Martial Arts Practice Problems – Unlearning Your Bad Habits
Are you interested in ways to better reinforce the pathways in the brain when it comes to martial arts practice? Can practicing the bad moves from other styles hinder your mastery? Will you have to unlearn some martial-arts bad habits?
Bad Martial Technique Elimination
When I was first taking lessons from Steve Golden, he would sometimes watch me perform a new technique, at my request. If I couldn’t perfect a move, then I had him observe, to figure out why.
Often, he’d make a correction, to get me back on track. And the correction worked beautifully.
In fact, it worked so well, that I couldn’t remember what I had done wrong before. So, I’d try to recreate the incorrect response, so I could be sure to distinguish between the right way and the wrong way.
And he would chastise me.
Steve insisted that we forget the wrong technique and only practice the better way.
Good Martial-Arts Advice Before Its Time
It turns out, Steve Golden was prophetic. By studying the neuro fibers and the myelin covering them (sometimes 50 payers thick in a set of neurons representing a mastered skill), we know that we don’t want any myelin buildup on the bad behavior.
There are much more complete explanations of how we can reinforce the right move better, if there is no wrong move competing for electrical brain stimulation.
And herein lies the challenge….
How Should You Practice Defending Against Unfamiliar Techniques?
You want to practice defending against techniques that aren’t in your style, right? After all, a tae kwon do practitioner won’t only have to defend himself or herself against other tae kwon do artists.
They might want to know how to defend against the closer distance, tighter angles, and vertical fist orientations or say, wing chun gung fu.
So, the “tae kwon doers” have a choice: They can invite wing chun artists into their studio, to train, or they can practice among their own, imitating the differences.
Do you see where this is going?
My Wife, The Bruce-Lee Fan
Let me give you an example from my own family….
My wife has been practicing a JKD-like style for the past 20 years. Of course, as per the parameters of the efficiency required, there is no hard blocking from side to side.
In other words, she hits AND THEN checks. She doesn’t block first. And since this was her first style, she doesn’t even know how to block.
She has spent many years building the myelin sheath that represents the skill of reacting by hitting rather than blocking.
This means that if she wants to train in her class, to defend against people who do block in their system, cradle their punches to their sides, and so on, she is going to have to imitate all of that. And her partners will also have to imitate blocking, so she can practice defending against this kind of stuff.
Now, do you see the problem?
I would rather that she not even experience the feeling of performing a hard block. I don’t want her to incorporate inefficiencies into her “fairly” clean way of responding.
And that poses the challenge that I will have to consider. How do you practice the mini-practices required for “myelin” mastery without reinforcing some undesirable techniques?
About the Author:
Tags: tae kwon do, wing chun gung fu, electrical brain stimulation, right move, unfamiliar techniques, myelin, vertical fist Bad Martial Technique Elimination
When I was first taking lessons from Steve Golden, he would sometimes watch me perform a new technique, at my request. If I couldn’t perfect a move, then I had him observe, to figure out why.
Often, he’d make a correction, to get me back on track. And the correction worked beautifully.
In fact, it worked so well, that I couldn’t remember what I had done wrong before. So, I’d try to recreate the incorrect response, so I could be sure to distinguish between the right way and the wrong way.
And he would chastise me.
Steve insisted that we forget the wrong technique and only practice the better way.
Good Martial-Arts Advice Before Its Time
It turns out, Steve Golden was prophetic. By studying the neuro fibers and the myelin covering them (sometimes 50 payers thick in a set of neurons representing a mastered skill), we know that we don’t want any myelin buildup on the bad behavior.
There are much more complete explanations of how we can reinforce the right move better, if there is no wrong move competing for electrical brain stimulation.
And herein lies the challenge….
How Should You Practice Defending Against Unfamiliar Techniques?
You want to practice defending against techniques that aren’t in your style, right? After all, a tae kwon do practitioner won’t only have to defend himself or herself against other tae kwon do artists.
They might want to know how to defend against the closer distance, tighter angles, and vertical fist orientations or say, wing chun gung fu.
So, the “tae kwon doers” have a choice: They can invite wing chun artists into their studio, to train, or they can practice among their own, imitating the differences.
Do you see where this is going?
My Wife, The Bruce-Lee Fan
Let me give you an example from my own family….
My wife has been practicing a JKD-like style for the past 20 years. Of course, as per the parameters of the efficiency required, there is no hard blocking from side to side.
In other words, she hits AND THEN checks. She doesn’t block first. And since this was her first style, she doesn’t even know how to block.
She has spent many years building the myelin sheath that represents the skill of reacting by hitting rather than blocking.
This means that if she wants to train in her class, to defend against people who do block in their system, cradle their punches to their sides, and so on, she is going to have to imitate all of that. And her partners will also have to imitate blocking, so she can practice defending against this kind of stuff.
Now, do you see the problem?
I would rather that she not even experience the feeling of performing a hard block. I don’t want her to incorporate inefficiencies into her “fairly” clean way of responding.
And that poses the challenge that I will have to consider. How do you practice the mini-practices required for “myelin” mastery without reinforcing some undesirable techniques?
About the Author:
Keith Pascal is the author of the ebook, Secrets of Teaching Martial Arts More Effectively For Martial-Arts Teachers.
Pascal is also the editor of several martial arts ezines, including: Practical Punching. (Free devastating punch eBook when you join.)
Pascal has taught martial arts for over 25 years. He left his job as a high school teacher in 2000, to become a full-time writer.
