Practice makes perfect, right?
Wrong. Practice makes wrong even more reinforced!
Perfect practice makes perfect! If you practice, practice and practice some more but you don’t practice a move correctly, all you’ve done learned it even more incorrectly. Get correction and find out how to do it right. You can practice it a thousand times wrong but it’s still wrong.
I’ve been teaching Shotokan Karate for almost 25 yrs and training for over 30 yrs but I still read books, check manuals and occasionally look at boobtube. I’ve gone to countless training seminars to learn moves and techniques that will be beneficial to me and my students. I’m constantly trying to learn new things but I want to learn them from someone who knows the right way to do it.
I’ve told students to pay attention too many times to even begin to count. If you truly want to learn, then you should strive to never have those words said to you.
Be a video recorder. Pay close attention and try to make a mental recording of the right way to do things. MAKE IT IMPORTANT!
Watch the best students in class. Try to discern which one is more correct. Watch your Sensei when he’s demonstrating the correct method. Get personal instruction to work out the problem areas. If there are any extra training offered, never miss.
Once you’ve determined the correct method to do something, practice that method till it pushes the bad method out of your brain. In other words relearn that method.
Anyone who is truly great at anything will use some semblance of these ideas. The best athletes in the world have multiple instructors, video themselves and constantly analyze themselves to see what they are doing right and what what they are doing wrong. The difference between good athletes and great athletes is that the great ones practice the corrections till they do it perfect.
Written by:
Perry Culver 6th degree black belt / Shotokan Karate
Chief Instructor of Culver Karate – Connellsville Pa
724-626-KICK (5425)
