The different sides of learning

Last night at the salle I saw examples of the good side of learning and the bad side. One of the things that reflected the good side of the whole learning experience was one of my students who got a bit frustrated that she couldn't master a certain aspect of technique. Whilst frustrating to the person experiencing it, this is actually a good thing. As I have mentioned before in this blog, it is much better to be aware of what you're doing wrong than be blissfully ignorant of it. If you know what needs correcting you can at least do something about it and move forward. Once you reach a certain stage learning becomes more difficult as it becomes much more incremental with fewer major break throughs and can feel very slow. However, it means that when the break through does occur it can be much more significant. Unfortunately I also saw the not so good side of fencing with a young fencer who had unfortunately developed the opinion that they had nothing more to learn and got in a sulk when coached in a different way to which they were used to. This is quite common when a person has not had enough involvement with a coach in the early stages of their development and can result in a bad experience for both student and coach when a new relationship is initiated. When a coach takes the time out to give an individual lesson it will work much better when the student is open minded enough to realise the coach is trying to help them in their development. Every fencer should be open to feedback if it is well intentioned. I have fallen into the trap of being convinced I knew all I needed to know in the past but now appreciate that there's always an opportunity to learn....