Did you even practice any of this stuff since the last class?

This is my 3rd or so draft of this particular post.  I've tried coming at it a few ways to not sound like a douche, but, i dunno, i just can't I guess.  Very often, I see students come to class in the middle of the week trying to remember the stuff they learned at the beginning of the week.  My question is always, "didn't you practice this at home?".  The problem is that class time should be used for refining your skills and learning new skills.  When you ask your teacher to basically re-teach you something you are taking away time that the teacher has planned for other things, other student, and your own training.  Simply relying on Kwoon/Dojo time for your martial arts training is not sufficient enough for you to learn martial arts.  The bottom line is, you probably aren't practicing enough. 

I get it, I really do.  I also have a full time job, two teenage kids, and enough social obligations to make me wish I was a hermit. In the end, however, martial arts is either going to be a lifestyle or a hobbie for you, but either way it always requires your full attention and effort.

The subject of this post is obviously the amount of time you put into training.  Now don't get me wrong, I can say "hey, at least they're out there doing something" with the best of them, but martial arts is like any other endeavor requiring training; the more you do it, the better you'll be.  The difference is that most of the time people are taking martial arts to learn to defend themselves.  There is a famous quote by Bruce Lee (please argue his legitimacy elsewhere because I think we can all agree he was at least a superb athlete) that reads,

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

And there was the rule developed by Anders Ericsson called the "10,000 hour rule" which is similar in tone.  Basically it comes down to putting serious effort into your what you are doing if you want to be more than mediocre.

Where this comes into play for the "only learning to defend myself" group is simple muscle memory mechanics; if you practice something over and over and over and... well you get it, then your brain and muscles build short cuts to each other (in a manner of speaking) for this particular action.  Often what we say in the biz is "It becomes instinct".  I mean it's not like a real instinct but the point is that you can do it without much or any conscious thought.  Learn to defend from a knife stab 10,000 times and then when it happens, you body just reacts for you!  Your brain doesn't 'have to even get involved which, as it turns out, is a dangerous thing in a fight.  In essence, your body will react in direct correlation with how it was trained.

Now I'm not saying that thinking has no place in martial arts, far from it.  Critical and creative thinking are the very life blood of martial arts, but the time for that is during training not in a confrontation.  Alright so we're good with the self defense part right?

Okay, so now to the hobbyists!  This category is generally about staying in shape or learning something new, whatever.  This is the contingent least likely to put in the real time needed to become a good or great martial artist.  This also makes up approximately 99% of the folks in martial arts classes (I might have made that up).  Anyway, they are a bulk of the folks paying the bills in schools where bills need to be paid.  This is a tricky one because, hey we need the money if the school is to survive, but also I don't feel it's fair to allow them to just muddle through this stuff that should be somewhat revered because we want/need money.

Maybe some of you out there, and I'm speaking to the teachers here, have found a peace with the practice of taking money and demanding nothing of the "three hourers" (three classes a week at an hour a piece, get it?  I'm so clever..er) but in the end, what they do out there (real world, "streets", tournaments, take your pick) reflects on you as a teacher and most importantly as a lineage holder of your style.  Most of this stuff is thousands of years old and has been tested in wars and rebellions and instead of honoring it, we're allowing these guys who don't really care to just make it look like garbage! *deep breath*..... *another deep breath, the first one didn't really take*

Okay anyway, the point I'm making is, it's easy to fall into the trap of getting paid to not care, but this stuff should be more important to you than that.  If it isn't, aren't you as guilty as the sloppy students in question?

So that was my rant at the teachers, now to you actual hobbyists out there;  hi!  Nice to meet you.  So hey I don't hate you or anything PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO MY BLOG AND TELL YOUR FRIENDS.  The point that I hope you guys can take away from this post is simply; try to honor the art you have chosen, and remember that it took thousands of years and thousands of lives to make it what it is.  People dedicated everything of themselves to this stuff and while you may not be worried about carrying on the history or teachings, and you may not ever be worried about defending yourself, you still will only get out of martial arts what you put in (folks, please say "hi" to my dad, whom I apparently just turned into).

I'd write a paragraph to the enthusiasts out there but I'm pretty sure we're all training as much as we can. so good job to you guys.  Now find a way to train even more.