Let me share with you “dance”/movements which have a consciousness/spiritual aim and how memory “fits” in.
You might not of heard of any of these but they exist…I assure you:
Eurythmy
Stop Exercise
Tibetan 'Cham
Eurythmy is a dance form used by Rudolf Steiner and it is meant to show/display an inner state to observers. The Anthroposophical Society still uses it.
The Stop Exercise was/is done in Gurdjieff’s “system” and in it people do chores, read, etc. and an impartial person says “STOP” and when that is said, the other people must stop their body, thoughts and speech and examine their internal state of consciousness.
'Cham is used as a means of being in a nondual state of awareness while dancing and using different hand shapes or mudras, embodying the consciousness/being of a particular Buddhist protector.
My point in saying all this is that while kinesthetic memory of course plays into this, consciously remembering the technical aspects to the 3 above exercises is indispensable.
I just downloaded the Gracie Brothers book on Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Because I need to make a prediction for the fight between Rafael dos Anjus and Islam Makhachev.
To remember this move. It is enough for me to imagine a snake that swallows a lock And associate this image with the name of the technique.
By the way, you can link a chain of fictional images to this image. Then you will have a great chance to get it from memory along a simple associative chain.
But I think it is complete nonsense to argue that mnemonics are very useful in memorizing complex movements.
I have already tested all these methods on combat hapkido. I was interested in this style, and wanted to learn a couple of wrist grips from it. I watched video on YouTube, used mnemonics to remember the most interesting ones, and was able to repeat them.
As you know, because of the many small actions and grips, Hapkido is one of the most difficult styles. And learning the technique of correct grips in one evening is a very good result. Further, I will only need to repeat this the right number of times to develop a proper muscle memory.
I too have practiced BJJ for some time and am working on a way to remember the vast amount of details necessary.
While some motions, like the picture above, lend themselves to an obvious image, many do not. Then there is the problem of linking all these movements together.
Converting body parts to specific images to form a chain could possibly play a role, but the number of movements seems to be almost infinite.
Have you progressed with these problems since you last posted?
I don’t study so much grappling techniques and have focused on Muay Thai last time. I tried to memorize long combinations and came to the conclusion that the best way is the approach of chess grandmasters.
I just saw combinations from my favourite fighters: Samart and Saenchai.
And explore them: why did they use them at this moment, where does it come from? Any complex combination is just a mixture of a few simple ones. I also imagine how I perform these movements and try to connect all the sensations, try to imagine another situation where I can use it.
Therefore, if you already have basic knowledge in martial arts, deepen them knowledge logically.
But, if you are an absolute beginner who just came to the gym, then mnemonics can be useful. Dominic O’Brien’s book How to Develop a Perfect Memory even has some great examples from his golfing experience.
I’m trying to do this for tai chi. Although I seem to have picked up the first two forms just from trying to figure out which movements occur so I can put them into a palace.
Does anybody here have experience doing this? I would appreciate some help.
Yes, I do Yang taiji and I put all the moves from the long form in a palace. I just used my people from my PAO and they all do something that reminds me of the move.
Could you say more? I’m working on the standard 24 form and I’m at something of a loss. I’m also not certain how much detail is necessary.
So taking parting the horse’ mane I count about 7 component movements, many of which is happening simultaneously. I find that I simply don’t have a clue of where to start.
I think you have to break it down and work on it bit by bit. I would work from centre down and then add in hands. When you get brave you could try filming yourself so you can more easily spot errors.
Something to think about from Dr Lynne Kelly’s Memory Code book our ancestor’s used to make dances of movement they wanted to understand and recognise.
Silat is called the dance and they spar to music. When you see those Malay dances a lot of time that is kata. When I see Indian dance the hand movements remind me of certain techniques.
I think it adds weight to Bruce Lee’s quote of the once fluid man made static.
So maybe something like splitting legs, trunk, arms working out what each should be doing during the movement and then combining that… This could work.
Yeah I’d have to think quite a bit about that one before it becomes practical for me. I can’t dance at all.
What does the quote mean? I don’t know much about Bruce Lee.
It does not have to be good it is more about rhythm and fluidity. In any fighting art rhythm is very important and often forgotten in the kata.
It is about the rhythm and fluidity thing. The rise of kata as at a set speed he was against. The tao of Jeet Keen Do is worth a read. He takes a boxing manual and applies it to martial arts.
Well I am inordinately fond of fluid movement. I have all sorts of little things that I do that feel unusually fluid that I do simply for the feeling, so this is something I can try and expand upon.
I’ll see if I can find it. In an actually fight though things are rarely rhythmic though. How does rhythm help one with that?
