# The BLD and Memory Sports Cross-Training Thread



## JemFish (Feb 2, 2015)

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.
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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:



Spoiler: Disciplines




Numbers - 1 hour
Numbers - 5 minutes
Numbers - spoken
Binary Digits - 30 minutes
Playing Cards - 1 hour
Random Lists of Words
Names and Faces
Historic Dates - 5 minutes
Abstract Images
Speed Cards




Other examples include:



Spoiler: Other Examples




 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



Spoiler: Links




 The official website of the World Memory Championships;
 The Memory Sports website;
 An interview with Marcin "Maskow" Kowalczyk on the Memory Sports website;
 Memory sports Wikipedia page;
 World Memory Championships Wikipedia page;




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



Spoiler: My Major-Suffix System



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:



Spoiler: The Major System, Adapted to Playing Cards




*ROYAL MEMBER/NUMERAL**ASSOCIATED CONSONANT*KingWQueenHJackY10 (0)S; Z; soft C9J; SH; CH (as in cheese); soft G8R7K; C (as in cat); hard G; CH (as in loch); Q6P; B5L4F; V3M2NAce (1)T; D; TH




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.)



Spoiler: CSHD, The 4 Groups




*GROUP**ASSOCIATED CONSONANT*ClubsMSpadesT; D; THHeartsF; VDiamondsK; C (as in cat); hard G; CH (as in loch); Q




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.


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## JemFish (Feb 2, 2015)

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.


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## TDM (Feb 2, 2015)

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.


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## JemFish (Feb 2, 2015)

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.
> 
> ...



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.


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## sneaklyfox (Feb 2, 2015)

JemFish said:


> Memorisation of scripture and/or literature;



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.


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## JemFish (Feb 3, 2015)

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.



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..."


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## sneaklyfox (Feb 3, 2015)

JemFish said:


> 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..."



Romans is good to memorize. I did Romans 8 before I started doing Ephesians. I'm using the 1984 NIV.


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## rybaby (Feb 3, 2015)

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?


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## JasonDL13 (Feb 3, 2015)

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 

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.


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## JemFish (Feb 3, 2015)

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?



Check out the starter post - I've updated it with the Major-Suffix System I invented for speed cards.


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## Randomno (Feb 4, 2015)

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.



I need a challenge, I'm gonna memorise John 11:35.


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