Knowing & Understanding

A few months back I recall working on kicking techniques with our children’s class. While reviewing the Rear Leg Front Kick we were breaking the kick down into two stages; shifting the body weight forwards first, then firing the kick off the back and stepping the foot down in front. Until this time, we’d simply practised the kick as a single movement.

Mid way through a very brief 'step by step' demonstration before we continued as a group, a student asked, "Why are we doing it like that? Why don’t we just kick?!"

Now, as an Instructor you never want to come across as too flippant or dismissive, but at the same time you want to keep the class momentum going. If you don’t you can open up the floor for all manner of questions ranging from favourite television programmes to how close a student is until their next birthday...in this case I managed to get away with, "We're working on making your kick even better!"

It was immediately apparent that the student in question felt that they already knew how to do the kick, ie. they knew how to perform a striking action using the foot. However, they didn't (yet) have a deeper understanding of all the finer parts of the movement that collectively make up that particular kick:

- Pushing of the rear leg to shift the body weight forwards
- Tucking the kicking leg by bending the knee
- Driving the kicking leg forwards to striking the target with the ball of the foot
- Following through the target
- Stepping down in front

To now break the technique down after practising the kick 'in full' wasn't furthering understanding - it was taking a step backwards! Therein possibly lies the difference between knowing a technique and understanding a technique...

Typically when I'm teaching a technique I'll usually follow one of two methods. I simply call them Bottom Up and Top Down. (Yes, I’m sure there are probably more eloquent names, but they do the job).

Bottom Up: Breaking the technique down into 2, 3, or 4 stages and teaching each components of the movement sequentially, building up to the full technique.

Top Down: Show the technique, explain a few defining points of the technique, show it again, then get students to copy it. On successive repetitions additional points and corrections are added or made as required.



Which method I use will depend on a number of factors such as:

- The age and abilities of the students
- The size of the group
- Teaching objective, ie. are we learning a technique for the first time, or reviewing a technique for improvement?
- Teaching time available

For example, Top Down is generally faster but assumes the student can interpret what they are seeing into movement. Whereas Bottom Up gives more detail and promotes better understanding of the technique, but takes longer to deliver.

What's your view on the difference between knowing and understanding?

(Tips on what has helped you to improve a technique are welcome too!)

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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