Matching & Mirroring is an interesting learning phenomenon
that takes place from time to time with or without our conscious awareness.
The more aware we are of matching & mirroring learning strategy
the faster we can discover if we learn by one or the other or a combination of both.
While working out with a couple of my martial arts students,
I noticed matching & mirroring taking place.
As I was showing a specific martial arts technique to student A (he learns by mirroring), student B automatically positioned himself on an angle to match my movements. He knew that matching was the best way for him to learn.
Once you determine if you learn by matching, mirroring or both, then learning any physical skill will be accelerated.
In my new book “Vibrational Oneness” I discuss many different learning strategies that can be utilized in every aspect of our learning journey. – Fred Shadian
enticing post, especially since i a) am trying to learn some escrima techniques and b) consider myself learning disabled when it comes to things like martial arts or dancing.
can you describe some more what you mean by matching, and what you mean by mirroring?
Great article Fred!
I completely agree. We actually have a group of cells in out brains called mirror neurons. When we start to learn new skills of others, its very easy to “mirror” the other persons body language and techniques.
Including language patterns and thought patterns!
Thanks!
Ryan Yokome
Cool Ryan, “mirror neurons,” I love it. Personally, I have always been a visual and kinesthetic learner. The existence of mirror neurons makes sense in terms of being strongly influenced by someone’s movement or action.
Isabella, I’ll attempt to answer your question. Matching may be characterized by equal and opposite movement or positioning. For example, Someone is facing you, right foot forward, holding a stick in their right hand. So, to match them you would stand right foot forward, your right foot lining to their left, their left to your right. If they move left, you move right, in an equal and opposite fashion. Two opposites creating one whole.
Mirroring is as if you were looking in a mirror. So, same deal, someone standing as before, right foot forward, you stand left foot forward, lining to their right, truly as if you were standing in front of a full body length mirror. Therefore, you are performing exactly what you see if front of you.
This is one way to explain the physical basic ideas and differences of matching and mirroring.
Michael
Great comments, Fred.
This is something we talked about during our brief stick fighting tweetups this summer, but a principle I’ve used in practicing and learning martial arts since I started in 1999.
I’m a proponent of applying martial arts principles to the rest of life, particularly in business, and I wish I had applied these specific principles to my professional career earlier on. As a budding finance manager, it would have been great to work with a senior controller and matched or mirrored them as I grew – without this, I really took the long way. Still a great path, but it took a lot longer than it needed to.
Dave
it was interesting to revisit this post after a few sessions with dave. very interesting actually. i don’t know exactly how you refer to matching and mirroring (in the NLP sense, perhaps?) but it occurs to me that mirroring, as in “copying what someone else does” never worked for me. i have often said, “i’m incapable of being a follower”. this is more than tongue-in-cheek; i find mirroring incredibly difficult (and because of that i have had moments of giving it denigrating names – aping, being a sheeple, etc.) matching, on the other hand – doing WITH, reacting TO, playing WITH, picking up FROM – comes quite naturally to me.
thanks for giving me the space to think out loud here!