The BLD and Memory Sports Cross-Training Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
JemFish

JemFish

Veteran
Joined
Jan 27, 2015
Messages
338
Location
Sydney, Australia

Hey people,

Welcome to The BLD and Memory Sports Cross-Training Thread. This is a thread for random discussion about anything related to memory-sports in general and how it can be practised for cross-training for BLD.
-----
We all know about cross-training in athletics. Runners swimming, swimmers biking, bikers running. It's where an athlete seeks to strengthen a certain area of his skill through practice of other skills.

Now BLD involves a lot of memory skills, and some BLD cubers might want to cross-train in other memory sports.

Here is a list of all the 'disciplines' that are practised in the World Memory Championships:

  1. Numbers - 1 hour
  2. Numbers - 5 minutes
  3. Numbers - spoken
  4. Binary Digits - 30 minutes
  5. Playing Cards - 1 hour
  6. Random Lists of Words
  7. Names and Faces
  8. Historic Dates - 5 minutes
  9. Abstract Images
  10. Speed Cards

Other examples include:

  • Memorisation of scripture and/or literature;
  • Memorisation of vocabulary (for SCRABBLE competitions, spelling competitions, general knowledge competitions);

Again, feel free to post about anything related to memory-sports in general and how it can be practised for cross-training for BLD.

~ JemFish


UPDATE: Below is an explanation of the system I 'invented' for speed cards. I call it the Major-Suffix System, or MSS.

The Major-Suffix System, MSS, is a system I 'invented' a while ago for speed cards, and it is based on the Major System for digits.

For now we'll be using my variation of the Major System, adapted to playing cards:

[table="width: 500, class: full_grid, align: left"]
[tr]
[td]ROYAL MEMBER/NUMERAL[/td]
[td]ASSOCIATED CONSONANT[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]King[/td]
[td]W[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Queen[/td]
[td]H[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Jack[/td]
[td]Y[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]10 (0)[/td]
[td]S; Z; soft C[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]9[/td]
[td]J; SH; CH (as in cheese); soft G[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]8[/td]
[td]R[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]7[/td]
[td]K; C (as in cat); hard G; CH (as in loch); Q[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]6[/td]
[td]P; B[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]5[/td]
[td]L[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]4[/td]
[td]F; V[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]3[/td]
[td]M[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]2[/td]
[td]N[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Ace (1)[/td]
[td]T; D; TH[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

Now, we have 52 cards in a deck, and the 52 cards are divided into 4 groups of 13, each item in the 4 groups being differentiated by the consonants shown in the table above. Each of the same item that is found across the 4 groups are also differentiated with consonants. (Note that the consonants resemble the icons of the 4 groups.)

[table="width: 500, class: full_grid, align: left"]
[tr]
[td]GROUP[/td]
[td]ASSOCIATED CONSONANT[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Clubs[/td]
[td]M[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Spades[/td]
[td]T; D; TH[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Hearts[/td]
[td]F; V[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Diamonds[/td]
[td]K; C (as in cat); hard G; CH (as in loch); Q[/td]
[/tr][/table]

The way we translate a card into MSS is very simple, and you end up with letter pairs. You start with the consonant that represents it's Royal member or numeral, and then add the consonant that represents which of the 4 groups it belongs to. For example, a 3 of diamonds would be translated as MK/MC/MG/MCh/MQ, and further encoded as, for example, "MasKow," or "MiKe," or a "MuG." Then you can use whatever letter system you like to store that in your long-term memory.

For more about letter pairs, see this thread.
For more about memory methods, see this thread.
For more about forgetfulness, see this thread.
 
Last edited:
My first speed cards attempt, with a full deck of 52 cards, was not speedy at all, and I got 4 cards wrong. I didn't time it.

My second attempt had 2 wrong cards, and I didn't time it.

My third attempt was a success, and the time was about 30 minutes. (In speed cards only the memorisation time is recorded, unlike BLD which includes execution.)

I used a mnemonics system of my own, using letter pairs, but it was done with plain visual memorisation. Next time I'll use loci.

 
I've memoed a quarter of a deck of cards in 1:09 (?) before, and I did 60 binary digits in a minute yesterday. I don't really practise very much at all though, so I could do a lot better (like for binary, it's taking me 8 seconds per image now; that could be improved easily). I also haven't tried more than a quarter of a deck of cards.
Dates isn't really a memory thing, but it's in Memoriad for some reason, and I've done 10 of them in <30 seconds.
 
JemFish said:
My first speed cards attempt, with a full deck of 52 cards, was not speedy at all, and I got 4 cards wrong. I didn't time it.

My second attempt had 2 wrong cards, and I didn't time it.

My third attempt was a success, and the time was about 30 minutes. (In speed cards only the memorisation time is recorded, unlike BLD which includes execution.)

I used a mnemonics system of my own, using letter pairs, but it was done with plain visual memorisation. Next time I'll use loci.
Click to expand...

I just had another attempt, my 4th attempt so far, which was successful, with a memorisation time of 14:16 minutes. I used the method of loci this time, which was very effective, and got me a time that was more than twice as fast as my previous success.
 
Last edited:
JemFish said:
Memorisation of scripture and/or literature;
Click to expand...

I memorized the whole book of Ephesians in 6 months, word for word (that was last year), and now I'm going through James since the beginning of this year (done more than 2 chapters already). I really find that it gets easier the more I memorize. I wasn't going for speed though.
 
sneaklyfox said:
I memorized the whole book of Ephesians in 6 months, word for word (that was last year), and now I'm going through James since the beginning of this year (done more than 2 chapters already). I really find that it gets easier the more I memorize. I wasn't going for speed though.
Click to expand...

Very nice. I've been memorising Romans but it's very slow...what version are you using? I use NKJV.

"Paul, a bond-servant of Christ..."
 
I'm also interested in memory sports. The main thing I have been doing (aside from practical, day-to-day memory things) is speed cards. I haven't really timed myself much (except for short 10 cards--I can do that in around 50s). I just use object to object linking (from Harry Lorayne's book), but I might try to devise a PAO system. What system do you use?
 
Long term memory doesn't really improve single BLD that much (I could be wrong) - But I believe it will help MBLD much more.

As more me, I do this thing were I split the cards up to each suit, only the numbers (1-10) then I memorize them in groups of 10. I did 5/5 (:P) in like 0.69 seconds or something. I did 10/10 in ~10 seconds. 20/20 in ~5 minutes. 30/30 ~8 minutes. And 40/40 in 8:58. From that point I stopped. I did try and memorize as much groups as I could in 10 minutes. I failed, doing ~52 points.

Number marathon: 10 digits in -0.22 seconds xD (~0.28 real seconds). And that's all I did.

I did ~14 binary digits in ~0.1-0.2 seconds.

I have deleted all of my records of this. Because I have a new laptop and I clean my desktop off once in a while :P

A long time ago I did ~50 digits of Pi in 6 hours. Doesn't sound super amazing, but it was the very first number I memorized. It was hours after I made my first decimal to image system.
After that I decided to get serious, I did 127/134 correct in 2 hours. Not good, that's about 1.1 digit per minute.

Then I realized: Memorizing numbers is stupid (for me). I did all the long term stuff before practicing (big) MBLD. With a level 1 system. (1 image = 1 digit). And hardly any practice.

I /really/ think memoing Pi is stupid. There's no time limit. It doesn't seem to take much skill. I mean, 1k digits in one day is completely possible. Considering I did 127/134, level 1 system, no practice, no MBLD. In 2 hours.

And now I just do MBLD (I will get back to it soon) With all this memorizing numbers, it's hard to practice BLD, when in BLD you memorize letters.

TL;DR version: Hi. I don't think this applies to single BLD, but MBLD. I don't like memorizing numbers anymore. Bye.
 
rybaby said:
I'm also interested in memory sports. The main thing I have been doing (aside from practical, day-to-day memory things) is speed cards. I haven't really timed myself much (except for short 10 cards--I can do that in around 50s). I just use object to object linking (from Harry Lorayne's book), but I might try to devise a PAO system. What system do you use?
Click to expand...

Check out the starter post - I've updated it with the Major-Suffix System I invented for speed cards.
 
sneaklyfox said:
I memorized the whole book of Ephesians in 6 months, word for word (that was last year), and now I'm going through James since the beginning of this year (done more than 2 chapters already). I really find that it gets easier the more I memorize. I wasn't going for speed though.
Click to expand...

I need a challenge, I'm gonna memorise John 11:35.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

FastCubeMaster
  • Locked
What memory sports do you do to practice for BLD?
2
Replies
31
Views
7,382
abunickabhi
abunickabhi
J
  • Locked
PAO may be my new memory method.
Replies
4
Views
2,074
jdh3000
J
A
mem v0.5, the first BLD commutator and memory training app, --Angel Lim
Replies
1
Views
1,420
c4cuber
C
byu
How to do BLD with Visual Memory
Replies
8
Views
4,059
Gparker
Gparker
Jhong253
  • Locked
[Help Thread] Blindsolving
48 49 50
Replies
993
Views
144,402
abunickabhi
abunickabhi
Back
Top