Muscle Memory and You Guide

One question you’ll see a lot of at forums is “how do I get faster at drawing/shooting/etc?” The short answer is “develop your muscle memory”. The long answer is “Deeeeeeevvvvvvvveeeeeeellllllloopppppp yoooooooooouuuuuuurrrrrrr mmmmmuuuuuussssccllllleeeeeee meeeeeeemmmmmoooooorrrrrrryyyyyy”.

The less sarcastic long answer is going to take a bit. Get comfortable.

For those of you that haven’t already looked it up on Wikipedia, simply put it’s “when a movement is repeated over time, a long-term muscle memory is created for that task; eventually allowing it to be performed without conscious effort.” Just about everything you do, in one way or another, requires muscle memory. Riding a bike? yep. Typing on your keyboard? oh yeah. Walking? Big time. If you had to learn to do it then you are using muscle memory when you do it now.

I know this is going to sound like sarcasm but seriously, it’s quite simple: do it over and over. That’s it. That’s the secret. Plain and simple repetition. There have been many studies conducted on muscle memory and they’ve found some pretty interesting things. First off, it takes 5,000 to 10,000 repetitions to really get good memory started. Sometimes as little as 3,000 depending on if you put extra points into DEX when you rolled your character (didn’t think I would have the guts to make a “Dungeons &Dragons” joke on this site, did ya!?).

…have to practice it at least 5,000 times, yep. Try not to lose count.

Well, when you think about it this makes sense. You’ve done a lot more with your right hand and learned many similar techniques. Shorter learning curve with your main hand as a result.

Hey! My head isn’t THAT big….is it? Oh, forget it. To answer your question: Yes. There’s been some very interesting developments recently that has found that not all memory is stored in the brain. According to these science geeks with impressive sounding titles and degrees, there isn’t much difference between the nerves in your brain and the nerves in your spine and muscles. There is more and more evidence showing that there is a bit of backup memory (for lack of a better term) stored throughout your body. These findings have actually started a lot of scientists rethinking the whole “genetic memory” as well. This may or may not affect how you actually learn shooting, riding a bike or juggling, but is something interesting to think about and bring up at the next party you go to.

For more information on Muscle Memory, check out your local library or just click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_memory