One of the things that I’ve learned over the years is that it’s important to not only learn something, but to reinforce it as well. How much you practice is just as important as how you learn. We’re all a little guilty of doing things just enough to be proficient without truly mastering a skill.
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When I’m teaching, I see students start a new skill and keep going until they get their first success. It could be a basic technique, a kata, a drill, or some other basic skill. Usually, with whatever it is, they get it right and then decide they are proficient in the skill. And that’s the end of it until they need to be tested on it or something forces them to use it later.
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For me, the proficiency aspect of basic skills is maddening. We teach practitioners to do things like kata, drills or combinations, but we must also encourage them to keep practicing. We must not accept that proficiency is enough. Students need to gain expertise by repetition of the skill, by continued practice.
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The reality is that you can’t really master something until you’ve done it enough times that the skill becomes second nature. Imagine someone riding a bicycle for the first time. If they stopped when they were able to pedal the bike they’d never be able to ride it well enough to maneuver in traffic.
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I ask my students to take things a little further. Rather than just doing something until they have an initial success, I ask them to practice until they have it ingrained into their motor pathways. Put more simply:
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Don’t practice until you get it right. Practice until you can’t get it wrong.
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This shift in thinking helps students understand the importance of repeated practice. Getting it right is one thing. Understanding all the possible ways something can be done, or in every conceivable situation, is something entirely different.
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Research shows that if you do a skill right once and wrong once, it is engrained in your neural circuitry equally. This means that you may or may not have acquired the skill. Repeating the skill CORRECTLY multiple times is the only way of engraining the correct pattern.
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But what happens if your practice becomes lazy? If your training is sloppy? What do you think is going to happen when the time comes to perform under real pressure? You got it!….
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Sloppiness. Failure….. Failure you could have prevented just by putting in more effort during practice. Your mind and body are just reacting to how you practice. They way you’ve trained.
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Practice the basics until you understand them. Don’t miss a beat and make sure you have what you need. But don’t stop there. Keep going until you can’t possibly forget how to do something. That’s how you know you’ve mastered it.
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Learn and practice with conviction, give yourself an opportunity to solidify your skills. Don’t just train…… Practice until you can’t get it wrong.👊🥋
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