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TESTIMONIALS |
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At MAIV, we are proud that we have fostered a caring community of supportive and friendly parents and
students. Here are just a few of the many helpful notes and letters we
have received from you. Thank you for your kind words and
support! |
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Greetings fellow students! Mr. Penny has been kind enough to let
me borrow some newsletter space to talk to you about some ideas
that were prompted by my recent experiences at work. I hope
you’ll find this interesting and helpful.
As an Instructor Pilot in the Air Force, it is my job to teach
new students how to fly the KC-10. When I’m teaching a new skill
to a student (such as how to react when an engine quits, or how
to fly in formation with other airplanes), the student usually
goes through several phases of learning, which might be useful
for us to talk and think about as students in the martial arts.
In the first stage of learning a new skill, the student
struggles a bit as he tries to understand and remember the
proper way to do the required steps. In this stage, the student
makes a lot of mistakes as he gets familiar with the steps, and
sometimes he momentarily forgets things that he already
“learned” a few days ago. Sometimes the student “knows” what he
is supposed to do, but he can’t get his body to do it the way
that his brain is telling it to! If I gave one of my students a
simulated (pretend) “engine fire” in this stage, they might do
the required steps out of order, or they might even freeze up as
their mind wildly searches for the right thing to do. This is
all normal, and as an instructor I expect my students to react
this way in this early stage of learning as they try to get all
the pieces of the puzzle in order inside their brains.
If the student works hard enough, he eventually reaches a second
stage of learning, in which he can perform the steps in the
proper order and manner, but only after thinking really hard
about it and concentrating on what he is doing, while he is
doing it. If his concentration is interrupted he might make a
mistake, but usually the student can recover and fix his
mistake. The important thing about this stage is that the
student has to spend a lot of effort planning his actions and
thinking about the task while he is accomplishing it. If I gave
a student in this stage of learning that same simulated engine
fire, he would probably pause for a moment, think about what he
needs to do, and then would do it properly with concentration.
As the years go by the student gains more training and
experience, becomes more comfortable in the airplane, and might
eventually reach a stage of learning in which he can properly
perform many skills automatically, without even thinking about
them. This is the ultimate level of learning, what some
scientists might call “unconscious competence.” If I gave a
pilot in this stage of learning a simulated engine fire, he
might have the fire extinguished in a matter of seconds without
even thinking about it. He has trained for this so much, and his
mind and body have been trained so well, that he instinctively
knows what to do. He wastes no time or effort thinking about the
required steps—he just reacts, like he’s “on autopilot” (if
you’ll pardon the pun), and puts out the fire.
Our journey as students in the martial arts is no different than
that of my student pilots. We go through these same stages of
learning and we face the same hurdles as we strive to learn a
complex skill. In example, the White Belt Form in Taekwando can
seem really difficult and overwhelming when we first start, but
with time and effort we start to pick it up. By the time we test
for our Yellow Belts, we can do the White Belt Form pretty well,
if we are concentrating on it. If we continue to train hard, we
might eventually get to the point where we can do the White Belt
Form very well, without even thinking much about it.
With this in mind, there are a few things I’ve learned as a
flying instructor that I think we should consider as martial
arts students:
1. Everyone goes through the learning stages at a different
pace. It’s okay if you don’t learn something as quickly as
another student. Some people learn very quickly and some people
need a little more time to learn the same thing. That’s okay,
and you shouldn’t get frustrated with yourself if you are one of
the people who need more time or help;
2. Your pace through the learning stages will vary at times.
There are some skills that will be very difficult for you to
learn and you will spend a lot of time trying to advance through
the learning stages. In contrast, there are some skills that
will come easily to you, and you will progress through the
learning stages very quickly. This is another reason not to get
frustrated with yourself if you are struggling with something,
because the next skill might be easy in the same way that this
one is hard;
3. It’s normal to transition back and forth between stages. Have
you ever known a Taekwando form so well that you “nailed” it
during testing, only to forget it a month later when you’re busy
working on the form for your new belt? This happens to all of
us, and it’s the natural result of moving back and forth between
stages of learning. If you don’t do something for a while, you
will lose some of your skill and will fall back to an earlier
stage of learning. Again, don’t get frustrated at
yourself—accept it and fix it by brushing up on that skill. The
good news is that it usually takes less time and effort to
“learn” the skill the second time around;
4. Achieving the final stage of learning takes a lot of work.
It’s not realistic to expect mastery of a complex skill in a
short time. Developing the “unconscious competence” of the third
stage may take many years or perhaps even a lifetime of
dedicated work. The key here is that you need to be realistic
about your goals and should not put unreasonable pressure on
yourself. You should not expect to quickly master a complex
skill that you only practice for a few hours a week. This does
not mean that you shouldn’t strive for constant improvement, or
that it’s impossible to achieve this stage of learning as a
“part time” student. It only means that you should not expect
overnight results and should not get frustrated with yourself if
you fail to meet an unreasonable timetable for progress.
5. Success is what you make it. You may never get to the final
stage of learning, where doing a flawless spin crescent kick
comes as naturally and as easily as working a toaster, but does
that matter? There is honor in hard work and you can take pride
in whatever level of skill you have achieved as long as you have
given your best during the journey. Think of all the people who
never dared to try the martial arts, and realize that while you
may never be the next Bruce Lee, you have come a long way,
learned many things, and will always be better off than “those
cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat,” as
described in the immortal words of the great Teddy Roosevelt.
Thanks for your time and interest. I really enjoy working with
all of you and always look forward to seeing you at training!
Pilsung!
Mike Wood |
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