TRADITION AND DISCOVERY

 by Phillip Starr

Consider the most notable names of the traditional martial artists of times past and how long they actually trained under their teachers. You'll find that many of them spent only a few years at the feet of of their venerable instructors. How did they learn so much after training with them for only a few years? Is such a thing possible?

I'll bet a month's wages that many of you will answer with something like, “Well, they must have had a special talent for learning martial arts. This is how they were able to assimilate so much knowledge and skill in such a short time.” And for the most part, you're wrong. Sure, a handful of them may have had natural ability and they may have been able to learn physical movements much faster than the average student. But many of them expressed a deep spiritual understanding of their respective disciplines and this isn't something that can be handed down from teacher to student in a short time. So, after training with their teachers for such a limited time, how did they do it?

Quite simply, they took the initiative; they didn't wait for, nor did they expect, the teacher to “spoon feed” them, as it were. Rather, they realized that they had to learn how to learn. And you must do the same. This will require some considerable effort on your part but it is essential if you are to continue to progress.

After all, there will come a day when you and your teacher part company. This may be due to one or both of you moving away or perhaps your teacher will shuffle off this mortal coil. Maybe he will finally tell you, “I have no new forms to teach you, no more techniques. Now you must learn how to learn.” And you are left to stand on your own. At this point, some students begin to make changes; they change the forms they've struggled to learn. Some students feel that they aren't all that important and they eliminate some or perhaps all of them. They alter techniques. They feel that they've become “adults” in the martial arts world and they can do as they please. I was certainly guilty of this in my younger years.

But life and time are persistent, unmerciful teachers; sometimes subtle and sometimes more than a little forthright. To those who pay attention, they beget wisdom. Eventually, the student begins to more fully understand what his teacher taught him...and much of what he taught was not readily apparent. Even now, at my advanced age, I occasionally stumble across a nugget of information tucked away in a movement of one of my forms or perhaps in a single technique and I realize that my teacher had alluded to this inconspicuous but profound principle many years ago! And finding that single piece of information often paves the way to further discoveries! When this began to happen to me, I realized that this is how we learn; this is how our teachers continue to teach us long after we have parted company.