I personally believe there's subtle but important differences between education, training, and practice. For example, you may have gone to a school, university, or academy of some sort for a certain field to gain education allowing you to be qualified for a task or job or career. This education is mainly intellectual - understanding the subject and its context. Training on the other hand is mainly physical and gets your mind and body used to and familiar with the task or job as well as the environment. However, practice is what makes all this education and training second nature. As I have been taught, it's not practice that makes perfect but perfect practice that makes perfect.
This past weekend I attended a three-part series of workshops held at my martial arts school (Plum Blossom Academy) and these classes were taught by my Shigong (Master Puyot). I learned the 七手 (Seven Hands) form of 八步螳螂拳 (Eight Step Mantis Boxing), gun disarms, and lastly the basics of the 燕青刀 (Yan Qing Dao/Saber). The combination of Master Puyot's and Master Brown's (my shifu) efforts to train and educate me and the others on the context, form, and applications of material contributed to these workshops being very enjoyable and educational for me. Seven hands are an enjoyable insight into a different flavor of fighting, however many of the movements were familiar. The gun disarms I felt were very practical and simple - having had a gun pointed at me and having been shot at in the past, the significance of having these in my "toolkit" was obvious to me. Lastly the dao was a very fun exercise. As some of you may know, I have liked machetes since 3rd grade and used and played with machetes extensively since age 16. The Chinese dao (of which there are many varieties) can vary from a large machete-like blade to a proper saber. While I already had some basics in wielding machetes, the workshop really helped me improve my holes that I had not previously realized were there. I learned many things this past Saturday and have taken notes (as always) to allow me to record things I learned and remember nuances I would've forgotten. And then, of course, practice them...
Ah, practice... That is the main part of mastering anything. You can know something, and be familiar with it, but if it is not ingrained, it will never be a part of you. Now... with even more on my plate... I need to drill in everything as perfectly as possible. As my teachers have said, "fast as you can, slow as you must".
For those following the blog, I've upload a video of me performing the Seven Hands form. Remember however, I am new to it, and I still consider myself pretty lousy at it. For those reading this that study with me, maybe you can tear apart what I am doing and improve your own training. For those seeking to copy me, bad idea. 1, I'm not too good yet, and 2 copying a form, a choreographed fight-scene, or a shadowboxing routine is a very different thing than knowing how to use its techniques in combat.
...and it's about time to sleep. G'night ya'll..
