Muscle Memory

Benzilla · Post by **Benzilla** » 24 Nov 2007 20:34

I found this link in Mosher's blog and thought it was very useful and had a lot of info that could help everyone. People that are new to the sport don't really have a sense of what your muscle memory is or is capable of doing if you train properly.

Here is the Link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=8MX5K5lvI4Q

It's 10 mins long but it can drastically improve your game if you watch it and understand it. I realize that it is not intendted to be directed towards footbag, but there isn't any specific intentions for the video as it is only posted for the sole purpose of showing what your muscle memory is to people.

Basically i've walked away with these few bits of info from this vid.

-Short, frequent sessions
-switch up the order of tricks you do and drill
-try to get every trick in as perfect as possible because failures are also remembered as easily as success.

hope this helps others as it did me.

mosher · Post by **mosher** » 25 Nov 2007 03:28

haha funny, I was going to post a post with all the Dogen tutorials that are useful for footbag. I think I still will.

There are some GOLDEN nuggets of info in those videos!

Benzilla · Post by **Benzilla** » 25 Nov 2007 07:15

I Beat ya to it!

jay7 · Post by **jay7** » 25 Nov 2007 09:20

I have a few questions with this, as well, footbag generally consists of different moves than, Gymnastics or so I would think.

Can you imagine trying to learn to do a swirl, 6 times in one day? It takes 100's of tries for anyone to learn such a movement, and I can just imagine how your muscle memory would record "crashes" as for the first 2 months of trying to learn a swirl, and you miss every single one.

So, basically would you say it is better to take this advice more generally? Just, shorter sessions and always staying fresh? I would only assume so, but another question is brought to my mind.

If you learn quantum one day, but have already mastered and done the perfect 1500 mirages and butterflies, would these tricks be as similar as the ones mentioned in his video? So, should you learn how to do JUST quantum mirage in a day, and not quantum butterfly and mirage for the sake of muscle memory?

mosher · Post by **mosher** » 25 Nov 2007 09:46

Good point Jay.

Yes, I really just wanted the general ideas of the tutorial to come through, without being a stickler with regards to some of the specific details that pertain more closely to his sport of choice.

So when he says 'only do 6' or whatever, you have to remember that he is referring to some crazy move where you're flipping through the air and expending alot of energy.

For us, footbag tricks are quite low impact (sometimes) and so you can really afford to do it more times. Especially if you are doing it well!

The thing to learn from that video is not to do it so many times that you start doing it sloppy. Because all that does is make you have ingrained in your muscle memory sooome good ones but also a million shitty sloppy ones, which is no good.

Get it?

gMoney · Post by **gMoney** » 25 Nov 2007 11:11

I stayed up like all night yesterday watching all of that guy's tutorials and stuff. I just imagined that if you do like a million clippers you'd just get the hang of clippers, but I guess that there would have to be "bad" muscle memory too. I'm trying to make some kind of training program based off of this. But footbag doesn't use the entire body like tricking does, (or really doesn't apply the entire body) Maybe if you do a certain number of a trick in a row, take a break, then repeat it, kind of like sets in weight lifting. Maybe if you do your average amount of consecutives per move three times or something. Idk, just some random thoughts I decided to write down.

Rasengan · Post by **Rasengan** » 26 Nov 2007 06:42

But what if you do the motion of the trick you want to learn, without bag, and do it for a while, and after that try the trick with bag.

Benzilla · Post by **Benzilla** » 26 Nov 2007 11:49

that would help you do the trick.

For example. If you are planning on hitting a leg over. You should first try to master the stall and then the dex. After completing both, you should be able to hit the trick when you put both the stalls and the dex together.

This is what i did and am still doing.

shredzilla · Post by **shredzilla** » 27 Nov 2007 10:09

I made a separate thread for a post that could've very well fit in here, but I felt that my message of how little/how much should stand on it's own:

shredzilla wrote:One quote I heard early on that's stuck with me throughout my game is one I heard when I was around 4-6 months into my game, by Nate Linscott:

"If it looks like he's hit the move 100 times, he's hit it 1,000 times. If it looks like he's hit it 1,000 times, he's hit it 10,000 times."

I think this quote made me really understand the mechanics behind learning footbag moves, and it resonates so true to me. In order to master footbag moves, you have to dial in that muscle memory til it's set in stone. There's no shortcuts in footbag. The fun starts after you've hit the move(s) 1,000 times and you can bust a good run with them.

I don't know why I decided to post in this sub-forum, but I really can't stress this point enough to those who might be learning footbag. There's a reason why footbag looks easy. You gotta drill those basics until you can mirage in your sleep.

I think my reason for doing so was because I wanted it to have more emphasis than just a post. Only because I see players come in and out of the sport with the INTENTION of becoming good at footbag, but putting in a very minimal effort. It's impossible to get good this way.

Also, Mosher had mentioned that this/my thread be moved to General Footbag or Health and Injuries and I disagree with that. I think that the topic of learning through repetition is overly ignored by beginners. So that's what I have to add to the discussion. Thanks.

-Chris

Bringerofpie · Post by **Bringerofpie** » 27 Nov 2007 13:18

I know it's not relevant to footbag, but these concepts also apply to burgeoning musicians. If you are a guitarist and you can do a perfect pentatonic scale in any key in any position, with hardly any thought, you don't practice enough.

It. Should. Be. Automatic.

Dat · Post by **Dat** » 28 Nov 2007 21:17

http://www.amazon.com/Motor-Learning-Co ... 217&sr=8-1

This book has more thoroughly developed concepts. You can get an older edition used for 5 bucks.

zach4th · Post by **zach4th** » 29 Jan 2008 18:33

That is a good read.