What I mean is, for example, basketball, how do we know how much power to use to make it into the basket or like when you toss a piece of trash into a bin, how do we know how much power and the angle needed to just launch it and make it in the basket. I feel like we all have tossed a piece of trash in the bin, and just instinctively know how how much power to use.
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Not instinct – practice. People are not born knowing how to throw something. Through thousands of attempts at throwing things and seeing what happens, our brains develop “models”. Think of a model as a bunch of neurons connected together, so that when our brain passes some information in (distance), some other information comes out (how fast to push the ball, and at what angle). Each time we “run the pattern” our brain takes the result, and if it is wrong, changes the pattern a bit, and if it’s right, reinforces the pattern.
This is what is meant by “muscle memory”.
Our brains don’t really understand what is going on inside the pattern. It’s not calculating trigonometric equations or applying Newtons laws of motion. It’s just taking what works, and doing it again.
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