Muscle memory question?

[Goaliedad]

I keep hearing the term muscle memory being used in hockey training. I am told that once a muscle or muscle group has performed about 5,000 repetitions of a movement it becomes learned by the muscles. Is this real body kinetics science or marketing bs along the lines of bodybuilding supplements?

[Clyde]

It has nothing to do with the muscles, but the actual nerve tracks and your body's ability to use the fastest rout to send the impules after much repetition. There was a thread with some discussion about this not too long ago, but I know the thread was titled something totally different, so maybe search the content of threads for muscle memory. Also, it is good to keep in mind that doing something WRONG a zillion times still has the same effect on the nerve tracts and impulses, but a much different effect on the scoreboard.

[gr8sav]

This is a very real thing. It really involves your brain more than your muscles, but muscle memory isn't a bad term for it.
It's like hardwiring your brain.
This allows you to move faster than if you had to constanly rethink every save. Your brain "cuts and pastes" (for lack of a better term) the instructions from one save onto the current movement.
This is partly the reason than bad habits are so hard to break. You brain is conditioned to respond to a certain situation with a specific reaction.
When working to achieve muscle memory it is key that proper form is used.
gr8sav

[sloth2946]

This is the thread that Clyde was talking about: Deferring to certain moves

Not to toot my own horn but I made a good point as to how it works. GR8SAV is about dead on and so is Clyde as far as I am concerned.

But 5000 repetitions?!?!?! Crap....but the more you do it, the better obviously.

[Goaliedad]

Thanks, I went back and read the thread. I didn't realise that this topic had already been covered. I should have done a search. The term muscle memory is poping up in more and more hockey articles with little to no explanation or references. Also my kids ran into it in a recent hockey camp. Whenever I see a repeating term with insufficient supporting evidence the bs alarms go off and I begin to question it.

[sloth2946]

Oh, you mean like PROFLY???? The term muscle memory has been around a long time, but I guess it has made it to buzz word status now.