Acknowledge Your Experience

Can you ride a bicycle? Can you recall your first few times pedalling unassisted down the road?

Do you drive? If so, can you remember taking lessons? So many things to remember; steering, gears, mirrors, other road users, other learners driving like you - poorly...

Even if you haven't driven a car you will know that it has a steering wheel which is used to change or maintain the direction in which the car is travelling. If you can drive, during lessons you may have been instructed to hold the steering wheel with your hands at the 'quarter to three' or 'ten to two' positions. You may have also been instructed to turn the wheel using a 'push and pull' method.

(Disclaimer: if you are a non-driver or yet to take lessons, please note that I take no responsibility for any confusion arising from this explanation. Driving instruction should be taken from a qualified driving instructor!)

However, after some time, you became more confident with steering and driving a car in general. You may even have passed your test!

What happens next? You begin to hold the steering wheel and turn it using a slightly different, more fluid, more graceful manner.

The car hasn't changed.
The steering wheel hasn't changed?
So what's different?

You.

We know that the more we perform an action, the easier it can become and the better we can do it. Your position along the learning curve changes as each repetition of the action creates experience.

You no longer have to 'work out' how to perform the action each time you wish to perform it. At the same time, your experience helps you determine how well you can perform the action consistently with accuracy.

The same applies when learning and performing the Choi Kwang-Do techniques. In most cases the objective of the instructor when initially teaching techniques is provide an overview of the technique, then introduce the technique following a step-by-step breakdown.

In this way students can better understand the technique and the instructor can make corrections or adjustments can be made during the learning process.

Once a basic understanding of the fundamental movement has been grasped, the technique may then be repeated more fluidly.

Rather than allow students to work out how to do a technique – students are provided with the process of how to achieve the technique.

This is particularly important in Choi Kwang-Do due to sequential nature of the movements; a single punch requires involvement from a wide variety of parts around the entire body from the feet upwards.

Eventually, with time, patience and guidance you are able to perform the technique easily and effectively - almost without thinking, and this can often happen without us realising. Some people refer to this as unconscious competence, whereby you don’t even realise that your experience and abilities have evolved and you now possess a certain level of skill and proficiency.

It's great to be able to look back at where you once were, and then marvel at the range of skills and experience that you now have. As long as you bear in mind that irrespective of rank and years training, there is nearly always something new to learn, tweak or refine.

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Jason Wright is a 5th Degree Black Belt and Master Instructor in the martial art Choi Kwang-Do. For further information on Choi Kwang-Do classes in Ealing, West London visit www.TheMartialArtForLife.com