Muscle Memory 1

[zcostilla]

I know I'm reviving an old thread, but hopefully have something of value to add. I'm recovering from major surgery to remove my pancreas, spleen, appendix, and portion of small intestine because of how severe my pancreatitis and deal with neuropathy (the same way an amputee does). Once a nerve fires represtedly, the nerve path begins to change, making it easier to fire the next time. This is a huge issue with chronic pain, and why some people don't realize how debilitating it is. There are more nerve endings in the pancreas than any other abdominal organ, so when my neuropathy acts up, and multiple severed nerves fire at once, it is absolutely excruciating, and pain medication doesn't always work.

Now if we apply this to sports training of any kind, whether it is shooting a gun or a basketball free-throw, it helps us understand the adage "practice makes perfect" (which to my basic training instructor's chagrin never proved to be true). But with more and more practice, my brain formed a memory that made it easier to perform a task repeatedly bepless thinking and more reaction was involved, and without my knowing it, made those nerves which were used in completing the tasks more prepared for the next successive action by becoming more efficient. I do not recall if there is any "preloading" with the chemical processes involved in firing the synapses, but this is all a big part of what people mean by "muscle memory". Unfortunately, it's so misused, that it often loses its significance, and in the way we understand it means that it is not really an effective excuse for error because it means repeated incorrect actions.