Muscle Memory

My tissu teacher (who is great, by the way) has been trying to get me to keep a notebook so that I will remember the different wraps and drops. My take on this is that for chronicling what we've done week to week, this is a fine exercise, but for learning, it is an exercise in futility. As a former dancer I have pretty decent body awareness. I am aware that my body learns through repetition. The trouble is that at the circus center, other than during class, there is no way to practice because the silks are not hanging. I maintain that without this repetition, I will make slow gains and will, likely, need to be reminded of where my feet, hands, butt should go. But this argument was putting me at odds with my instructor, so I conceded and whipped out the handy dandy moleskine, with a mental note to check up on this one. I recalled a piece I had seen in the NYT last year about a professional dancer who had a very detailed explanation of learning by watching and repeating movement, something which is quite natural for me - and imperative - in physical activity, even though I am much more of an auditory learner, generally.

After class I looked into muscle memory, aka neuromuscular facilitation, a very real phenomenon. The way it works is that through repetition, training movement of the body will stimulate neurological adaptation processes. The outcome will eventually induce physiological changes resulting in increased levels of accuracy in movement. Both fine and gross motor skills are involved in muscle memory. As we reinforce specific movements through repetition, the neural system learns those fine and gross motor skills so that we no longer have to think through the action. We merely react and perform. As you can imagine, anyone learning a new activity has a significant amount of brain activity occurring. Since muscles grow accustomed to certain types of repetitive movement, (walking, brushing your teeth, driving a vehicle) the best way to insure correct and adequate unconscious performance is repetition. Practice. Ask any musician or athlete.

So while doubting its efficacy, I will write down the drops and wraps until there is a tissu up on which to practice, at which point I guarantee marked improvement (and decrease in trainer frustration over having to shout out, "no, behind! no, left leg up! no, turn to the right!"). Which brings us to the confidence factor, another documented phenomenon in which a person's sense of being unable to perform affects muscle memory. But that's a different problem for another day.