Diving deep

On the heels of the previous post, I wanted to see how such a thorough approach could help in one's own learning and training experience. Although at the first glance it may seem that a more or less scholarly approach to learning a martial/combative discipline is more theoretical than practical, it doesn't have to be. The thing is, on one's training journey it is very easy to fall into the trap of accumulating information, especially nowadays, i.e. going for breadth of research. However, we would all probably be much better going for depth. 

In practice it means seeking to really, truly get a hang of any chosen skill by putting it through the wringer of working on it through a series of filters and criteria, in order to figure out all of its advantages and shortcomings. It could be any specific skill/technique you want to work on, armed or unarmed, and you can find some good ideas and insights into the aforementioned filters and criteria in a book that I reviewed quite some time ago. 

Of course, the experience will be more fruitful with a systematic approach to the study, and choose the material so that you will not lack motivation to work on it. 

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So, this has been a short post, but could prove to be a very impactful one. Let me assure you, from personal experience, that if you undertake this sort of activity at least once in a while, it will propel you understanding and subsequently benefit both your learning and teaching endeavors.