Muscle Memory or Brain Training?

[Smithhammer]

Got it.

[reddogge]

Originally posted by Ric O'Shay:
Darren - Good post!

My entire point of this thread is the LEARNED MOTOR SKILL is stored in the brain and not in the muscle as the term "muscle memory" would suggest. A prime example is when a person suffers a stroke, the brain is impaired and muscles atrophy. The motor skill ceases to exist. If the muscles had this stored memory, they could still function. The muscles don't have memory and can only function with direction from the brain.

Danny

You are correct, the brain in the end controls all of our functions including our muscles. The term "muscle memory" is just that, a term. It's a feeling that the limbs, joint, and muscles are in the correct position to execute the activity required. If driving a golf ball the feeling you get in the back and shoulders when you make a great shoulder turn and the club is at the correct postition at the top to unleash a mighty blow at the ball. In shooting a bow the feeling of engaging the back muscles during the shot. The feeling of casting a lure to an exact spot.

I had a great golf instructer and he could put me in the perfect postition in a short time. Now for years I had read about this postition but never could achieve it by reading and using my brain alone. The coach could get me there by turning me this way and that way and pushing on my limbs and verbal instruction, "No not like that, like THAT". After I felt the postion it was easy to repeat time after time. I call that muscle memory.

We KNOW our brains control this but our muscles, tendons, limbs have a certain feeling to them when in or out of position to execute an activity and we just call this muscle memory. Not a big deal.

[Jim now in Kentucky]

The most interesting example of proprioception for me is to be in a dark place close my eyes and watch the "ghost" image of my hand or forearm or elbow or knee or foot as I move it.

At first I wondered if I was seeing an image generated by heat from the appendage. But it works just the same if you put a hand over your closed eyes.

Warning: I have had several people tell me they see nothing under those conditions. That may be why we have people who say it is impossible to shoot using what is unfortunately named "instinctive" aiming.

Jim

[JINKSTER]

"Tabula rasa"

and most times?..if i hafta think about it?

i just missed. LOL!

[LongStick64]

I always thought the Brain told the Muscles what to do, so when people suffer from TP, they have a communication problem, where either the muscle isn't listening or the Brain is getting impatient.

[Javi]

Interesting discussion on the relationship between symbols and what they represent.

[Bill Turner]

No doubt in my mind, after reading the above post, that the right side of my brain is under- developed. Thats why my groups are not as consistant(tite) as "Ric O'Shay's". I expect that is why he wins the belt buckles at the 3-D shoots we attend, and I carry them to the truck for him. Oh well, as long as we are having fun. Have a safe and happy New Year and don't sweat the small stuff.

[JINKSTER]

Originally posted by Javi:
Interesting discussion on the relationship between symbols and what they represent.

whatchu talk'in 'bout willis?

[Rik]

I've trained in nine different martial arts since 1973. I currently train under the last of Bruce Lee's students to enter his school before he died----my instructor is the top Jeet Kune Do expert in the world. I am no genius, far from it, but over the decades, I've learned a little bit about what muscles can do, and what the brain can do.

I have to say that if muscle memory worked well, I could take a devastating shin penetrating 24 inches through the side of my head at just under 100 miles per hour, and still stay on my feet and win the fight.

Sadly, that's just not the way it works. When the brain shuts down, so does everything else---instantly. I've shut down many brains, and the body attached to every one of them hit the ground, hard. The brain controls it all.

Just think back on the video footage associated with the phrase "DOWN GOES FRAZIER!" Did he get punched in a muscle? No, he got punched in the head, and his brain shut down.

Train the brain, and you are also training the muscles to respond to the trained commands. Stop the brain, and the muscles no longer know what to do.

I shoot a Hill bow, and it's my brain doing the aiming. My back muscles simply draw the bow when told to, and my fingers let go of the string when they are told to.

Anything else is a miss.

. . . Now, if you have, weak, untrained muscles, we need to discuss a whole different problem.

Train the brain and the muscles will follow. . .