When does learning really start?

[DWx]

I think you do learn from day one but that the type of learning you do changes. White belts learn to copy and just to place their arms and legs in position but I think more advanced grades learn to understand why and start to be able to learn to apply. I think by blackbelt people learn to learn on their own and are more independant in what they spend their time doing. They don't need their instructor to spoonfeed them as such as they can go away and should know what they could do to generate more power etc. In my experience, once you get to blackbelt you have time to pull yourself away from a set syllabus and to start adapting the techniques to create your own personal style. For me when I started everything was like you had this punch for this angle and this kick for that etc. but once you start to really learn the techniques you learn yourself where and when they can be applied and how to set yourself up for that move and the learning process is so much more about you discovering stuff for yourself.

[bushido_man96]

These are all great thoughts, everyone. Thanks for contributing thus far.

Now, I would like to add a twist to this. Most of us responding in this thread spend out time practicing a Martial Art that uses a rank system; therefore, we have this black belt-realtion-to-learning analogy. Now, lets take the rank away, and talk about it this way: what about styles without rank, like Wrestling, Boxing, Muay Thai, etc, where there is no rank to suggest something of this nature? How and when would you describe that some more of this "deeper learning" begins to take place?

[tallgeese]

I think the easy answer is when the student starts to move beyond mere technique and begins to think in the stratagy of his game.

I think, seeing that most of these arts you mentioned are competitive in nature, it happens when a trainee really begins to fight in the ring. It's this kind of thing that really synthises what you've been working on in the gym.

I'm not making a statment about the worth of competition or anything. Just noting that arts that revolve around competive aspects tend to find their greatest application when they are used in that manner.

[tori]

I think learning occurs everytime you go to class. However, I do believe that my true learning began after I started teaching. That may sound weird, but I paid attention more closely to how my instructor was teaching and made sure I was practicing consistently to better myself and my own teaching skills.

[bushido_man96]

I'm not making a statment about the worth of competition or anything. Just noting that arts that revolve around competive aspects tend to find their greatest application when they are used in that manner.

I think that there is a lot of truth to this statement. When you begin fighting, you have the lessons that have been taught to you, but you also learn that what was good for someone else, may not work as well for you, too.

I do believe that my true learning began after I started teaching. That may sound weird, but I paid attention more closely to how my instructor was teaching and made sure I was practicing consistently to better myself and my own teaching skills.

There is a lot of truth here, too. When you begin to teach, you have to learn different ways of relating the things you learned to others. Not everyone learns the same way, either. It is important to be able to take different approaches to teaching the same things, even if they are the most basic of things.

Edited July 8, 2008 by bushido_man96

[Rateh]

Honestly in 11 years I have never felt like I was truely learning more than any other time. I learn different things, and I catch on more quickly to new things because of experience, but I've never felt that I was learning any deeper or more real than when I started, I just know more.

[bushido_man96]

Well put, Rateh. That is kind of how I feel as well. You get your foundation in basics and whatnot, and then everything builds from there. Getting a good start, a good beginning, is so important to the rest of the journey.