Learning Martial Arts

Why does someone begin to train in Martial Arts? I suspect that some at least are looking for an answer to being attacked or bullied even, or perhaps they want to feel powerful.

Well there is no answer, no magic bullet, there is only training and consequentially learning. Learning to acquire more skills and more learning to hone those skills.

Miyamoto Musashi, Samurai swordsman and author of the book: “The Five Rings” said that learning the sword took a 1000 cuts and 10,000 cuts to refine the skill.

I suspect this applies to all learning no matter what the skill and during that process we discover many other things. It’s like the layers of the onion. As you peel away one layer so another layer is revealed.

There is an interesting thing that happens during the perseverance of learning a skill, continually applying ourselves, at first we progress quite noticeably and we can experience that progression.

Later our learning seems to slow down, doubts creep in and we are in danger of losing our motivation. We seem to plateau out in the learning process and wonder if there is any more to learn or perhaps we begin to think that we are not capable and this is not for us.

This is a crucial place in the learning process and is where we need to continue on the path and even apply ourselves even more. If we don’t then our abilities begin to decline and we find ourselves on a downward path.

Continue to practice and look for ways to help yourself in the learning process. There is learning and there is learning how to learn. Strategies that can be used such as how you observe and listen to instructions, monitor what you are telling yourself and only compare yourself to yourself.

Many people demotivate themselves by comparing where they are to an expert or champion and make themselves feel bad because they see themselves so far away from that level of skill.

All learning is state dependant. How you feel will determine how well you learn. In my business as a Coach, https://paddybergin.co.uk, I teach people various ways to put themselves into positive and resourceful states that will enhance their learning and performance abilities and these strategies can be learnt very easily and in a short space of time.

Going back to Martial Arts, in my experience, those who are committed to continuous learning and practice don’t learn those Arts to fight, they learn them so as not to have to fight.

Remember it is never too late to learn anything you want to.

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