Miscellanea
Last night at the club prompted a number of random thoughts so here they are in no particular order.....
Coaches dilemma number one - the mathematics of impatience: if you ask a group to practice two techniques in order, where the second is incrementally harder than the other, within five minutes 100% of the class will be practising the harder technique despite only 30% of them being actually able to do it and 90% of the 70% (are you still with me?) will be getting it completely wrong. I appreciate that improvement is in fact the point of practice but so many people it seems want to get an instant fix, to do the 'exciting stuff' rather than the boring old basics. Maybe it's symptomatic of our impatient all access society where anything you want is just a click away but at the end of the day it's the basics that will build ability and accomplishment. Ignore them and you'll probably plateau out sooner rather than later. Never mind the compound attack with fleche my friend; just try holding your foil correctly first.... Basics + practice + commitment x time = improvement and satisfaction.
"What would Musashi have done"? My compatriot Jai asked me this last night in respect of an opponent with a long reach. My instinctive answer was "He'd have cut his arms off". Initially this was meant as mere badinage but upon further consideration and bearing in mind Musashi always encouraged taking away an opponent's advantage......... it's probably not far off!
Staying calm. One of my fights was a close affair but I'd finally got into a 13-11 leading position. Normally I would have tried to win from there, but I'm pleased to say that for a change I remembered to encourage my opponent to lose instead.
Is there such a thing as a good 15-5 defeat? Sometimes there is, particularly if you had previously felt that four points would be nice and it was a very intelligent fight with ruses, counter-ruses and counter-counter ruses. Mmmmm.... chess with swords....
Contentment is.... being on the piste, not thinking about work, budgets, meetings but wondering how to deceive that engagement of sixte that is probably a trap. Followed by sitting piste-side, pleasurably knackered, exchanging war stories and advice.
Coaches dilemma number one - the mathematics of impatience: if you ask a group to practice two techniques in order, where the second is incrementally harder than the other, within five minutes 100% of the class will be practising the harder technique despite only 30% of them being actually able to do it and 90% of the 70% (are you still with me?) will be getting it completely wrong. I appreciate that improvement is in fact the point of practice but so many people it seems want to get an instant fix, to do the 'exciting stuff' rather than the boring old basics. Maybe it's symptomatic of our impatient all access society where anything you want is just a click away but at the end of the day it's the basics that will build ability and accomplishment. Ignore them and you'll probably plateau out sooner rather than later. Never mind the compound attack with fleche my friend; just try holding your foil correctly first.... Basics + practice + commitment x time = improvement and satisfaction.
"What would Musashi have done"? My compatriot Jai asked me this last night in respect of an opponent with a long reach. My instinctive answer was "He'd have cut his arms off". Initially this was meant as mere badinage but upon further consideration and bearing in mind Musashi always encouraged taking away an opponent's advantage......... it's probably not far off!
Staying calm. One of my fights was a close affair but I'd finally got into a 13-11 leading position. Normally I would have tried to win from there, but I'm pleased to say that for a change I remembered to encourage my opponent to lose instead.
Is there such a thing as a good 15-5 defeat? Sometimes there is, particularly if you had previously felt that four points would be nice and it was a very intelligent fight with ruses, counter-ruses and counter-counter ruses. Mmmmm.... chess with swords....
Contentment is.... being on the piste, not thinking about work, budgets, meetings but wondering how to deceive that engagement of sixte that is probably a trap. Followed by sitting piste-side, pleasurably knackered, exchanging war stories and advice.
posted by Dave at
3:08 PM
2 Comments:
Do you tell your students how long time they have to practise the two techniques? Otherwise I think it is quite natural that one proceeds to no 2 as soon as one think one has a grasp of no 1. And then one just gets stuck there, because it is more difficult and one doesn't get it.
Hi Kontakt, thanks for posting. A truly interesting point and all part of the dilemma. In theory, they could have the rest of their lives, but any lesson always imposes an artificial time constraint. Maybe the answer is simply to teach one thing and teach it well, allowing adequate practice time.....
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