Proprioception is our universal GPS when it comes to our complex sense of self-movement, force/pressure, and body position. Proprioception relies on specialized sensory receptors called proprioceptors which are found within our muscles, tendons, and joints.
Ultimately, every skill, every attribute, every technique, every strategy, every mental state, and every aspect of our instincts, intuitions, internalizations, interpretations, trainings, and developments can be traced to this faculty, and directly or indirectly depend on the Proprioception.
When you spar, when you train to disarm a knife or a stick; when you train over and over again shooting in for a takedown, when you train your jiu-jitsu, judo, boxing, muay thai, clinching and so on——all that effort can be summed up in one word——proprioception.
The more real, and the higher the quality of the pressures of your training, the more closely and accurately the proprioception as a whole collects the physical and the mental data-configurations, and internalize them and their critical cues.
Photo: Japan, martial arts, Judo
(Japan, martial arts, Judo: the 75 years old Jigoro Kano (in normal clothing) presenting the chokehold (Shime waza)- 1933- Photographer: Lothar Ruebelt (Photo by Lothar Ruebelt/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
Jigoro Kano applying a chokehold.