HOMEWORK

 by Phillip Starr

When many of us attend our martial arts class we are excited about the prospect of learning something new but we fail to realize that if we don't do our “homework”, our progress will be slowed considerably. If the instructor teaches something new, it will probably take up only a fraction of the time spent in class, which is mostly a review and polishing of material already learned. And during the time spent on review, the teacher can very readily assess just who has done his/her homework and how well.

The time we spend at home reviewing and honing material we've already learned needn't be as boring or sterile as the homework we had to do in school. I always looked at that as being about as interesting as watching paint dry. Doing your martial arts homework is a time for exploring, digging, and discovery. By taking the time to do it (and yes, that includes repetition of basic techniques and forms), you learn how to learn and this will be a critical skill when comes the day that your instructor is no longer readily available for class.

My gong-fu teacher knew perfectly well that improvement of techniques and forms could not be achieved if students practiced them only in class. He KNEW who had and hadn't been doing their homework and those who'd been skipping it were held back in their training. This often disappointed and even angered them, but sifu Chen knew that they simply hadn't yet developed the actual physical and/or mental skills necessary for moving forward. He said that they weren't truly serious about their training. And he was right.

Real skill isn't developed in class. It's developed outside of class. Some martial arts practitioners of arts such as judo, aikido, kendo, and other methods that involve training with a partner sometimes try to argue that it's pointless to try to train at home without a partner.

Nonsense. It's always possible to train “dry-run” (solo, without a partner) and doing so allows you to focus on pertinent aspects of your art, such as posture, footwork, breathing, correct placement of the hands and arms, and so on. When a partner is present, you often fail to really focus on these important points. Without a partner, there is no pressure on you to succeed in doing/finishing the technique. You can focus on more minute aspects of the art.

A good martial arts teacher won't “spoon feed” everything; he knows that many things mean so much more to you if and when you discover them for yourself. What he isn't showing you is as important as what he does teach openly. But you'll find these things if you do your homework!