Training is a process which can frustrate many people due to the length of time it takes to truly master a technique. While you are learning from your instructor, there are a few key things to keep in mind.
- Your instructor, like yourself, had to learn and then practice these same moves literally hundreds to thousands of times before they could demonstrate it as effortlessly as they do now.
- The speed and ease of movement represented in Hollywood has little to nothing to do with the actor’s abilities in the martial arts, so much as the amount of “takes” it took for it to come out right on camera.
- Our bodies process different movement patterns differently. Some techniques may come easily while others require more repetition. This is based upon how our bodies instinctively move. (E.g., some people are natural punchers, some people are natural kickers, while others have abilities with movement and coordination) This is the reason your instructor requires you to repeat and drill. There’s a famous martial arts expression that goes, “Don’t practice until you get it right, practice until you cannot get it wrong!”
Lastly, what most people do not realize is that there are three levels of training that must be accomplished before you can truly master any technique:
- Cognitive: where you understand the mechanics intellectually, but have not yet processed it physically.
- Motor: where you begin to integrate your understanding of a technique with muscle memory. This allows you to be able to do it in a coordinated manner.
- Emotional: where not only do you intellectually and physically understand the required movements, you emotionally accept the when and where you would need to use it. This tends to be the most difficult step for most to achieve.
So next time you start to get impatient with yourself on how long is taking to learn a new technique, relax and give yourself permission to take the time to get it right.
