Brain Programming

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The brain also has its needs and traits a teacher and student must understand in order to make sense of how we learn things. For instance, in karate we rely on repetition and we need to understand how that works with the brain because muscle memory is a inaccurate way to describe what actually governs applied methodologies.

The brain must incorporate new knowledge, data, into its sensory mapping’. It cannot encode all of it at one time or even several times but only through appropriately applied repetitive training - not just repetitive practice.

While the repetitive endeavor, over time, occurs the brain will guess, again and again, until you achieve the results necessary for you training objective.

We all must be aware that each rep, along with the guesses the brain does, will differ each and every time. Even when, say kata segment, fells identical it is only through continuous exchange of analysis and synthesis does the final product reach fruition and remember even then continued training and practice as a group is the only way to maintain the data even when you reach the final product/methodology.

There is another brain trait to remember. Long ago, 1979 on the island of Okinawa, my sensei taught me the kata of Isshinryu then about ten years later although I am sure we both remember the kata we, he, taught, I trained yet when we did them again there were divergences between him and me. This brings up that other brain trait concerning memories.

The brain does NOT record memories like the camera records a picture. There is no such thing as a photographic memory because our brains retrieve bits and pieces it stored, takes perceptions and beliefs and current experiences and then creates what we think are exact memories that are actually a combination of old and new combined that give us the feeling of that memory then and the memory retrieved now. There are always going to be disparities because the brain is going to make best guess creative decisions when recreating all of our memories. 

If we had the abilities to record things in those early years we would have some chance of reviewing that with what we are doing today to ensure we have it. 

Now, there is another trait of training and practice to consider. Once you learn and record and encode your training and practice then you have to let go and allow the creative process to take over to ensure that what you are doing is relevant and appropriate to what you need be it art, sport or of the self-protective and combative aspects. You see, now you are getting into the shu-ha-ri and shin-gi-tai concepts of learning, training and practicing to apply principled multiple methodologies in self-protection.  

The more you understand, the more things make sense and the better you accept and encode those things into your training and practice regimen. This is just one aspect of the how and why one does what one does to achieve proficient expertise in the form and function martial art you endeavor to master. 

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