A quote, a brief redirect from the "martial arts titles" series

 

Defeat Yesterday's Understanding

I saw this quote some days ago, and decided to add this blog post in the middle of the "martial arts titles" series. 

Each week, i've been posting my thoughts on martial art titles....what they mean, their uses, etc. I've been posting primarily so my own new students can get an idea of the uses of certain titles that we use at our Kwoon, Seattle Wushu Center (Inner Concepts Method). This is through my own lineage.  

Sifu Kathy Long, our other instructor who has her own method called "Beyond Limits Martial Arts", (based on her many years of experience in Kung Fu San Soo, Kickboxing and a plethora of other training) has titles that she and her own students use in their method.

This week, I'd like to post this quote:

"The purpose of today's training 

is to defeat yesterday's understanding"

I've mentioned to students many times, that one of the goals in training is to try to improve and bet a little bit better than the previous class they attended. 

But "defeat yesterday's understanding"?  I presented this quote to one of my juniors kids classes, and one of the younger students asked "Does that mean we have to throw away what we learned last week?"

To many, it might have sounded like a silly question, but this kid was serious. He wanted to understand.

So, I explained that we shouldn't forget....on the contrary we must remember, so that we can compare our progress today, to last week, and the week before, and so on. I chose to compare the concept to something the kids all knew about.....video games!

I said: "It's like when you picked up a new video game. Sure, you've heard about the game from your friends, but you finally get it and your first game is feeling it out and trying to remember how the controls work in the game. You figure out the purpose of the game and slowly learn to play the game. Each time you play, you make mistakes, but then you remember your mistakes and try different approaches and strategies, and you get better at the game. Each time you make a mistake you learn from it and improve your gameplay. It's the same here at the Kwoon. If you don't remember the mistakes your won't have the means to improve, and you stay right where you are, not progressing. Does that make sense everyone?"

"Yes Sifu!!"

Then of course a bunch of hands raise up and the kids shared stories of their favorite games and how much better they got by just keeping at it even though they got frustrated. It took around 10 minutes of stories, but I found that it was important for the kids to share how they learned in their games and how frustrated they got but didn't quit. I found it was important that they learn from other kids what "attaining goals' was like in each other's perspectives. I was thrilled that the kids learned that Kung Fu is much more than just what strikes, kicks and forms they knew.....they were learning about the actual WORK.

During their discussion, one of the girls said (in an almost "authoritative" tone of voice):  "I like Mario Golf Super Rush", and you have to get your shots just right. It takes practice, but what you thought would work yesterday, probably doesn't work today so ya gotta work to get your timing right. You use part of what you learned yesterday to figure out how to play today."

"That's it, Jaime!" I remarked. "That's how we defeat yesterday's understanding. We make the understanding more complex, we don't throw it away, its a stepping stone."

If we just take what happened yesterday and merely move on without a 2nd thought, we lose some of the education we can glean from it. Yes, it is learning from mistakes, but while many understand the literal sense of it, it is the mind/body aspect and the practical application of it that fosters the real learning.