner ear, recording our head movement and change of position.  Simultaneously our proprioceptive sensor feeds back where our ankle, knee, hip etc are.  The brain uses all these senses to help keep us upright and not fall over as we navigate the uneven surface.

Bonsai Chi exercise to help improve hand-eye co-ordination:

 This drill starts with your feet shoulder width apart, back straight, shoulders relaxed, head up straight.  You want to check that both sides are doing the same thing, so ideally you want to lift both hands to the same height in front of you, and they want to finish level.  Ensure as you step forward both feet are flat on the floor, front knee slightly bent, back straight, don’t lean over your front leg.  This exercise helps improve our visual and motor skills.

If you've enjoyed reading this blog please click here to read 'How do you walk'