Training in martial arts — or any skill — is like sword-making. When you create a sword, the metal is melted down and hammered, then folded over and over again. The more times the metal is folded, the stronger the blade will be. Folding is used to draw out impurities from the metal.
Similarly, martial art training is a discipline striving for perfection. Striving for perfection in technique leads to perfection in other arena's of one's life. This striving is the same as the process of sword-making. One must practice a technique over and over again, like the folding of metal, hammering out the impurities of a technique.
This repetition is the important part of training. It is not enough to "know" or to "practice" a technique. The quantity of techniques known is unimportant, but the quality of the ones you have is a reflection of your fortitude as a martial artist. Learning techniques enables you to use them in this process of "folding", to employ them towards the quest for perfection. Techniques are the means for achieving a goal, not the goal themselves.
Effective techniques are the symptom of the more important dynamic process of striving for perfection — disciplined training.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Your training is complete
I may or may not decide to keep this as a public martial arts blog... we'll see. In the meantime, here is a post from my private martial arts blog:
I've noticed in popular culture martial arts movies, particularly those from the US, often a disciple studies under a master until a certain point when the master declares,"Your training is now Complete."
This is a great fallacy to martial art training — that such a state is attainable, or that there is a desire to be complete at all. Having a stated goal to attain only softens the potential that one can achieve. If we only train to be "good enough" to pass a test or win a competition, we are not maximizing our potential. We should strive to better than those that others expect of us.
Often, for many students a "black belt" is a primary goal — which is why many stop after getting it. They have reached the ceiling of their expectations, as opposed to realizing that their ceiling is limitless, and the belt is simply a marker.
Furthermore, if we train to fulfill our requirements for a rank, that is all we are capable of doing. Rank requires us to know specific rote combinations and practices — "Life" does not. If we train "for perfection" rather than "for a rank," passing a test seems like a trivial obstacle on our path of discovery. The amount needed to know for the test is miniscule compared to all that we have learned in our training.
There is no "completed" training. There is just training.
I've noticed in popular culture martial arts movies, particularly those from the US, often a disciple studies under a master until a certain point when the master declares,"Your training is now Complete."
This is a great fallacy to martial art training — that such a state is attainable, or that there is a desire to be complete at all. Having a stated goal to attain only softens the potential that one can achieve. If we only train to be "good enough" to pass a test or win a competition, we are not maximizing our potential. We should strive to better than those that others expect of us.
Often, for many students a "black belt" is a primary goal — which is why many stop after getting it. They have reached the ceiling of their expectations, as opposed to realizing that their ceiling is limitless, and the belt is simply a marker.
Furthermore, if we train to fulfill our requirements for a rank, that is all we are capable of doing. Rank requires us to know specific rote combinations and practices — "Life" does not. If we train "for perfection" rather than "for a rank," passing a test seems like a trivial obstacle on our path of discovery. The amount needed to know for the test is miniscule compared to all that we have learned in our training.
There is no "completed" training. There is just training.
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