Creating Long-Term Memory

Creating long-term memory is defining mental representations, which are visual images we see when a phrase is introduced to our brain.

Read the next sentence out loud three times, faster each time:

“The brain will fix the lead if you will just let it.”

These words are in a recognizable pattern that creates a picture stored in your long-term memory. The more you read it, the easier it becomes for your brain to anticipate ahead of where your eyes are. And after reading it enough times, you can read it seeing fewer and fewer words each time. This is how the brain develops skill.

Now read the very same words in the next sentence:

“Just will lead let if brain you fix the will it the.”

When trying to read this sentence you immediately went back to short-term memory, because the same words in a different order did not create a thought or picture that you could see in your long-term memory.

Long-term memory enables the brain to process enormous amounts of data in a fraction of a second. It is pattern recognition via repetitions in deep practice that make the patterns more and more obvious to the brain.

This enables the brain to fill in more and more precisely, allowing for the athlete to produce higher and higher levels of performance while relying on fewer and fewer visual cues