Tennis as a Venue for Neurological and Neurobiological Research
Why
Does Neurobiology Need a New Source of Data?
Most of what is known
about the human brain has come from brain trauma. It is the result
of discovering
what
has
gone
wrong
due
to a
trauma such
as a disease rather than discovering what goes right when a normal
human subject carries out a plan of action. This is because the normal
healthy
brain is inaccessible to experimentation through invasive
means. In contrast to brain trauma patients, the range of neurodynamics
available to the normal human brain is enormous. The fact that we
cannot carry out a full range of experiments on normal human subjects
presents
a significant barrier to research that we must find a way around.
Where Should We Look for a Source of Normal Data?
The human brain
evolved under physical duress. All intellectual and physical skills
evolved from the need to carry out physical actions such
as survival and reproduction. there were no schools to guide human evolution.
Everything evolved from physical forces that the human needed to cope
with. Hence, complex physical action is fundamental to learning and to
neurodynamics generally, including our intellectual faculties. The facts
of evolution suggest that we look to the activities of
sports as a venue where normal subjects freely engage in complex activities.
Why Tennis?
The choice of tennis training as the venue for this research is as follows: 1) Tennis challenges nearly every part of the body and mind. It challenges both athletic skills, emotions, decision making skills, intellectual skills. Tennis makes demands on the frontal lobe, limbic system, visual processing, Parietal Lobe, Medulla, Cerebellum, and the entire neuromuscular infrastructure of the human body. 2) Tennis is an eye-to-eye combative sport so all aspects of combative competition come into play; 3) Tennis is an individual sport so the subject is isolated and must perform on their own every second of match play and practice. 4) Tennis can be studied in a small area of 150 by 50 feet. In this ares video and observation are easily carried out; 5) Tennis requires extraordinary training at the professional level requiring anaerobic fitness, precision movement, strength in every part of the body from feet to neck to eyes. footwork, speed, endurance, spatial judgment, eye-had coordination, ability to synchronize movements between body, ball and racquet, concentration, discipline, both calm execution and intense aggression. 6) Historically. there has been a reasonable correlation between academic ability and tennis skill.
How Do We Obtain Valid Data?
However,
in
order
to
obtain legitimate data, we must find an experimental approach that
does not
interrupt the flow of data from the subjects. This was our challenge:
to obtain objective, accurate, and uncorrupted data from a sport
through observation, knowledge of the sport, interviews, and direct
participation. In choosing a starting point for collecting accurate
data, it is desirable to have the sport take place in a confined area
where complete
and accurate
observations
can be made. The sport must be complex and exercise a full range of actions,
thought, and emotions. Of particular importance for dynamical complexity
is eye-to-eye combat that does not involve the complication of physical
contact.
Also, the sport should not exclude either sex. And
last, the sport should involve the minimum number of subjects to be played.
Among all sports, the venue of tennis best satisfies these requirements.
Summary
In summary, Neuroscience needs a valid source of data about normal human
brains in order to accelerate its progress. The most natural source of data
arises from engaging in complex, organized, physical activity outside of a
laboratory.
This leads to sports. Among all sports, tennis provides the richest venue from
which to derive valid data about normal male and female human subjects engaging
in complex physical actions which include a significant intellectual component.
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