muscle memory

[slowgraffiti515]

do tired muscles build muscle memory faster than refreshed and non
strained muscles?

[Redblade]

"Muscle memory" is a shorthand term for the complex feedback process of well your *brain* remembers an exact position or sequence and sends the appropriate instructions to your body to follow.

So, yes, physical fatigue can be a detriment to learning.

[Redblade]

I don't normally trust Wikipedia any further than I can throw my computer, but sometimes it's a good place to get an intro overview on a subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_memory

[H Man]

Personally I believe that muscle memory is best learned when one is fatiged. I base this on 28 years of hard workouts in various sports. Complete exhaustion during training is where you will be in competition. It is then you learn to instinctively react-- as you trained. If you did not train in this part of the envelope, you will not react that way when you get there in competition. Your actions from training when exhausted is now an instinct-a/k/a muscle memory.

I also believe that there is no room for silly habits during training and bouting. Pulling on your body cord, smashing/dragging your tip on the strip etc during traing/bouting? "Oh, I won't do that during competition" Bull! It is exactly what you will do on the strip regardless of what you say.

Not muscle memory-bad habit.

[parrythis]

OTOH...

When I am exhausted, nothing works and I don't learn anything at any level.

When I am really tired, I see the attack coming, I know what I want to do to defend against it, the attack arrives, THEN I deliver the defense. In other words, I become a statue. The neural pathways stop working in a timely manner and I don't believe anything sticks in any kind of memory at that point.

I do know some folks who claim that they fence best when they are exhausted - fencing purely on instinct. I think if you have been fencing a LOT of years, that instinct may, in fact, burn in, but I personally don't think it burns in when you are exhausted.

Just my opinion.

Try it for yourself. See what happens. One test is, after all, worth 1000 opinions.

[H Man]

Ah Grasshopper...you listen but do not learn.

Congrates on getting to exhaustion.

If you see it and can't make it happem you are half way there.. Push through and try harder. I do not suggest that you should fence exhausted, just push to that point in training, train there, then, when you compete, you will be on auto pilot and once exhausted, will not crash!

[HDG]

Originally Posted by H Man

Ah Grasshopper...you listen but do not learn.

Congrates on getting to exhaustion.

If you see it and can't make it happem you are half way there.. Push through and try harder. I do not suggest that you should fence exhausted, just push to that point in training, train there, then, when you compete, you will be on auto pilot and once exhausted, will not crash!

Just don't try learning anything new while in this exalted state.

[Shi no Tenshi]

This sort of thing depends on how you learn. Problem is, there isn't a universal truth for it. Contrary to what H Man believes, some people don't do those things in real bouts, because their mindset is different. It's kinda like the gamer/practicer thing. You always get the joy of people saying that gamers don't exist....they're full of it. They just don't like the idea as they can't do it themselves.

Some people may very well learn better when they are exhausted, attributed to the fact that they are thinking less at that point and are listening and doing things better because of it. Others have trained themselves to be able to focus elsewise, and can react or learn properly in any fatigue level.