How do you memorize sequences

[Query]

Can anyone share any tricks for memorizing motion sequences?

A lot of people can watch or hear a routine or be guided through and memorize it immediately. I can't. This is proving a big problem for me in the adult synchro group. None of the moves we use is hard, but memorizing the sequence is.

Coach does not provide the routine on paper or video, and taking videos of what is going on is mostly impractical.

[jjane45]

Portable voice recorder once it's more or less finalized?

if still work in progress it's much harder to follow the coach, especially if instructions are complicated and/or unclear

[hopskipjump]

When dd gets off the ice she writes it down.  She rarely looks at her notes after but sitting in her skates with a pencil and her notebook imprints it. 

[SynchKat]

When I decided to take up tap dancing I would walk through and write down the steps on my subway ride home. People must have thought i was nuts but oh well. When I started synchro I would write the steps down. Also I find if you do the steps as the coach is explaining that helps too.

I think it also depends how you view a program. I am known on my team for being able to skate any spot because I kind of see a program as a big picture and not just my little part. Maybe this might help? 

[PrettySk8Dress]

I'll just mention a technique that works for me ! As the routine is practiced over and over, I begin to notice cues in the music. The cues are more pronounced if the music is vocal. For instance,  in the ensemble routine that I am part of, the music is from the movie " Rio ". A section of the music says---

" Let me take you to Rio-Rio,
fly like an eagle to Rio-Rio. . . . "

That section of music is where a long forward spiral is done. So when I hear that piece of music, I remember that the sequence is for forward skating to gain speed, left leg up so that the boot is touching the side of my right knee, then extend the left leg out to spiral position, with my arms holding wings extended out, and then hold still for the rest of the music phrase. Then the next music section " tells " me what is next. And so on, and so on. . . . This is how I remember, each piece of music tells me what I should be doing.
 

[singerskates]

I do make a drawing of the basic direction and when I want to have my jumps, spins and general location of my footwork but because I'm a music editor/singer songwriter musician, I can feel what kind of and where each turn and step goes and how fast or slow it has to be. It wasn't always like this for me, especially when I first began to skate. Let's face it, at the beginning I had next to no skating skills, so even though I could feel the music, I had nothing to work with then. Now I have a little bit more to use in the skating skills department.

To memorize where to put what, I feel what can go where and when it works out well, I keep it in that spot of the music. I'll do little parts of my program over and over until it feels right for the music. Easier to do, when you choreograph your program yourself because it's your own vision.

This year I'm skating to Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader using 3 pieces of music; Opening Title, Duel, and Lucy and The Invisible Mansion.

[fsk8r]

If this is synchro you can't be the only one struggling with the steps. We write them down and email them around the team and when things are at a crunch and everyone must learn the steps and someone's missing, we've had the camcorder out and videoed them (some people are very visual learners and the words don't quite describe them right). There's no reason why you can't get the steps recorded. Either ask the coach to film the team skating the program or else you can video the coach skating those particular steps.

But I agree it's useful to have an overview of the whole program. Especially with where bits are meant to be skated. Knowing we've got to make this shape and be at this spot on the ice at this time, really helps with getting the elements to work right.

[Skate@Delaware]

I write the sequence down, on a piece of note card that has the rink markings on it. I also write down cues from the music (especially helpful if there are vocals or dramatic moments).

When learning, I learn in "chunks"....from the beginning, and add small segments.  If it's a 4:00 long piece, I break it into 0:30 segments and learn those, adding on 0:30 chunks at a time. I don't worry about each piece being perfect, it's a rough draft. When I have the whole thing in rough form...then I fine tune it.

[Skittl1321]

Our synchro team did all the sequences saying the steps as we were learning, it helped a ton.  Off ice, we'd always say them.

[Query]

These all sound like great ideas.

I got help from some of the other members writing down the routine afterwards the last two times, but still need to clarify a few things.

It doesn't help that we are doing it during group lesson time, dodging other classes. Last time the coach did call many of the moves during a run through. I tried to record her voice using the recorder in my watch, but there is too much noise from other classes, plus the watch isn't hi fi.

I still need a memory upgrade.

[hopskipjump]

I've seen our synchro girls do a freestyle session - usually just two meet and run through the routine (or one and the coach).  It isn't as busy and they help each other remember. 

[jjane45]

I tried to record her voice using the recorder in my watch, but there is too much noise from other classes, plus the watch isn't hi fi.

I still need a memory upgrade.

Consider repeating after the coach for better voice clarity.

BTW if you find a memory upgrade deal, send it my way too.

[SynchKat]

Lots of people on our team find doing off ice helps a lot.  This does not work for me though.  I get so confused doing off ice. 

I think writing the steps down is the best way to do it.  We had a girl on our team for a while who had Excel spreadsheets of the steps.  She'd have different tabs for the various lines if they did mirror steps or different steps at all.  She'd even do up diagrams to go with the steps too. Would the coach maybe do a master list of the steps?  also do you have a copy of the music?  If so you can walk through your steps anywhere, anytime. 

[Skate@Delaware]

I think the question is: what type of "learner" are you? If you are visual, then use visual cues (diagrams, stick figures, etc) to help you. If you are kinesthetic (tactile), then running through the steps multiple times will do it; while an audio learner has to have audio cues. Most of us are a blend of two types.  This site points out the differences between them: http://homeworktips.about.com/od/homeworkhelp/a/learningstyle.htm

[Query]

In large part I learn analytically. After that, kinesthetic. The coaches that worked best for me have been able to describe and analyze things, and sometimes position me. Visual helps me figure things out, but I have very poor visual memory.

Probably the best way for me to remember a sequence is to write out the pattern, and then read it back to myself while doing the moves off ice. I've been trying to write afterwards using pen and paper, moved it to Word, (including the drawing feature), then read it back to myself many times, then sort of tried to practice it on-ice, holding the paper - but that is hard when there are other people there.

But the main problem for me is figuring out and remembering the moves well enough to write them down afterwards in the first place.

Do you know any visual memory training tools that actually help learning movement sequences?

Maybe the issue is that I didn't try to do much athletically as a child. Athletic kids must learn to learn that way, and to associate what they see with what there body does. I heard somewhere that kids who learn well that way often activate the required muscles when they watch motion sequences. I've watched dance performers learn a several minute dance sequence by watching it once - auditions tend select out those that can't. Maybe that would help...

[fsk8r]

Query - how have your coaches taught you dances and footwork sequences?
We also tend to have one of the team calling the steps which means you've got a chance to skate the steps even if you don't compeletely remember everything.

[Query]

Yes, to some extant. But I memorized them from the rule book and the ISI manual, not from lessons.

[SynchKat]

I think you are right and it is easier for people who have done this as kids to pick up choreography.  I've been skating for most of my life and find I can pick up steps to skating programs and even dances off the ice easily. 

Could you maybe ask to watch a practice and makes notes of the steps and pattern?  Or take a notebook and write them down as you are doing them (I did this once when I was nominated to write out the steps)?  It sounds like you need something like a dance pattern to memorize.  I bet once yuo saw it on paper it would make total sense. 

Do you just do the program holding on or so you do it "loose".  I know doing it without holding on helps me get the steps.  Also working on the steps on my own no a session helps as well.

[techskater]

Have you tried repeating it back in the cadence which it's supposed to be skated or numbering your steps in your head?

[SynchKat]

Have you tried repeating it back in the cadence which it's supposed to be skated?

This is a great tip!

[Robin]

I think the question is: what type of "learner" are you? If you are visual, then use visual cues (diagrams, stick figures, etc) to help you. If you are kinesthetic (tactile), then running through the steps multiple times will do it; while an audio learner has to have audio cues. Most of us are a blend of two types.  This site points out the differences between them: http://homeworktips.about.com/od/homeworkhelp/a/learningstyle.htm

What she said.

I am of the kinestheic variety. I just have to do them over and over and over. I play piano, too, and I approach skating steps like I do learning a new piano piece: I break it down one measure at a time, master the first measure, then add the next. I am also an audio learner. It helps for me to recite the steps.