When you practice a skill, what is happening that causes you to get better at that skill?
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“Muscle Memory” or “Motor Learning” is the practice where you repeat the same task again and again to the point where you can accomplish that task with little or no conscious effort.
This would be the major factor in any skill, but you would also do things like build up general fitness (for physical tasks), learn specific ways of accomplishing a task (e.g. put the onions on low as you’re chopping up the other ingredients when cooking), learn more on an intellectual level about the task (e.g. learning about how different materials affect an arrow in flight), and storing the information in long-term memory.
every time you repeat something, you are strengthening the neuron pathways that allow you to do that thing correctly, and tells your brain to stop following the ones that cause you to do it incorrectly. when you practice, you’re repeating an action until you dont have to think about what you are doing and forgetting how to mess up.
The vast, vast majority of actions we take when awake are subconscious. Even conscious actions, liking lifting your arm to pick up a cup on a table, have a LOT going on behind the scenes. You surely don’t imagine every single movement, every correction, every compensation for depth, etc.
When you practice a skill what you are doing is ingraining the work required to complete it in your subconscious. Basically, instead of thinking about how to do something, you are gradually unloading more and more of the actual doing to your body, which is much better at repeating specific actions than your intentions to do something.
As an example, say you are trying to learn how to hit a baseball. When you start, it’s a challenge that requires a lot of focus. But as your arms get used to how you swing the bat and your eyes get used to following the ball as it approaches you, you have to think less and less about doing those things and just let your body handle it. That frees up your mind for the more complex parts that require decision making.
Neuroscience tells us that this is called neuroplasticity. Just like plastic is moldable, our brains can physically change too. When we experience something or do something new, certain brain cells light up and all those brain cells that lit up together reach out to one another and form connections. Each time those connected brain cells light up together, their connection gets stronger and stronger!
Each time you repeat the same action in respect to the skill, a circuit in your brain lights up and stores some information about the event in short-term memory.
The more times you run this circuit over and over by repeating the action, the more fine tuned the connection between all the aspects of the action get (coordination of movement, gauge of strength required, aim, precision, etc.) and once this information is transferred into long-term memory, you automatically and subconsciously become better at the skill.
This short-term to long-term transfer happens not only during the action but also especially at night while the brain is resting which explains why you become better day after day.
Hope this makes sense ! 🙂
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