Mnemonic Processes in Martial Arts

In the martial arts one is taught that repetitive practice is a way of encoding physical movement that would be employed in certain stimuli. The stimuli and its association to a physical action is a form of mnemonics, i.e. a memory retention system and set of techniques.

The idea is to encode physical action as associated by certain stimuli. This is called proprioception or the sense of your relative position of associated parts of the body along with the strength and speed used to employ a specific movement.

Waza, kata, drills, etc. are all similar physical forms of mnemonic methods such as association of acronyms to certain information to make it easier to store and find in memory.

For instance, when practicing do you notice how some waza, drills, kata and kata technique seem more easily associated with visualization and reality based actions in training and practice? Even when I visualize or actually implement techniques in sparring some are easy and some just won't work. It may be that happens because there is no relational natural movement of the body that associates with it in the mind. The ones that seem to be easier to associate and implement may have this mnemonic connectivity or is more easily associated when practicing, training and thus encoding for later use.

My theory is that we practice the physical and through the process of all the waza, basics, and the waza derived through kata and drills along with certain combination training is easily associated and retained and applied because some movement, associated stimuli and the training connect and are close in likeness that promotes retention.

This is the results, i.e. proprioception, the sense of the relative position of parts of the body with the natural instinctual survival lizard brain abilities that promote morphing into more applicable actions through training and practice, reality based of course.

Call this the kinesthetic form of mnemonics, i.e. learning those techniques that are aids to retention. Look at the actual techniques employed in martial arts as a type of physical acronym that allows a memory connection to some previous physical action used by nature for survival allowing the lizard brain to access normal reactions to danger and easily and quickly transfer the short quick distance to the necessary techniques, etc.

This is also demonstrated through the human condition to travel through the OODA loop in a conflict and the mnemonics of physical training and practice allow a quicker transition or total skipping of the first three levels right to the action level.

This is my theory and needs vetting so anyone who decides to analyze this and provide feedback that feedback will be greatly appreciated.

Background Information:

"Mnemonics aim to translate information into a form that the human brain can retain better and even the process of applying this conversion might already aid the transfer of information to long-term memory. Commonly encountered mnemonics are often for lists and in auditory form, such as short poems, acronyms, or memorable phrases, but mnemonics can also be for other types of information and in visual or kinesthetic forms." ... learning technique that aids information retention ... A common mnemonic for remembering lists is to create an easily remembered acronym, or, taking each of the initial letters of the list members, create a memorable phrase in which the words with the same acronym as the material. Anyone can create their own mnemonics to aid the memorization of novel material.
"Proprioception, the sense of the relative position of neighboring parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement."

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