Practice or Confidence?

[Hawkmoon]

In your opinion...

What's more important? Practice or Confidence?

I'd say...Confidence! Even if you practice a lot, if you lack confidence, all of that practice is pointless. Don't misunderstand me, practice is extremely important to any MAist who's serious about their MA training. I believe that one's confidence must be able to be able to drive the practice effectively.

Your thoughts!!??

As an MA student the warrior in my says both in equal amounts. 50/50

The westerner that I am says defiantly both, with more confidence then practice 60/40 kind of thing!

Being a university student years ago, visiting different pubs and clubs says experience!

Consider: (no not me just my observations)

A drunk feels no pain, and as a result has oodles and oodles of confidence, and to boot he has absolutely no ability! he is after all drunk!

Likewise, some have been to that 'party' a few times and have a measure of ability accordingly.

If you are not a threat, is that confidence or experience?

or

project a massive (and believed) superiority persona, is that confidence or arrogance?

To me, the only difference between confidence and arrogance is the view of the audience in the arena stands, the spectators in the crowd calling for blood, the police when they do arrive!

I'd say both in equal measure, but will add, both are worthless if you have no experience to use as a guide!

[sensei8]

Some solid posts, all!!

The only true way to answer my question was to be perfectly honest with oneself; therefore, the answer will be a personal choice. Your thoughts are correct because they're your belief; warranted through and through!! I will not try to dissuade or persuade one way or another because I believe that that might muddle self-expression.

No!

I will, however, briefly defend, thereby, explain my reasons why I opted with "Confidence", and not "Practice".

First off, without practice your ship will already be tattered and battered; it will sink at the sign of the first storm. A MAist that doesn't practice is against him/herself before the journey ever begins; a stalled car is of not much use.

Without practice, the dullness of ones techniques will not reach its luster. Albeit, not one technique will be as effective, if at all, as a polished technique can provide. Practicing, for a MAist, is as crucial as air is to sustain life; without practice, the MAist technique would die, as assuredly as you and I would if we had no air to breath.

No. To a MAist, practice is vitally important in the scope of effectiveness! Not all of the trees bend with the most gusty wind; its roots won't permit or allow it!!

Even if you practice a lot, if you lack confidence, all of that practice is pointless. Don't misunderstand me, practice is extremely important to any MAist who's serious about their MA training. I believe that one's confidence must be able to drive the practice effectively.

Why?

You're afraid of your enemies!!

Not difficult to imagine, or to realize because confidence comforts the practitioner who has practiced diligently day in and day out. To take a journey, I must first decide to take that first step, and in taking that first step, I must decide to walk that mile, and in that, I must make a conscientious effort to put one foot in front of another, so on and so forth. That, to me, speaks about confidence in an overall viewpoint.

We will fail, we will fault, we will stumble, we will fall!! But, what we do directly after that, speaks about courage and integrity. Will we get up, dust ourselves off, raise our heads, and strive forward in our moment of despair? If not, then, by all of the forces of nature, don't ever try in anything. However, if your make-up is to bolt rightward immediately after one has stubbed their toe without a pause, that too, speaks about the confidence that one's needed as a MAist.

If you've practiced day in and day out with the fever that's needed to excel in any given MA, but you've not the confidence to apply what you've learned and practiced on the floor, then by all the rain that has fallen and will fall, take up some other endeavor that's more befitting to ones stature.

One learns and practices for the purpose of one to defend, yet, when the chips fall, one doesn't have the confidence to execute; possibly because that unknown fear is too much to shy away from. Draw the shoulder back and strive forward effectively with what ones learnt and practiced as though their live depended on it...it just might.

It just might!!

Having all of the confidence in the world must be guarded so that one can, and will, avoid the negativity of all of the traps that will try to rob the MAist at the moment of truth. Cockiness and arrogance, to name just a few, should never accompany one on their journey because they rob one of what's pure and true. Confidence is just that, and it should be just that. Anything else negates everything learnt and practiced on the floor!!

Mizu No Kokoro, and Tsuki No Kokoro are maxims found in many MA's. They speak about fruitful results, and not about things that are unfruitful. Mizu No Kokoro, Mind Like the Water, speaks about one keeping their minds settled, albeit, calm so much so that water, when look upon, is as though the water was like glass. The mind, like the water, is calm and undisturbed, unbendable to the forces that surround them. Tsuki No Kokoro, Mind Like the Moon, speaks about one keeping their minds clear, albeit, uncluttered so much so that the moon can be perfectly reflected off the calm water. But, like a cloudy night, a clear reflection is disturbed and prevented from perceiving clearly as it should be. Lacking either creates that pause, as a pause, defeat is birthed!!

These concepts are where, for that very moment, is where effective applied knowledge is born and experienced, yet, it was birthed on the floor during practice, and given that exclamation point of confidence to study your opponent, study yourself, make a plan, and carry that plan out...no matter the outcome might or might not be.

Experience, imho, only provides support to confidence; they're in concert of one another!! Experience and knowledge are things that are acquired in good time, and they're not to be rushed or mocked. Nonetheless, not placed upon a mantle as though they're more important that anything else learnt and practiced through confidence. But, imho, having the confidence to fit every single piece into their MA puzzle is needed before anything else can be. Pieces laid out meticulously and neatly before one in an orderly fashion will now need the practice in putting these pieces in their respective places, but in order to do that, having the confidence in picking up the first piece in tantamount, if not paramount to the MAist.

"You will not survive the night, if you don't first have the confidence to face the darkness" ~ Dai-Soke Yoshinobu Takahashi

[Archimoto]

Some solid posts, all!!

The only true way to answer my question was to be perfectly honest with oneself; therefore, the answer will be a personal choice. Your thoughts are correct because they're your belief; warranted through and through!! I will not try to dissuade or persuade one way or another because I believe that that might muddle self-expression.

No!

I will, however, briefly defend, thereby, explain my reasons why I opted with "Confidence", and not "Practice".

First off, without practice your ship will already be tattered and battered; it will sink at the sign of the first storm. A MAist that doesn't practice is against him/herself before the journey ever begins; a stalled car is of not much use.

Without practice, the dullness of ones techniques will not reach its luster. Albeit, not one technique will be as effective, if at all, as a polished technique can provide. Practicing, for a MAist, is as crucial as air is to sustain life; without practice, the MAist technique would die, as assuredly as you and I would if we had no air to breath.

No. To a MAist, practice is vitally important in the scope of effectiveness! Not all of the trees bend with the most gusty wind; its roots won't permit or allow it!!

Even if you practice a lot, if you lack confidence, all of that practice is pointless. Don't misunderstand me, practice is extremely important to any MAist who's serious about their MA training. I believe that one's confidence must be able to drive the practice effectively.

Why?

You're afraid of your enemies!!

Not difficult to imagine, or to realize because confidence comforts the practitioner who has practiced diligently day in and day out. To take a journey, I must first decide to take that first step, and in taking that first step, I must decide to walk that mile, and in that, I must make a conscientious effort to put one foot in front of another, so on and so forth. That, to me, speaks about confidence in an overall viewpoint.

We will fail, we will fault, we will stumble, we will fall!! But, what we do directly after that, speaks about courage and integrity. Will we get up, dust ourselves off, raise our heads, and strive forward in our moment of despair? If not, then, by all of the forces of nature, don't ever try in anything. However, if your make-up is to bolt rightward immediately after one has stubbed their toe without a pause, that too, speaks about the confidence that one's needed as a MAist.

If you've practiced day in and day out with the fever that's needed to excel in any given MA, but you've not the confidence to apply what you've learned and practiced on the floor, then by all the rain that has fallen and will fall, take up some other endeavor that's more befitting to ones stature.

One learns and practices for the purpose of one to defend, yet, when the chips fall, one doesn't have the confidence to execute; possibly because that unknown fear is too much to shy away from. Draw the shoulder back and strive forward effectively with what ones learnt and practiced as though their live depended on it...it just might.

It just might!!

Having all of the confidence in the world must be guarded so that one can, and will, avoid the negativity of all of the traps that will try to rob the MAist at the moment of truth. Cockiness and arrogance, to name just a few, should never accompany one on their journey because they rob one of what's pure and true. Confidence is just that, and it should be just that. Anything else negates everything learnt and practiced on the floor!!

Mizu No Kokoro, and Tsuki No Kokoro are maxims found in many MA's. They speak about fruitful results, and not about things that are unfruitful. Mizu No Kokoro, Mind Like the Water, speaks about one keeping their minds settled, albeit, calm so much so that water, when look upon, is as though the water was like glass. The mind, like the water, is calm and undisturbed, unbendable to the forces that surround them. Tsuki No Kokoro, Mind Like the Moon, speaks about one keeping their minds clear, albeit, uncluttered so much so that the moon can be perfectly reflected off the calm water. But, like a cloudy night, a clear reflection is disturbed and prevented from perceiving clearly as it should be. Lacking either creates that pause, as a pause, defeat is birthed!!

These concepts are where, for that very moment, is where effective applied knowledge is born and experienced, yet, it was birthed on the floor during practice, and given that exclamation point of confidence to study your opponent, study yourself, make a plan, and carry that plan out...no matter the outcome might or might not be.

Experience, imho, only provides support to confidence; they're in concert of one another!! Experience and knowledge are things that are acquired in good time, and they're not to be rushed or mocked. Nonetheless, not placed upon a mantle as though they're more important that anything else learnt and practiced through confidence. But, imho, having the confidence to fit every single piece into their MA puzzle is needed before anything else can be. Pieces laid out meticulously and neatly before one in an orderly fashion will now need the practice in putting these pieces in their respective places, but in order to do that, having the confidence in picking up the first piece in tantamount, if not paramount to the MAist.

"You will not survive the night, if you don't first have the confidence to face the darkness" ~ Dai-Soke Yoshinobu Takahashi

***warning: prepare to bob and weave! Playing devil's advocate so a sneaky overhand right is on the way! ***

A solid post indeed!!! Buuuuut, PRACTICE builds CONFIDENCE, does it not? If so, why not pick practice? 'Tis the path that leads to both. No?

[sensei8]

***warning: prepare to bob and weave! Playing devil's advocate so a sneaky overhand right is on the way! ***

A solid post indeed!!! Buuuuut, PRACTICE builds CONFIDENCE, does it not? If so, why not pick practice? 'Tis the path that leads to both. No?

As I've said before, all answers to my opening post are correct because they're what one believes!!

Imho...

Practice can't exist without confidence!! Through confidence, one can practice what they've been taught, and in that, these two actions are in concert with one another. Without confidence, practice will suffer in its quality.

[Archimoto]

It's an interesting question that you asked. No wrong answer, just lots of good contemplation.

[sensei8]

Contemplation is a good thing; discoveries are born!