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Just recently I read a very interesting article written by Matt over at Ikigai blog in which he explained the subtle difference in meaning between the two Japanese words “shirimasu” and “wakarimasu”, both of which seek to convey the concept of understanding, with shirimasu conveying a shallow understanding and wakarimasu conveying a much deeper understanding. (For a full explanation of these terms, read Matt’s full article.)
In the comment I left after reading the article I explained my own thoughts on the subject and now I’d just like to elaborate on those thoughts because I think the whole idea of achieving a wakarimasu understanding is very important if you want to get really good as a martial artist.
Wrong Learning
First of though, let me explain the way most people learn the martial arts. In a recent issue of Martial Arts Illustrated, Peter Consterdine, a very experienced 8th Dan and self defence expert, wrote an article suggesting that most martial artists, especially those in the traditional arts, are learning things the wrong way. Why? Let me explain.
The nature of martial arts training (and traditional training especially) is that you join a dojo that is overseen by a high ranked Sensei/instructor and you basically enter into the training regime on the grounds that you must do everything the instructor tells you to do. You follow their every move and you do your best to replicate the instructor’s movements. You look at their posture and the shapes they make and it is your job as a student to try and replicate those. So in that context, being a good martial arts student means being a good mimic.
For most of my training career I was basically a mimic. I began in traditional karate training and I was bound by the many Japanese traditions that go along with it. In particular, I was bound by the early Japanese tradition of “do as I say and don’t question me”. The same ethos that still exists in many dojo’s across the world even today. You slavishly follow everything your instructor does and says and eventually you become a “qualified” martial artist.
I honestly thought that this was the only way to progress, by mimicking what others were doing without really questioning it. After all, the martial arts were many hundreds of years old and who was I to question what was right or wrong within such an established tradition?
But as it turned out, this form of learning held very deep limitations. If you had asked me why a technique worked or why it was done the way it is, I would have just shrugged my shoulders and replied, “Because that’s the way it’s done and that’s the way I’ve been taught.”
The Photocopy Revolution
The real problem with this kind of mimicry is that it just perpetuates what Peter Consterdine calls the “photocopy revolution”, were every succeeding generation of students become a carbon copy of their instructor. But just like with a real photocopier, each copy has a slightly poorer quality image than the last. This means that years down the line, what exists now in terms of technique and what it is taught to students, is very far removed (and in some cases completely removed) from the original source material.
By propagating the photocopy revolution students are not gaining the knowledge and insight that comes from having a deep understanding of the very techniques they are unthinkingly practicing. In order to have that essential knowledge a student must engage with the techniques much more, they must break each technique down into its component parts so that they fully understand the relationship between them all and why the technique works the way it does.
More importantly, by breaking down the techniques in this way, a student can see how they work in relation to their
Slavishly following someone else’s instructions constantly does not allow for this kind of learning. You have to be able to question what you are being taught in order to fully understand what you are being taught and make it your own. Copying the movements of someone more skilled than you is a part of the learning process, but only a part of it. If we don’t pick the techniques apart and understand why they work on an intellectual level then all we end up with is empty movements.
It is sad to say that a lot of martial artists around today practice only empty movements. There is no intellectual content or understanding behind any of it.
Perhaps this a symptom of today’s shallow society, but more likely it is because they were never taught right and because they never took it upon themselves to seek out the knowledge they needed to become truly expert in what they do.
This kind of training in empty movements can be seen clearly in the way a lot of martial artists approach self defense. They think that because they have been taught a certain technique and because they have been told by their instructor (who quite often has no street experience to back them up) that it works, then it must therefore work. Even though there is much evidence out there now that goes against this kind of training, people still do it because they don’t think outside the box.
The Challenge of Retraining
These days I am always in the process of retraining myself and learning things the right way this time around. I’m not saying all those years of training were a waste of time, they weren’t, but I have picked up some bad habits and I have since realised that I have to take things to a whole new level in order to achieve the level of proficiency that I really want.
It’s a certainly a challenge, having to retrain yourself and I find it very difficult sometimes even admitting that the way I do some things is wrong. It’s also a lot of hard work intellectually having to break down techniques and see why they work and how each movement relates to the last.
But this is what we have to do if we want to become masters of our art. We have to look deeper, we have to question things more and we just plain have to put the work in, which means drilling and drilling things over and over until you get them right and until you really understand how and why they work.
This is especially true if we are going to teach others martial arts. You need that authority that comes from really knowing your stuff otherwise you will have little or no credibility and lack of credibility is disastrous if you want to teach.
So as Matt said in his article, you have to keep striving for that deeper level of understanding in order to develop wakarimasu understanding. Without that level of understanding you will only be a mimic and never a true martial artist.
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