When I was in England last year, we stayed in a hotel that had a mirror in a corner of the room. When you looked at yourself in it, everything was reversed. No big deal right?

I stood my daughter in front of it, stood behind her and told her to block my slaps to her head. (I’ve taught her some Krav Maga/self defense.) With my right hand I slapped her right ear, but in the mirror in front of us it looked like my left hand was coming at her left ear. She instinctively raised her left hand to cover, but got slapped. Every time. We took turns and I did no better.

Occasionally we did block a blow but it was accidental, 95% of the time we got whacked on the head. It was frustrating but hilarious at the same time.

It demonstrated how automatized a lot of our behavior is… and how hard that can be to change.

Riding a bike is really hard at first, there’s the balancing, and the steering dynamic which changes how you need to balance and lean, then the pedaling on top of that.

It’s a bit like rubbing your stomach, patting your head, and reciting the alphabet backwards.

So what if, like in the double mirror case, you reversed one aspect of riding a bike. What would happen?

Here’s what…