Just do it: Embodied experiences improve

Ottoboni et al.: Embodied experiences improve Taekwondo athletes sport performance

Just do it: Embodied experiences improve Taekwondo athletes sport performance Giovanni Ottoboni ([email protected]) Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy C.F.I., Centro di Psicologia e Psicoterapia Funzionale Integrata, Trieste, Italy

Roberta Giusti ([email protected]) C.F.I. Centro di Psicologia e Psicoterapia Funzionale Integrata, Trieste, Italy

Andrea Gatta ([email protected]) Department of Psychology University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Ed Symes ([email protected]) School of Psychology University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK

Alessia Tessari ([email protected]) Department of Psychology University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Abstract According to the embodied perspective, cognitive processes are entwined with sensory-motor processes (Shapiro, 2011). The present study investigates the implications of such a perspective in the sport domain. We provided a group of athletes with sessions of embodied relaxation exercises designed to increase their body awareness, in addition to standard Taekwondo training while a control group of athletes received an extra period of standard training. Sport performance was assessed for the two groups by means of Taekwondo exams. Athletes performed better on the Taekwondo exam with the addition of embodied relaxation training and this effect was influenced by the number of sessions each athlete attended. The positive effect of embodied relaxation training on taekwondo performance suggests that embodied cognition may have an applied influence in the domain of sports. Keywords: Sport performance; Taekwondo, Embodiment; Clinical Embodied approach; NeoFunctionalism

Recently the measurement of brain activity registered in sensory and motor areas during cognitive tasks has challenged the conception of cognition as comprising symbolic, abstract representations which are not tied to sensory and motor processes (Barsalou, 1999; Barsalou, 2010; Clark, 1997, 1998; Glenberg, 2010; Prinz, 2002; Pylyshyn, 1973; Shapiro, 2011; Wilson, 2002; See Dove, 2011 for a review).

In applied and clinical settings, the concept of embodiment, which conceptualises mental process as intrinsically having a sensory-motor nature, is receiving a growing amount of attention from researchers and practitioners (e.g., Ottoboni, 2013; Perrin, 2010). The attention this perspective is receiving is demonstrated by a growing amount of independent evidence in the clinical domain suggesting that body movements, massages and, more generally, body-inclusive techniques, have positive effects in the treatments of mental disorders, disturbed affective states, and in the modulation of cognitive states (e.g., Dijkstra, Kaschak, & Zwaan, 2007; Field, 1998; Garner et al., 2008; Lämas, Graneheim, & Jacobsson, 2012; Lindgren et al., 2010; Mannerkorpi & Gard, 2003; Mishra, Singh, Bunch, & Zhang, 2012; Moyer, Rounds, & Hannum, 2004; Röhricht, 2009; Tsao, 2007; Phelan, 2009). Traditionally, many psychological disorders have been conceptualised as being underpinned by irrational beliefs, illogical thoughts or unresolved emotional conflicts (e.g., Zeig, 1997; Sutker & Adams, 2001), with very little attention given to the body, or embodied perspectives. However, recent evidence has started to show that bodily treatments involving metaphoric actions ameliorate depression severity (see Röhricht, Papadopoulos & Priebe, 2013). In cases such as these, the embodied factors themselves are difficult to disentangle from verbal explanations and narrative developments around the bodily activity that are typically provided at the end of a session (i.e., the moments of verbalizations between clinician/researcher

Sensoria: A Journal of Mind, Brain & Culture 28


and client/participant concerning what happened during the session). Indeed, within applied practice (e.g., clinical, sport etc.), this “narrative development” is considered part and parcel of the process of healing, sport performance etc. (e.g., Ottoboni & Iacono, 2013). An important implication of this is that the sequence of events usually occurring within practice seems to differ from the sequence of events that usually occurs in the experimental setting, (e.g., Nazir et al., 2008; Ottoboni, Iani, Tessari & Rubichi, 2013; Scorolli et al., 2011; Hommel 2010). In the former, the sequence involves embodied treatment/training etc.→ narrative development → effect assessment, while the latter involves embodied treatment/training etc. → effect assessment → debrief. Thus, it may be that the perceived effect of applied embodied practices is due to the narrative development that participants were exposed to before the effect assessment rather than the embodied actions performed. Alternatively, the “embodied effects” might also be due to expectations participants have about the effect of the treatment (e.g., Gaitan-Sierra & Hylnad, 2011).

The Current Study To examine this issue, we tested two groups of participants: one group was provided with embodied relaxation exercises, the other served as a control group. In the experimental group the narrative developments that are usually part of standard relaxation exercises were not verbalised. Furthermore, these participants were kept unaware of the purpose of the exercises and their underlying theory. The control group did not receive the embodied relaxation exercises, but instead trained for an additional amount of time equivalent to the duration of the embodied relaxation exercises. We expected that by the experimental manipulation we would be able to measure the pure effect of embodiment, that is, the effect of embodied practice without the influence of narrative development or expectation. The participants we tested were Taekwondo athletes. As body awareness is a key element in Taekwondo, the embodied exercises were specifically aimed at increasing athletes' body awareness by instructing them to focus on the body sensations the exercises evoked (Ottoboni & Iacono, 2013). In particular, athletes were instructed to investigate and experience the dichotomous sensations of stiffness and agility, pain and pleasure, bloated feeling and nimbleness, but no mention was made about the positive effect these observations might exert over the sport performance. The exercises derived from the Neo-Functional approach- hereafter, NF- practice (Ottoboni & Iacono, 2013; Rispoli, 2008) As previously mentioned, no narrative was verbalised for the experimental group, e.g. regarding any recent or distant memories about work or family situations that might have been evoked during and by the exercises.

Moreover, in order to avoid the formation of psychological biases, we decided not to administer any psychological tests, preferring to measure the effect of the embodiment in terms of sport performance. The athletes' performance was assessed twice. The first exam occurred on late January (2011), the second 9 weeks later. The assessments required athletes to demonstrate the ability to master skills such as equilibrium, interior rhythm, and power. In both exams, athletes were judged by two independent referees who graded the execution of pre-determined movements (i.e., the Taegeuk moves).

Methods Participants Sixteen volunteers took part in this study. Seven of them (2 women) were randomly assigned to the experimental group and the remaining nine (3 women) were assigned to the control group. The experimental group was aged between 13 and 45 years (M = 22.12), the control group was aged between 13 and 32 years (M = 19.9). Neither the average age of the participants (t(14) = .63, p > .1) or their genders (χ2 = .76, p > .1) differed between the two groups. Expertise levels were also balanced between groups. Five participants of the experimental group possessed yellow belts, one of them had a red belt, one a green belt and one possessed a green belt with blue tag. Within the control group, one possessed a yellow belt; two of them green belts, four held blue belts, and two held blue belts with red tags. In the two groups, the belts resulted equally concentrated (Herfindahl index for the Experimental group= .074; Herfindahl parameter for the Control group= .071).

Materials and Procedure A Taekwondo coach learned the embodied relaxation techniques through personal experience in weekly sessions with a professional NF counsellor, held over a period of 3 months. Each session lasted for approximately 30 minutes. These exercises the coach learned were delivered to the experimental group during the study. During the exercises, coach and athletes, by turns, were encouraged to reflect on the bodily feelings they experience during the exercises by paying attention on the breathing rate, the level of muscular contractions and the adjustments occurring to the belly's entrails. However, only the coach was informed that by doing the exercises himself, he could use the information and the sensation he received from his body to mirror how the athletes would have felt and help them in turn (e.g. see Rabinovich & Kacen, 2012). This information was provided to the coach to help him avoid any verbalizations about athletes' feelings that may have resulted in the development of narrative moments.



Both the groups had 27 sessions of Taekwondo training; three each week. The experimental group had seven embodied relaxation sessions, approximately one a week, while the control group had extended sessions during this time. Each session of embodied relaxation exercises was provided at the beginning of a normal hour-long Taekwondo training session. The embodied relaxation exercises lasted about 30 minutes, leaving 30 minutes for the standard Taekwondo training. The two groups were trained by the same coach. However, this coach did not administer the embodied exercises to the experimental group nor did they supervise the period of extra training with the control group. This was implemented to control for any possible negative effect the enrolment of a new coach might have raised. The effect of the embodied exercises was tested by measuring the performance of the athletes in two exams. Athletes had one exam in the middle of year and the other at the end of the year. The exams assessed athletes' ability to perform Taegeuk moves. Two independent referees scored the moves within a range of marking that goes from 1 to 2.5 in accordance to the normative guidelines defined by the Italian Federation of Taekwondo (http://www.fdtaekwondo.it/). The two referees were unaware that athletes were part of a study. All the details concerning the study were revealed to the athletes only at the end of the study, whereupon the control group were offered the embodied relaxation sessions at the being of the following year of training. As the experimental movements were very similar to standard sport movements, in providing the ethical clearance for the study, Local Commission agreed that we could collect the signed consent forms only at the end of the study. Experimental group: Embodied techniques. Each embodied relaxation session began by asking the participants to experience themselves breathing deeply, with prolonged exhalation and inhalation. While breathing out, participants were asked to stretch all their limbs and move them slowly and freely. The aim of this request was to get the participants to search for sensations of stiffness. After this first step, participants were asked to stand firmly, grounding themselves on the floor by splaying the toes of each foot. In doing this, they were asked to partially flex their knees while rotating forward their hips. They were asked to relax their arms and legs muscles. They were left free to close their eyes or to keep them slightly open, in which case they were asked to let their gaze wander. Once all the participants (or the majority of them) were able to achieve the posture, their attention was turned again towards their breath. They were asked to put their hands over their rib cage and to wait for a few seconds before moving the hands laterally towards the lateral parts of the rib cage. Then, they were asked to wait again with the hands over their rib cage and to finally move the hands over the navel. In every

position, they were asked to focus on their breath and on their heart beats. These instructions were directed to make them aware of the extent, the amplitude, and the timing of their physiological changes. Once this introductory part was completed, the participants were instructed to contract and relax rhythmically those body parts that are commonly reported as being associated with stress and anxiety (e.g., Adib-Hajbaghery & Zohrehea, 2013; Kim, June, Shin, & Choo, 2013; Rispoli, 2008). Participants were asked to tighten their shoulders close to the head for few seconds, and then to slowly release the contraction. The duration of the exercise was modulated according to the fatigue participants seemed to express nonverbally. Arms, hands, glutei muscles, legs and calves were similarly contracted and relaxed rhythmically. Each of these was contracted and relaxed 3 times, with a 1:2 ratio between contraction and relaxation periods. The effort that was required by the participants was increased a little more at every repetition. These contraction and relaxation periods were accompanied by tangible and grounded images of hardness and softness, respectively. That is, during the muscles' contraction, participants were asked to imagine themselves as if they were made of ice, stone, marble or some other hard material. Alternatively, during relaxation, participants were asked to seek fluidity and softness in their images, for example pudding and butter. After three clockwise and three counter-clockwise rotations of the head, participants were instructed to bend over and extend their backs. They were encouraged to pronate their head, shoulders and arms towards the ground. The request was supported by evoking the mental representation of a wire that draws the entire body towards the ground by connecting head, shoulders and back. Once participants were able to reach an inverted-U-shape posture, they were told to swing their back in all the directions, as a tree blown by the wind. After three oscillations, a prolonged breath was suggested, and this was the signal to rise back slowly. Participants were asked to raise their head only at the end. The up and down rolling was executed three times, after which participants were asked to rest on the mats and to focus their attention upon their breath as they did at the beginning of the sequence. After few minutes, when ready, they were left free to leave. Control group: Extra training. For the control group, additional training usually involved one-on-one fighting, sessions of stretching exercises, sessions of strength exercises, running, and empowerment exercise (which are standard Taekwondo training exercises).

Results The athletes' performance was analysed using a univariate analysis of variance with Exam Time (midyear exam vs. final exam) as within-subjects factor,



Group (experimental group vs. control group) and Belt (White; Yellow belt with green; Green belt; Green belt with blue tag; Blue belt) as between-subjects and Subjects as random factor. Overall, the performances between the two groups (F(1, 9) = .53, p > .1) did not differ. Further, there were no differences between the belts (F(4, 9) = 1.29, p > .1). However, the athletes performance appeared higher in the exam at the end of the year than at mid-term (Finalyear = 1.77 vs Mid-term = 1.67; F(1, 9) = 13.52, p < .001). Furthermore, as showed by the significant interaction Group X Time (F(1, 14) = 6.04, p < .05), performance appeared to increase more in the athletes that were taught with embodied relaxation exercises (t(6) = 3.33, p < .05) than in the control group (t(8) = 2, p = .08; See Figure 1). No other interactions were significant (Ps > .1).

Figure 2. The graph displays the difference between the scores achieved in the mid-year and in the final-year exam as a function of the number of embodied training sessions attended.

Discussion

Figure 1. The graph reports athletes' performance as a function of the mean scores achieved by the two groups in the two exams (the Mid-year and the Final-year exam). The * indicates the significant difference. In order to assess the influence of the number of attended sessions, we performed a further analysis. We analysed the within-subject factor Exam Time, and the between-subject factors Belt by co-varying them by the number of relaxation sessions each experimental athlete attended. The athletes' performance was lower at the mid-term exam than at the final year exam (Mid-term = 1.66 vs Final-year = 1.84; (F(1, 3) = 41.48, p < 01). The differences among the belts were not significant (F(2, 3) = 6.20, p > .05), as it was not the covariate effect, (F(1, 3) = 2.48, p > .1). Despite this, the interaction between the factor Time and the covariate emerged significant (F(2, 3) = 12.10, p < .05) and indicated that difference between the performance achieved in the two exams linearly increased as a function of the number of embodied sessions attended (See Figure 2).

In order to examine embodied cognition as applied in the sport domain, we measured the level of sport performance a group of Taekwondo athletes achieved after some sessions of embodied relaxation training against a control group (who weren’t provided with embodied relaxation exercises). To properly test embodied relaxation exercises without narrative developments, we emphasised bodily feelings and sensations and made an explicit attempt to prevent the development of any narrative moments about present or remote causes of the feelings the exercises may evoke. We found that the performance of the embodied relaxation group was better than the performance of the control group. Moreover, the increment manifested itself as a function of the number of sessions athletes attended. There were numerous limitations to the study including the limited number of participants, their different expertise (i.e., belt colours) and the need to further assess the psychological effects of the embodied relaxation exercises. Furthermore, it would have been informative to include a control group in which verbalisation was employed in addition to the embodied relaxation exercises. We also have to raise the possibility that participants still employed internal narratives about the concepts taught in the embodied relaxation training despite the exclusion of verbalisations of narratives on the part of the instructor. Despite these limitations, the data this investigation yielded adds to the recent debate around embodied cognition. Proponents of embodied cognition face the problem of the effect of symbolic narrative developments within embodied practices. In many embodied practices, narrative developments may be the means through which the manner of application of embodied techniques modifies behaviours, rather than non-symbolic, “pure” embodied practices themselves.



By removing, or at least reducing, the effect of symbolic narratives in embodied practice, the data we yielded appear to support the independence of bodilyfocussed “pure” embodied processes from any symbolically-driven mental work in the demonstrated effect on Taekwondo performance. In other words, we may say that the embodied and physical features of the exercise did not require athletes to mentalize the training (i.e., to mentalize the key-aspects guiding the training). Furthermore, our embodied relaxation exercises seem similar to mindfulness meditation, which aims to focus peoples’ attention on sensations they feel in each moment and has been demonstrated to be efficacious in the treatment of some clinical disorders (e.g., KabatZinn, 1994; Williams, Russel & Russel, 2008). Mindfulness mediation often includes a narrative along with the exercises; akin to our study, it would be interesting to examine the effects of mindfulness mediation without these narratives. Our embodied relaxation exercises also correspond with embodied therapeutic interventions for panic attacks. Panic attacks have been treated by dealing with the issue of personal self-esteem and consistency that is at the base of the attack (Rispoli, 2008). In an embodied manner, therapists may help people suffering from panic attacks to become mindful of walking by pushing their feet against the ground, straightening their neck, opening their eyes and feeling the consistency of a breath performed diaphragmatically. These are all sensorymotor states putatively linked to the concept of selfesteem. Thus, these exercises may lead people to fully master what is encompassed by the concept “selfesteem” as it is triggered by concept-congruent motor or sensory inputs enacting topical memories, metaphors and or action schemas, thereby reducing the number and severity of panic attacks. The debate about the exact nature of the concepts underpinning the embodied practices remains, however our findings suggest that embodied practices are effective without narrative developments. In particular, we propose that focus on the body in embodied practices is beneficial in sport performance, when conducted without narrative developments.

Acknowledgements This work was supported by the EU FP7 project ROSSI, Emergence of communication in RObots through Sensorimotor and Social Interaction, Grant No. 216125, which AT and GO were involved in.

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Research Profile Giovanni Ottoboni is Adjunct Lecturer at the School of Pharmacy, Biotechnology and Motor Sciences, University of Bologna, and works as Post-doc researcher in the Bracco Lab (Body Representation and ACtion Cognition) at the department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Italy. His research interests are manifold but they all regard the impacts that the sensory-motor information has upon people behavior. To aim such a target he currently tested how actions physical sensations affect either cognitive functions or emotional responses elicited in clinical settings.
