Why?

When we begin training in anything, we start by emulating our teacher. My teacher tells me to blade my foot; I blade my foot. My teacher tells me to keep my guards up; I keep my guards up. I don’t necessarily understand why, I just do it because I want to progress. When it comes to keeping my guard up and protecting my groin, I am pretty adept at that because I have learned from painful experience why these things are important. Understanding why blading the foot in a side kick is a little more abstract of a concept and thus it requires more thought as well as experience.

Mastery is never easy, it requires consistent effort and action. Not everyone is willing to put in what it takes to achieve mastery and many people training in the martial arts never get beyond a basic black belt level in their art because they never pursue beyond the whats to get to the whys.

The answer to the question ‘Why?’ is the difference between knowledge and skill. The difference between skill and mastery is a person’s drive to pursue that answer.

“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.” - Henry Ford (1863 - 1947)