"The Author, it must be remembered, writes from his own standpoint!"
My personal "Interpretive" Lens!

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If you have a question not covered in this blog feel free to send it to me at my email address, i.e. "snow" dot here "covered" dot here "bamboo" AT symbol here "gmail" dot here "com"

"One thing has always been true: That book ... or ... that person who can give me an idea or a new slant on an old idea is my friend." - Louis L'Amour


"Ideally, your self-defense will never get physical. Avoiding the situation and running or talking you way out - either of these is a higher order of strategy than winning a physical battle." - Wise Words of Rory Miller, Facing Violence: Chapter 7: after, subparagraph 7.1:medical

"Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider..." - Francis Bacon

Warning, Caveat and Note: The postings on this blog are my interpretation of readings, studies and experiences therefore errors and omissions are mine and mine alone. The content surrounding the extracts of books, see bibliography on this blog site, are also mine and mine alone therefore errors and omissions are also mine and mine alone and therefore why I highly recommended one read, study, research and fact find the material for clarity. My effort here is self-clarity toward a fuller understanding of the subject matter. See the bibliography for information on the books.


Note: I will endevor to provide a bibliography and italicize any direct quotes from the materials I use for this blog. If there are mistakes, errors, and/or omissions, I take full responsibility for them as they are mine and mine alone. If you find any mistakes, errors, and/or omissions please comment and let me know along with the correct information and/or sources.

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What is Muscle Memory? Is it real?

Second question first, "No." Now the first question. I want to answer it by providing a quote from a post made on the "Animal List" by a Mr. Marc MacYoung.

"Muscles do not have brain cells or any other capability that denotes a type, any type, of memory yet there ARE neural networks that course through the body -- this, as well stuff upstairs in your brain pan."

The usage is prevalent through out any physical endeavor but in martial circles it remains a steadfast answer to why someone has to repeat something over, over, over, and over again. It is inadequate and incomplete for the process of making a movement natural, as possible, and instinctive is complex and warrants more than this more simplistic answer.

The brain has what may be called neural pathways/networks where many things encode many things in the brain for retrieval and use by us in our every day lives. Normal, yes.

Encoding is where appropriate, efficient, and applicable training and practice add, adjust, change or modify those pathways or networks to when the mind achieves that state of "action" it actually retrieves the correct stuff and implements it with out conscious thought. A really tuff thing ergo why we practice, practice, practice.

This is also, like telling you about so called muscle memory, a simplistic answer yet it is supposed to inspire you to seek out the entire and complete answer as to why you have to do things a certain way to achieve instinctive action.

It prompted Mr. MacYoung to say, I quote: "I have such a problem with martial artists who claim to have 'mastered' five or six martial art styles in 15 years or so. ... This is somewhat problematic since, like different beers are brewed to go well with certain foods, a style's hand work is pretty specific to how they move their bodies. With someone who actually knows different styles, you can see the change in their body movement like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. With someone who has tacked on extra stuff, it's just them waving their hands around in different ways while their body remains the same."

I do like the way he puts stuff, informative and entertaining!

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