I have searched countless websites, videos, articles, etc. Always the book recommendations are from champions of memory, like Nelson Dellis or Joshua Foer, Dominic O’Brien, etc. Adding a touch of conspiracy to it, couldn’t they be hiding their techniques or much of it? The following could be a proof: if the techniques they expose, or at least the use of them and the theory they propose and the exercises, were as good as they claim, memory competitions would become extreme hunts, because of the number of experts in memorization. Even if the number of people interested in participating in these tournaments or with geographic and economic possibilities were small, there would be great competition and, therefore, progress in the world of empirical mnemonics. But we do not see the latter. If it is true what they claim of having a gifted if not average mind, why is the increase not observed? I don’t know what their motives would be to hide the secret techniques, but maybe they want to continue selling or to be the memory coaches, or maybe they want to continue being the champions, etc.
So instead of reading what they want us to read and know about memory, we should find out what they read to get to where they are now. What did they read? What books did journalist Joshua Foer read, or did he have opportunities to interview people very advanced in the subject, and if so, who were they? What materials did they use? What books did Nelson Dellis read? Etc.
If anyone knows of GOOD books and not for sale, written by non-champions in memory, or blog posts, or PDFs, or videos, or studies, or essays, or academic articles, or Twitter accounts, etc., please report.
Criticism of the theory I have about memory tournament winners is also welcome.
I think some common traits of successful memory athletes are dedication, organization, and lots of efficient practice.
Listening to interviews and reading posts by them, they all talk about the focus and drive needed to excel, just like any professional athlete.
I don’t know of any credible reports of people building a 3-digit number system or a 2-card system over the course of a weekend and then breaking 20 seconds in those events within a month. Some people will naturally take to certain techniques more easily than others, sure, but for the most part if someone commits and practices enough they can make steady progress and build up to some amazing accomplishments.
I don’t think theres really a magic bullet technique that can turn someone into an elite performer overnight. Its all about picking a system and practicing it a lot.
Like learning a musical instrument or a new language.
An interesting ‘tag-line’ you have used there. My first observation in breaking your ‘tag-line’ down, is that you are basically asking two questions:
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Recommendations of books not written by World Memory Champions but used by them?
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Are Memory Champions hiding their best techniques from us?
The first question i.e. recommendation of books not written by memory champions, I think is the easier of the two questions to answer but has not been attempted to be answered by either of the forum members thus far whom have replied to you, so I will attempt my best shot at doing so.
Whilst Tony Buzan himself wasn’t a World Memory Champion, it was actually his initiative in getting the whole World Memory Championship Competitions off the ground, possibly with some ‘quid pro quo’ in it for himself too, but why not? My investigations inform me that the first World Memory Championship competition was launched by Tony Buzan in London (1991). It should also be noted that Tony Buzan, was himself an ardent peddler of mnemonic techniques, through his various publications on both memory and ‘mind-mapping principles’. The memory competitions devised by Tony Buzan, typically saw participants, who are called ‘mental athletes’ trying to memorize and recall large assortments of information, spanning from decks of shuffled cards to ‘spoken numbers’ within short, stipulated spurts of time. A rather long-winded preamble in my getting around in an attempt in answering your first question but here goes…
From the various collection of Tony Buzan books I have in my personal library, I can attest to the fact that Buzan lists his books of reference for any interested reader who may want to dabble a little further into things, assuming of course the reader has access to such information? I believe Dominic O’Brien similarly referenced further reading sources in his books but I am unsure whether the GOAT (in authoring memory books imho), Harry Lorayne did so in any of his? My point, I am trying to make is that in the main there is an abundance of additional material one can reference from, cited by most (if not all) of who are generally considered to be reputable memory authors, or even as you have limited things further to: “former or current World Memory Champions”.
Your second question is extremely interesting and one that only the very select few could honestly answer, i.e. Memory Champions themselves!! I can’t profess to be able to get inside the heads of former World Memory Champions, but I will say however, that many of them e.g. Nelson Dellis (Although, I think he was a former five times USA Memory Champion and not World Champion?), does provide useful free videos on his you-tube channel, where he divulges various memory principles gratis to for the benefit of the public at large. Another former two times USA memory champion, Ron White similarly shares useful tips and pointers free of charge on his you-tube channel too. But are they holding anything back in terms of their techniques (or at least those they charge for?), I can honestly say I wouldn’t think so??
I agree with @TheHumanTim example of mastery of a musical instrument which is a good analogy to use in looking at various levels of ability. It can’t be argued that practice makes perfect and there is a lot to be said too for the so-called 10 000 hour ‘competency rule’. Note: the Beatles were not the over-night successes as many people claimed them to be either. They actually worked their asses off in Hamburg Germany playing their gigs at various haunts perfecting their art before becoming mega successful musicians in their 1963/64 “Beatlemania” years.
So in short, I don’t think there is a conspiracy theory to suppress anyone in becoming the best. I would think you would need an above average IQ to rise to the level of memory champion but the differentiating factor above all else, is the amount of hard-yards or sacrifice that you would be willing to put into it, to rise to the top and the correct application of the memory techniques in competing in the various disciplines that you would be competing in. It would be interesting to hear what the ‘experts’ have to say though, to get a much more informed opinion?
Actually, I did exactly what you described with a 3-digit system and 2-card system (mine are very much linked). However, I did spend a few months practising the phonetics (and only the phonetics) first.
I would say the benefit of reading books by memory champions is that they’ve actually put these techniques into practice in a large-scale way on a regular basis. Back in the early days of memory sports we did not have anything available to read on memory techniques specifically for competition (other than the basics, which have been around for ages). Competitors have made up new techniques and innovations, which are helpful for the specific competitions we take part in, but essentially they’re all based on the same ideas (method of loci, turning abstract into concrete). There is no big secret (as far as I know haha).
Hi Katiek. Do you per chance know how many columns and rows there are in those given in memory competitions, either locally or internationally. To my mind (although I don’t compete), I would think something like that is extremely important to know so that you can ‘plan ahead before the actual competition’ and chunk say the individual numbers to be recalled into meaningful chunks? For example a 6 digit PAO is probably less helpful than say a 10 digit PAO, if for example the recall sheets are given in say sheets of 10 columns x 20 rows. Following my analysis, if that were the case its easier to “chunks” in 3 groups of 10 digits per row as that effectively gives you only 3 “mini-movies” or loci per line?
I guess what I’m trying to say is that an international memory competitor should plan way ahead and well in advance of any competition and know exactly what format each of the disciplines being competed in follow. One might say that is strategy, knowing ahead of time the look and feel and format of the memory competitions should set each of the competitors in good stead in competing? It is a little like a student say studying accounting becoming acquainted with the type of questions and format of their exam papers well in advance. That is something that I haven’t seen the likes of Dominic O’Brien mention in any of his books I’ve read. It’s small nuances like this that add small margins to competitors in memory that might add up across all disciplines to give the better prepared competitor in terms of understanding “formats” etc. a better chance.
Take the naming category of people. How many faces to names are shown to you? and in what period of time? Are the names strictly international, for example are any South African Xhosa names like: Qhawe Qwabe (Xhosa clicks in both first name and surname) expected to be recalled? What about other cultures and surnames? I imagine John Smith is far easier to recall for a Westerner than say say the Chinese name Zhao Xinyi with the “zh” and “x” sounds in Mandarin Chinese proving difficult to Westerners? It’s these types of intricacies I would imagine that gives the well prepared competitor the edge, ahead of their fellow competitors. Just my further two-cents worth??
Yes, the format of the events is consistent and is known to everyone in advance. You can see these on https://www.iamwmc.com/competition/training.html
Some competitors do adapt their system to the number of digits in a row but many don’t - there are 40 digits per row in Numbers but 3-digit systems are very popular. We now have a “focus box” that displays the number of digits you like, so the digits per row are not as relevant (except when it comes to scoring).
The names are international and can come from any part of the world.
Competition strategies for memory sports are quite niche so are not really the focus of most memory books.
Thanks for the link provided. Most informative. I presume that pronunciation of international names is not of importance though?
The pronunciation isn’t tested in any way but I think it’s very helpful to know the pronunciation/spelling rules for different languages.
Apologies to bother, but would it be all right if you went into a bit more detail about this? I’ve been on and off with PAO a lot due to inability to really get anything to stick as a training method, and I’ve not been able to come up with much on my research of how people practice theirs.
I have only read one memory book well two counting Moonwalking with Einstein but that’s more of a story.
The other was Remember It by Nelson Dellis, he greatly explains the techniques in a simple way.
There is no difference in my technique from when I started in division 4, Im just more skilled now.
Good lord! You’re a machine! 
Actually maybe more like 25 seconds in 2 months (can’t find my training spreadsheet from back then)… but thank you!
Yes of course. I decided to switch to the Ben System about 7 years ago. At that point I was using a category system for numbers and PA for cards, but I was struggling to make progress. For reasons that are too long to explain here, I was already fluent in “reading” card pairs and 3-digit numbers as syllables using the Ben System, but hadn’t made any kind of image system or tried memorising in this way.
I didn’t wait to “build” my system, I just started memorising. Many of the syllables already make words, e.g. 052 is sun, 836 is fish, you don’t even need to think about it. For the syllables that didn’t make words, I just made something up on the spot or used a word that sounded similar.
I found that almost immediately I was able to match my previous scores and then started getting PBs regularly. After about 2 months I could do 25 seconds in Cards and 22 seconds in Numbers, which was massive progress.
I guess you can also make things up on the spot with PAO, sounds a bit trickier though. I think if your brain is geared towards words then a phonetic system is better. Person doing something to an object in every location just became too repetitive for me! If you go for PAO you could learn one section and then just use that for a while (e.g. just objects at first).
So what worked for me:
- Pick a phonetic system and become fluent in reading the consonants / syllables
- Start memorising, making things up when you don’t have an obvious choice of word
- Build your system as you go
Worth mentioning: the goal of almost all memory books is to explain how memory techniques work and how they can be applied in school/work/daily life. They don’t write about how to specifically train to become a memory champion, simply because it isn’t of interest of the average person. Memory sports is a very niche sport.
In particular, to get more than 99% correct in any words or numbers, I taught myself… it took years of memorizing and making mistakes… then I realized that repeating once every 4 objects and these objects touching each other… as soon as I finished the 4 and I would go to another department, memorize more that 99% correctly… like hitting the ball in football, now “I can’t let the ball fall” but I realized that it’s very slow repeating… my average is 20 words in 5 minutes… but I saw a different way on the memoryXL website that seems like a way to memorize without repeating, which is not to use the loci that you memorized for a week, because then the mind forgets and is ready to memorize… I intend to see if this technique on the website works… but I’m only going to train like this next year, after MemoryXLOpen2024… but I taught myself how to memorize more than 99% of whatever I want without forgetting anything… but still slow… good luck
As a memory champion, I’ve seen people suggest I’m hiding the secret way to be a memory champion, many times over the years. I assure you I’m not (although that’s just what I WOULD say if I was hiding something, isn’t it? ) Some people think if they could only learn the secret, they could immediately become a millionaire, but I can double-assure you that’s really not a thing that happens.
There is no quick and easy secret technique, as anyone will tell you. The techniques everyone uses are widely known, they’re very simple, you really don’t need to buy a book but many people find it helps. The only secret ingredient is hard work and dedication. And if you find memorising fun, these things should come naturally! If you don’t, maybe you should find a different hobby 
PS The amount of hard work and dedication required was much less twenty years ago than it is now. Sorry, but there are so many more people who know about memory competitions these days!
Even if the number of people interested in participating in these tournaments or with geographic and economic possibilities were small, there would be great competition and, therefore, progress in the world of empirical mnemonics. But we do not see the latter.
Just another note, what kind of progress do you think we should be seeing? Memory performances now are much, much, much more impressive than they were when I was world champion! The scores in competitions are many times higher now, and still getting higher every year! That’s the thing I’ve always found wonderful and staggering about memory championships!
You are hiding a secret to grow a magnificent beard though and I don’t really appreciate that you’re not letting us in on that one.
21 years of practice! I’ve had a beard since November 2002, and back then everybody was clean-shaven! I’m a trendsetter in beardiness just like in two-cards-to-an-image memorising!