The Three-Stage Model
Whether you know it or not, no matter your age, sport or lifestyle you would have learnt many, many different movement patterns. Movement patterns, simply put, are the way in which we move biomechanically to reach a certain position or perform a particular task. Examples of different movement patterns include the way in which we walk, jog, jump, squat, lunge all of which we have had to consciously think about how to perform at some point and then developed through trial and error to improve our physical skillset.
When a movement pattern is performed, it requires proprioception; the ability to sense the positioning of your own body and strength needed to move it, as well as information from the vestibular system; a sensory system which is the main contributor to the sense of balance. This combination of information and sensory feedback is known as kinesthesia.
Kinesthesia is improved through repetition and progression of a particular movement until it becomes automatic. When executing new or lost movement patterns initially there will be a fair amount of conscious cognitive attention required, along with visual, verbal and environmental cues to perform the movement accurately. With internal and external feedback, along with practise you can perform the desired movement in a faster, more efficient way, with a reduced chance of injury. Our brains link up what movement we wish to execute with the feedback from practising similar movement patterns, the more regular a movement occurs the less cognitive effort is needed and thus a habit is created.
Having structure to this learning process means that when a habit is created and a movement becomes automatic, the quality of motion is not lost. Incorrect biomechanics or fault motor control places a greatly heighten risk of injury through, suboptimal loading upon joints and tissues, shear forces upon joints and excess stress on ligaments and tendons in vulnerable planes of motion. This is where the Three-Stage Model comes into play.
The Three-Stage Model
Presented by Paul Firts and Michael Posner, the three-stage model is a motor learning theory. This theory suggests there is an initial cognitive understanding of a skill which leads into a more associative stage and is then followed by a final autonomous stage.
For Injury Rehabilitation
Cognitive Stage
The three-stage model is well used within sport injury rehabilitation. One of the main issues following an injury is the inhibition of muscles caused through loss of neuromuscular control and increased joint afferent nerve fibers; a by-product of joint pain or effusion. This model gives structure to re-gain joint function and progress within a rehabilitation protocol.
In the initial stages of rehabilitation proprioception; the sense of knowing the position and location of our limbs in our environment, is a key focus. Re-gaining neuromuscular control and coordination allows for advancement onto strengthening exercises and more sport-specific drills. As with any good development programme a good, solid foundation is vital, so for rehabilitative purposes stage 1 or the cognitive stage, has a high level of importance. Initially, the focus should be on single joint movements such as flexion and extension, aiming to activate the correct muscles and striving for perfection within these basic planes of motion. The trick in moving onto the associate phase in repetition, repetition, repetition. It takes time for your brain and motor units to reconnect and re-gain their efficiency.
Associative Stage
The associate stage is great once you have re-gained some neuromuscular control. Within this stage environmental objects such as walls, targets or cones are used to give you live feedback allowing you to edit your positioning, develop coordination and connect multiple movement patterns together, learnt from the pervious stage. Another useful environmental object offering live feedback is a mirror. Live feedback has been shown to be more effective in improving movement patterns compared to video feedback. Use of both a mirror and other environmental objects are great tools in advancing your proprioception, assisting you on demining full range of motion and perfecting your body’s biomechanics. With practise along with your proprioception improving, reliance on environmental cues will decrease and movement will once again become second nature.
Autonomous Stage
Just like progressing from the cognitive stage to the associative stage, entering the autonomous stage requires high amounts of repetition. All this repetition enhances neuromuscular efficiency which as mentioned already, improves quality and reliability of movement patterns, but also offers the potential to progress faster through these stages perfect complex skills. This is commonly noticed within athletes that have “carry over” from their main sport to other, similar sports. For example, wide receivers in American Football are considered good catchers which could transfer well into Baseball, as they share similar athletic traits.
The autonomous stage indicates the movement pattern has developed into a habit. When this occurs progression towards multi-joint exercises and more sport specific skills are the following stages. The three-stage model can be reused in the same order to achieve a more demanding and/or complicated movement pattern, with it’s structure providing a foundation from the last stage to support the next.
For Sports Performance
Cognitive Stage
Although similar, the three-stage model for the enhancement of sports performance differs in a few ways. With sport-specific movements it is assumed basic movement patterns are performed without any cognitive processing, athletes tend to move on from the initial stage quickly. Having a strong foundation of simple movement allows for an accelerated adaption for new or more complex sport-specific skills. Basic, functional movements should be perfected regardless of sporting discipline.
In many cases athletes can understand the general concept on how to perform a particular drill and will just need to refine their delivery (associative stage). However, athletes can regress to the cognitive stage through adaptations of poor biomechanics, muscle and joint imbalances or lack of flexibility and mobility. Although, even in these situations there is normally minimal intervention required to re-gain correct movement. A mixture of both cognitive and environmental cues are utilised to optimise efficiency in trained individuals. Stages 1 and 2 are easier to progress for those who have trained for longer due to many components needed in completing the desired tasks are already acquired.
Associative Stage
For complex sport-specific movements this stage is where the most time is spent. Whether its refining the movement or correcting it, athletic training often utilises environmental cues to enhance competition execution. Chances are you have used environmental cues yourself; dribbling around cones for Football, tackling pads for Rugby, use of boxes for Olympic Weightlifting, all of which are aiming to make you more efficient and adopt the movement into a habit.
Autonomous Stage
The stage of which all athletes desire to be at, yet is it actually possible? Of course, you can learn a new movement pattern and perform it automatically, but when it comes to sport performance that is not enough, the execution could always be improved. As athletes, we are always wanting to be faster, stronger, more efficient and more agile, to mention a few, which blocks us from “mastering” the particular skill. Even if we get to this stage the unsatisfied nature of an athlete makes our positon at the autonomous stage short lived before we enter the initial stages of the model for an even more complex more demanding skill.
It is also possible no matter the physical ability to regress to the previous stage(s) through over repetition of poor movement patterns. This is most likely to occur during periods of sport/training whilst suffering fatigue where your body looks for alternative methods to carry out the desired tasks, editing biomechanics to support and transfer load. The saying “practise makes perfect’ is not 100% accurate, in fact is should be “practise make permanent”. Hence an additional note to success in the associate stage is well structured training programming and carefully designed loading schemes, offering adequate repetitions and training frequency whilst not overtraining movements with poor execution and building bad habits.
Final Words
Whether you are rehabbing an injury or aiming to improve performance consider what stage are you at and what stage or what skill are you aspiring to perfect. Learn how to perform the movement, evaluate your ability to perform it, understand the cues needed to improve execution, incorporate your environment to facilitate you, achieve and continue moving on to more complex, more demanding and more rewarding skills! Use the three-stage model to streamline your learning process in order to succeed!
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