And now I am "old."

[gyoja]

This reminds me of something that I heard in the past in regard to practicing a technique incorrectly. Practice Long, Practice Wrong.

It was a reminder for the students to remember that if we are spending long hours practicing a technique incorrectly then all we are just doing is practicing wrong. Martial arts is hard enough. The last thing I want to do is spend 50+ hours practicing something the wrong way and then spend another 50+ hours correcting it.

I just shared this very thought with one of my students this week; who tends to sandbag on me.

 

[Gyakuto]

This reminds me of something that I heard in the past in regard to practicing a technique incorrectly. Practice Long, Practice Wrong.

It was a reminder for the students to remember that if we are spending long hours practicing a technique incorrectly then all we are just doing is practicing wrong. Martial arts is hard enough. The last thing I want to do is spend 50+ hours practicing something the wrong way and then spend another 50+ hours correcting it.

We once had a very educated clinical psychologist suggesting this was the reason why he avoided practising outside the dojo 🙄 He was one of the few people I’ve seen to fail his first kyu grading and we never saw him again.

Training in the martial arts is like erecting a tent: you have to go around and tighten individual guy ropes, step back and look at the orientation of the structure, go back, tighten/loosen a few other ropes ad infinitum, inexorably edging toward perfect but never quite getting there.

‘Correcting’ a technique takes a fraction of the time acquiring it.

 

[JowGaWolf]

We once had a very educated clinical psychologist suggesting this was the reason why he avoided practising outside the dojo 🙄 He was one of the few people I’ve seen to fail his first kyu grading and we never saw him again.

This is sooooo strange for me to read. Behaviors that I wouldn't expect from a clinical psychologist. I guess they are human too.

 

[Gyakuto]

This is sooooo strange for me to read. Behaviors that I wouldn't expect from a clinical psychologist. I guess they are human too.

He was a proper twit.

 

[HighKick]

There’s a really nice book call ‘Bounce’ which addresses this with a few interviews with noted sports people which says that progressively making one’s training more awkward and hence difficult, leads to improvement rather than mindless repetition. I put the idea to a professional soccer player from who I was buying a house and with whom I had become friendly. It seems he was famous for heading the football and as a child he’d bounce the ball off his bedroom wall and head it back for hours on end. When it became easy, he’d head the ball at the junction of the wall and ceiling so the return was a little bit less predictable. When that got easy, the corner of the walls and ceiling became his target to add more randomness, then standing on one leg, spinning around so he had less time to assess the incoming ball’s trajectory…! So he agreed with the idea that making skill training more and more difficult pays dividends.

With regards guitar playing (since you mentioned it) and in a similar vein, I’d recommend ‘Steve Vai’s 10 hour Guitar Workout’.

I was never much for Frank Zappa but Love Vai's sound.

 

[Taiji Rebel]

I was never much for Frank Zappa but Love Vai's sound.

More of an old school blues cat myself, but I spent a long time studying Steve Vai and Joe Satriani. We can always learn something of value from anyone if we retain an open mind. Steve Vai is an interesting guy and the advice he shares in the following video is equally useful to us as martial artists:

Apparently he also keeps bees and harvests plenty of honey in his spare time too 🐝🍯

 

[Flying Crane]

There’s a really nice book call ‘Bounce’ which addresses this with a few interviews with noted sports people which says that progressively making one’s training more awkward and hence difficult, leads to improvement rather than mindless repetition. I put the idea to a professional soccer player from who I was buying a house and with whom I had become friendly. It seems he was famous for heading the football and as a child he’d bounce the ball off his bedroom wall and head it back for hours on end. When it became easy, he’d head the ball at the junction of the wall and ceiling so the return was a little bit less predictable. When that got easy, the corner of the walls and ceiling became his target to add more randomness, then standing on one leg, spinning around so he had less time to assess the incoming ball’s trajectory…! So he agreed with the idea that making skill training more and more difficult pays dividends.

In my opinion, this is one of the major functions that forms/kata serves. We practice the basics and use that exercise to make them as perfect as possible. That is fundamental practice. Forms are longer strings of movement and change and represent in increase in the difficulty level. Now the challenge is to keep the integrity of the techniques and the foundation, in the context of that movement. And there could easily be a step or two of increasing complexity between basics and forms. Simply stepping and moving with the fundamental techniques could be a first step in increasing complexity and difficulty, before forms practice

 

[dennis63]

We once had a very educated clinical psychologist suggesting this was the reason why he avoided practising outside the dojo 🙄 He was one of the few people I’ve seen to fail his first kyu grading and we never saw him again.

Training in the martial arts is like erecting a tent: you have to go around and tighten individual guy ropes, step back and look at the orientation of the structure, go back, tighten/loosen a few other ropes ad infinitum, inexorably edging toward perfect but never quite getting there.

‘Correcting’ a technique takes a fraction of the time acquiring it.

I agree.

One of my instructors once said that you may get better by practicing. You may not get better by practicing. But practicing is the only hope you have to get better.

(He was also an incredible instructor, and a legend inside our organization for being a technician. His technique was as close to flawless and perfect as you could get, so if you imitated him, you were on the right track. )

So practice, combined with good example, good instruction and appropriate correction, is the way.

 

[Gyakuto]

I agree.

One of my instructors once said that you may get better by practicing. You may not get better by practicing. But practicing is the only hope you have to get better.

(He was also an incredible instructor, and a legend inside our organization for being a technician. His technique was as close to flawless and perfect as you could get, so if you imitated him, you were on the right track. )

So practice, combined with good example, good instruction and appropriate correction, is the way.

So true. Imagine telling a student learning calculus or bricklaying not to practise on their own lest they ingrained bad habits! They’d never make any progress. I think this false idea is one of the most pervasive and deeply flawed ideas in the martial arts.

 

[gyoja]

So true. Imagine telling a student learning calculus or bricklaying not to practise on their own lest they ingrained bad habits! They’d never make any progress. I think this false idea is one of the most pervasive and deeply flawed ideas in the martial arts.

I always give my students a list of things that I expect them to practice on their own between classes based on what I observed. It really helps them to focus their solo workouts.

 

[Gyakuto]

I always give my students a list of things that I expect them to practice on their own between classes based on what I observed. It really helps them to focus their solo workouts.

Excellent. You’re a good teacher!

 

[gyoja]

Excellent. You’re a good teacher!

Thank you, I try …😏

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

This is sooooo strange for me to read. Behaviors that I wouldn't expect from a clinical psychologist. I guess they are human too.

The more knowledge you have, the easier it is to convince yourself to do (or not do) what you want to do.

 

[Gyakuto]

The more knowledge you have, the easier it is to convince yourself to do (or not do) what you want to do.

Especially if, as he was, a proper twit!

 

[Cri70]

A fun thing that translates directly from guitar playing to karate (and is missed by a lot of aspiring guitarists) it's the emphasis on body relaxation. You simply cannot play fast, precise and with control without having your shoulders and back relaxed (and in case of karate, all of your body relaxed but for the few muscles that keep you upright). It's one of the most fundamental things, and yet (at least back 40 years ago) nobody ever mentioned it: everybody concentrating on the intricacies of fingering, scales, chords and arm/wrist movement and stuff. I still remember very well how it changed what I could do when I discovered the "secret"... when u know it's obvious, but if you don't, you simply doesn't occur to you.

 

[Gyakuto]

A fun thing that translates directly from guitar playing to karate (and is missed by a lot of aspiring guitarists) it's the emphasis on body relaxation. You simply cannot play fast, precise and with control without having your shoulders and back relaxed (and in case of karate, all of your body relaxed but for the few muscles that keep you upright). It's one of the most fundamental things, and yet (at least back 40 years ago) nobody ever mentioned it: everybody concentrating on the intricacies of fingering, scales, chords and arm/wrist movement and stuff. I still remember very well how it changed what I could do when I discovered the "secret"... when u know it's obvious, but if you don't, you simply doesn't occur to you.

I think this is the ‘secret’ to accomplishment in and movement based art! The number of times my teacher shouts ”” “relax” or “less power” is annoying! Classically trained musicians are taught the importance of relaxed posture but most guitar teachers don’t have that conservatoire-like training.