Mind Palace usable for karate?

[Darkranger85]

I've been doing a lot of research the last couple days on a memorization technique known as a mind palace (Also known as a memory palace).

For those that don't know, it's a mnemonic device in which you visualize a place as well as landmarks within that place and associate information you want to remember with those landmarks within the "palace".

(If you care to look into it)

Now, I'm wondering if this can be used at all to remember certain things in karate. For instance, in our dojo we have a list of strikes on the wall called "50 strikes."

I'm wondering if someone these techniques and their order could be remembered using this method.

I'm hoping that someone here might have a little bit of experience with mind palaces or other similar memory methods to give some first hand thoughts, but others are welcome to chime in as well.

[Nidan Melbourne]

Personally don't use such a way of remembering things. But i know i should use it for work purposes.

For me at karate I don't use it because I normally do a repetitive form of learning and subesequently remembering it.

[Spartacus Maximus]

That sounds like a very good idea for memorizing information, but for something physical like karate techniques it might be more difficult to apply.

The only sure way to learn and remember anything in karate is to do it. Do it slowly and feel every detail. It takes time for the body to adapt to unfamiliar movements or using previously unsolicited muscles. All this takes longer than just memorizing what a technique is supposed to look like or where it is in a sequence or kata.

Kata are themselves meant as mnemonics devices. Each move is meant to be learned independently and then put together. A kata is a set of porinciples and techniques based on these, not a single block to be memorized like a dance.

[Darkranger85]

I agree with you spartacus. But I didn't really mean to use it to memorize technique, but more to remember things like the order of things.

Like in my example, I wouldn't use the memory palace to remember how to do each of the 50 strikes, just to remember what they are and what order they come in. The technique for doing the actual strike would have to be there already.

At the moment I can only tell you the top 3 or so of the list, and not even that accurately. It starts with an eye jab and then 2 throat strikes. After that, I don't remember the order. I remember some of the strikes randomly.

I'm not sure if I'm making myself clear or not lol.

[JackD]

Slightly different but I read an article on visualising kata some time ago and I've found that very useful, not just to follow the dance routine, but somehow you can kind of get a good feeling for what you're trying to do in the physical and you can focus quite sharply on small details.

Sounds a bit crappy writing this down but its helped me, it also means you can still be doing karate in places where it might not be physically appropriate

[GojuRyu Bahrain]

I don't think the Mind Palace is necessary for remembering a sequence, e.g., in a Kata. I'd rather, as Jack wrote, memorize the applications. Its not about the sequence, after all!

Secondly, I found it easier to learn new Katas as I progressed in experience. I read somewhere that expert chess players are much faster at memorizing board situations, due to their experience they were able to connect the info with pre-existing knowledge quickly. In Karate, it seems to work as well.

Basically, the applications become the "items" in that imagined house...

[DWx]

Probably more useful for learning theory such as terminology or other lists of things your school requires you to remember.