Mindful Practice

Bill Mattocks

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One can go to more classes, longer classes, and hope to advance more quickly.

Or...

One can do one's homework. That is, practice mindfully when not in the dojo. What do I do when I go do laundry? I go in back of the laundromat and practice kata. When I'm sitting at home and I don't want the TV blaring mindless tripe? Practice kata. Whenever I have ten minutes of uninterrupted time available? Practice basic exercises. Practice my Japanese.

And I try not to do mindless repetitions of kata; I try not to let my mind wander and just let my body go through the motions. I try to stay in the kata, thinking about my feet, my hands, my timing as I go through each step of the kata I'm practicing. I imagine the attack I am defeating with each move of the kata, the opponent coming towards me and launching a kick or a punch, etc, and how I will defeat it, what it will feel like when my block or my kick hits him. From a bang block to a brush and sweep, hard and soft, what the reaction of his body will be and mine as we clash.

When I feel I have done all the thinking I can do about foot placement or moving with power and speed, I think about breathing, where I want my breath to be as the strike hits home or the block goes in. I practice breathing from my tanden, keeping centered over my central balance point, not leaning forward or back.

I am just a beginner, but I begin to think that it is not by mindless repetition that we improve, or by learning more technique and more kata all piled and jumbled in together faster and for longer classes that we advance. It is by learning the mechanics of a thing, and then mindfully practicing it, over and over, until it makes sense, until it seems natural, and until I can imagine actually defeating opponents with the bunkai I pick out of it and use in self-defense.

Last night, we spent a good part of the class with one technique; in our case, tegata barai nukite or open hand middle body block and knife hand strike. We practiced the movement, but then we spent an hour just putting together one self-defense move after another, one application after another, all based on a tegata barai and then a nukite strike. I really enjoyed that, it seemed to flow for me; and I think part of the reason was because I practice that when I am practicing mindfully. Open hand block, why? How hard? Under what circumstances? How does it feel? Can you use it to entangle as well as to block? (yes.) Can you use it to turn the opponent's body? Are there other targets that will present themselves to you as you do so? (yes, as it says in the Bubishi, and lo and behold, it works.)

I have read several threads about advancing quickly, or how long to mastery, or should I learn multiple arts, and all of them seem to be asking the same basic question - how can I advance (in skill or belt) more quickly?

For this beginner, the answer is simple, but not what most probably want to hear. It's the answer to the old question "Hey Mister! How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" "Practice, practice, practice." But not just any practice. Mindful practice. The body needs to learn the movements, and mindless practice will train muscle memory; but the brain has to be able to put those building blocks to good use, and for that, the practice must be mindful.
 

Omar B

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All good points man. It's not about repeating the movements, it's about thinking what they mean. simple beginner katas with just simple low blocks, single punches and turns like Seido Kata 1 may seem simple till you grasp that some of the blocks are strikes, some of the turns are actually unbalancing moves and throws. There's a lot of stuff hidden in plain sight in there.
 

Jenny_in_Chico

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I try to stay in the kata, thinking about my feet, my hands, my timing as I go through each step of the kata I'm practicing. I imagine the attack I am defeating with each move of the kata, the opponent coming towards me and launching a kick or a punch, etc, and how I will defeat it, what it will feel like when my block or my kick hits him. From a bang block to a brush and sweep, hard and soft, what the reaction of his body will be and mine as we clash.

This is especially useful, Bill. I try to be mindful of the precision of my techniques in a kata, but I often forget to envision an attacker. Thanks.
 

seasoned

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One can go to more classes, longer classes, and hope to advance more quickly.

Or...

One can do one's homework. That is, practice mindfully when not in the dojo. What do I do when I go do laundry? I go in back of the laundromat and practice kata. When I'm sitting at home and I don't want the TV blaring mindless tripe? Practice kata. Whenever I have ten minutes of uninterrupted time available? Practice basic exercises. Practice my Japanese.

And I try not to do mindless repetitions of kata; I try not to let my mind wander and just let my body go through the motions. I try to stay in the kata, thinking about my feet, my hands, my timing as I go through each step of the kata I'm practicing. I imagine the attack I am defeating with each move of the kata, the opponent coming towards me and launching a kick or a punch, etc, and how I will defeat it, what it will feel like when my block or my kick hits him. From a bang block to a brush and sweep, hard and soft, what the reaction of his body will be and mine as we clash.

When I feel I have done all the thinking I can do about foot placement or moving with power and speed, I think about breathing, where I want my breath to be as the strike hits home or the block goes in. I practice breathing from my tanden, keeping centered over my central balance point, not leaning forward or back.

I am just a beginner, but I begin to think that it is not by mindless repetition that we improve, or by learning more technique and more kata all piled and jumbled in together faster and for longer classes that we advance. It is by learning the mechanics of a thing, and then mindfully practicing it, over and over, until it makes sense, until it seems natural, and until I can imagine actually defeating opponents with the bunkai I pick out of it and use in self-defense.

Last night, we spent a good part of the class with one technique; in our case, tegata barai nukite or open hand middle body block and knife hand strike. We practiced the movement, but then we spent an hour just putting together one self-defense move after another, one application after another, all based on a tegata barai and then a nukite strike. I really enjoyed that, it seemed to flow for me; and I think part of the reason was because I practice that when I am practicing mindfully. Open hand block, why? How hard? Under what circumstances? How does it feel? Can you use it to entangle as well as to block? (yes.) Can you use it to turn the opponent's body? Are there other targets that will present themselves to you as you do so? (yes, as it says in the Bubishi, and lo and behold, it works.)

I have read several threads about advancing quickly, or how long to mastery, or should I learn multiple arts, and all of them seem to be asking the same basic question - how can I advance (in skill or belt) more quickly?

For this beginner, the answer is simple, but not what most probably want to hear. It's the answer to the old question "Hey Mister! How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" "Practice, practice, practice." But not just any practice. Mindful practice. The body needs to learn the movements, and mindless practice will train muscle memory; but the brain has to be able to put those building blocks to good use, and for that, the practice must be mindful.
You are definitely on the road to owning for yourself, as opposed to just learning. Awesome insight Bill.
 

Gordon Nore

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Last night, we spent a good part of the class with one technique; in our case, tegata barai nukite or open hand middle body block and knife hand strike.

Sounds like you're getting good training, Bill. You'll find, even as years go by, that you'll discover something new about a technique you learned on the first day.

As for mindful practice outside the dojo, training used to permeate my thinking in interesting ways. Other people count sheep -- I used to picture attackers coming at me during randori, grabbing me in a variety of ways, and how I would respond.
 

SahBumNimRush

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Bill, I wish ALL my students had the mindset that you do.. . Unfortunately what you have (passion, dedication, and perserverance) cannot be taught. These are things you must foster within yourself.. .

Very important if you wish to be a great student of the martial arts. You've inspired me to have another one of my "lectures" on the importance of home practice again at class tonight, providing we're not snowed in!
 
OP
Bill Mattocks

Bill Mattocks

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Bill's probably got one of the better sensei out there huh?

Thank you! I know everyone tends to think of their instructors as special people, and I'm sure most are. But I often find myself being thankful for my good fortune in landing where I have. I have a huge amount of respect for my sensei and for the other students at my dojo.
 

J Ellis

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Perfect practice makes perfect.

Poor/sloppy/inattentive practice ingrains bad habits.

Thank you, sir, for the reminder.

Joel
 

Omar B

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Thank you! I know everyone tends to think of their instructors as special people, and I'm sure most are. But I often find myself being thankful for my good fortune in landing where I have. I have a huge amount of respect for my sensei and for the other students at my dojo.

You lucked out man. Good instructors are way in the minority. When you find one stick to him like glue, no matter the style.
 

Stac3y

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You lucked out man. Good instructors are way in the minority. When you find one stick to him like glue, no matter the style.

QFT.

Luckily for me, there are a whole bunch of them to choose from in my club.
 

KELLYG

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Cool post Bill. Sounds a lot like what I have been trying to do. Sometimes I will work a kata/form/poomse at Very slow speed, that every technique is done properly. This helps to remove the muscle memory aspect of poomse and brings you back to the present so to speak. I also periodically will hand write out each poomse while visualizing them in my head. I also have a book that has pictures of what each technique looks like with a description of how it is preformed properly, and any notes on comments or improvements that my instructors have given me in that past, that I review periodically, to insure that old habits are not slipping in again.
 

masurai

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It reminds me of what one of my teachers in middle school always said. usually at the start of the new school year. "2+2=5,2+2=5,2+2=5,2+2=5. Am I perfect yet? Why not, i was praticing. Pratice doesn't make perfect, Perfect pratice makes perfect."
 

SahBumNimRush

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I was once told by one of my instructors that "practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes permanent" If you practice something incorrectly, it is going to be that much harder to correct.. .
 

celtic_crippler

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Keep it up brother, and you won't be good...you'll be great.:)

My beginners often look at me crazy when I tell them on day one to get an imaginary "battle buddy".

When practicing alone, be it techniques or forms, they should visualize what they're doing and why.

Not to just go through maneuvers in the air, but to "see" the purpose of it through the mind's eye.

In order to better visualize this I tell them to imagine executing these maneuvers on someone they perhaps dislike; an old bully from school, their boss, their mother in law, whatever...LOL

It helps to burn it into the subconcious, in addition to muscle memory, to better ensure you're more spontaneous in your reactions.

You've learned a very valuable lesson! Outstanding!!!!

:partyon:
 

Telfer

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To me 'mindful' means...with full attention.

For example, according to his wife Bruce Lee used to watch TV while lying on his back with his head raised doing leg lifts...but his attention was on the boob tube. So this exercise was not mindful.

One thing I noticed about the writings of Musashi is that he placed a lot of emphasis on the difference between training and fighting.

In fighting he thought one should have little awareness of oneself or whether your posture is right, and so on. That mind state is only for training.

In combat, one should only think of striking down the opponent.
 

Xue Sheng

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Practice practice practice and when you're done with that....practice some more.

Bill you have got it exactly and you are on the path. I truly wish there were more people in MA today that thought this way.

If you do a form (sorry kata) and you are simply going though the motions or thinking about what you did last Tuesday you are not, IMO, doing the form (kata) you are mindlessly moving that is all.

In my styles of CMA that call it practicing with intent which is basically being mindful of your practice

:asian:
 

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