Knowledge does NOT equal skill.
That is one of the basic tenants of the Mother Tongue Approach to learning from pioneer educator and violin instructor, Dr Shinichi Suzuki. Indeed, most of the major building blocks of the Suzuki Method translate directly to the martial arts and for that matter, most anything you want to learn well. A phrase that I naively thought I had coined in the mid 1980's, "Practice does not make Perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.", I come to find out Dr Suzuki had written down decades earlier. (I did add "if you practice a technique that is incorrect, you will do it perfectly incorrect all the time. He was more succinct. He said, "Practice makes Permanent". And so it does!)
I thought of that quote about knowledge a couple of weeks ago at class. There was a young black belt there (under 15 yrs.), 2nd degree, that was obviously very intelligent. For some reason, people have been conditioned to believe that the faster you move through the ranks, the better, more skillful that makes you. Which is one of the problems with using the point system for advancement. Many students are advanced (moved forward) beyond their skill levels (I've got the points, I'm ready to move up). That is very faulty logic. I have also found that most forms done super fast hide defficient technique. Ok, I have strayed, getting back to the young 2nd degree... being intelligent, he had quickly memorized the sequence of strikes and blocks and moves for each belt but had not spent the time to refine those moves (there's that "r" word again!). What resulted was painful to watch and worrisome because this lad was also an instructor. Even worse, I felt that my instructions to him were going in one ear and out the other. (Barely a "SUN" peeped out of him.)
I'll end with a Suzuki quote which continues on the theme...
"Ability is developed when we STUDY a piece AFTER we can play it with no mistakes."
Mull on that for a while.
TcB
Sun Martial Arts Blog With Hosts: Master Tim Baker, Master Dave Pryga, and Mr. Matt Dowds
3 comments:
Well Master Crane I see where you're coming from, however the problem lies in that if you put 10 different Martial Arts practitioners in a room, you might get 10 different opinions on what is "perfect". I feel that like beauty, perfection is a very personal thing. Something you and I may view as "perfect" may seem incorrect to another person.
Regarding the point system:
If students are being advanced without knowing the required material, we need to see who reccommended them for promotion and correct the problem there. I realize its different at your school because of the many, many different Instructors, but the reccommendation system is the fail safe isn't it?
Hopefully the young BB student you described will continue his training as he matures. I'm confident that if he can keep hanging around guys like you, eventually something good will rub off on him.
As Master Rhee has told me in the past "The cream will rise to the top".
Agreed. I should have said, "technically" perfect or perhaps "correct" would have been a better term. While the flow and "personality" of the form is very subjective, the hand/foot positions, etc are generally not. It's sort of like being slightly off pitch, to everyone in the room who knows the piece it is obvious.
Yes, the young BB will be an excellent instructor with a little focus, (I certainly wasn't focused at 12!)
I thought about it more after I posted my last comment and realized you were probably referring to things like stances, hand and foot positions, etc. I totally agree on the concept that these need to be performed a certain way.
SUN!
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