I have been training in MMA, kickboxing & karate for about 8 months. I'm 33 years old & had no prior experience. I'm not the most uncoordinated person but teaching my body entirely new movements has not come naturally to me.
From my first class until about 5 months I felt like I just wasn't getting anything at all. Looking back I think that's because-
1) The sheer quantity of different moves was overwhelming - it's taken time to learn what's what, &
2) I was sort of thrown into sparring on my first night (I was looking around trying to figure out what we were even doing - I didn't know what sparring was or what was expected), & kept sparring every class until I had a thorough complex about it - I just didn't get it & started to believe I just couldn't. Beliefs are powerful - it's gotten in the way of forming confidence.
At some point I broke a barrier & started seeing progress. It helped that I didn't need to re-learn the difference between all the different blocks & punches, etc, & could just do them. I'm not frozen during sparring & can see how it's supposed to come together (I think).
I'm saying all this to explain my question. If I keep trying, can I develop the skills to actually be good? That's probably a taboo question, but it's honest - there are people who flourish at something, & people who always barely scrape by. And with some activities, scraping by isn't enough.
It seems to me that a lot of it is instinct. The ability to move without thinking. I want to know if working at it will be enough to develop the needed instincts & skills? Or, does a lack of inherent instincts, & an apparently extremely slow learning curve, mean that I should adjust my expectations to scraping by at best?
I ask mainly because there's a big part of me that believes - despite what seems like evidence to the contrary - that if I just have enough time & practice, the pieces will keep falling into place, maybe just a little more slowly as I wrap my mind around everything. But, I have no interest in fooling myself, if that's what I'm doing.
From my first class until about 5 months I felt like I just wasn't getting anything at all. Looking back I think that's because-
1) The sheer quantity of different moves was overwhelming - it's taken time to learn what's what, &
2) I was sort of thrown into sparring on my first night (I was looking around trying to figure out what we were even doing - I didn't know what sparring was or what was expected), & kept sparring every class until I had a thorough complex about it - I just didn't get it & started to believe I just couldn't. Beliefs are powerful - it's gotten in the way of forming confidence.
At some point I broke a barrier & started seeing progress. It helped that I didn't need to re-learn the difference between all the different blocks & punches, etc, & could just do them. I'm not frozen during sparring & can see how it's supposed to come together (I think).
I'm saying all this to explain my question. If I keep trying, can I develop the skills to actually be good? That's probably a taboo question, but it's honest - there are people who flourish at something, & people who always barely scrape by. And with some activities, scraping by isn't enough.
It seems to me that a lot of it is instinct. The ability to move without thinking. I want to know if working at it will be enough to develop the needed instincts & skills? Or, does a lack of inherent instincts, & an apparently extremely slow learning curve, mean that I should adjust my expectations to scraping by at best?
I ask mainly because there's a big part of me that believes - despite what seems like evidence to the contrary - that if I just have enough time & practice, the pieces will keep falling into place, maybe just a little more slowly as I wrap my mind around everything. But, I have no interest in fooling myself, if that's what I'm doing.