Learning to Learn

As he was about to test for a new rank, one of the students in kids class expressed his frustration to me about how once he got a new rank, he’s have to learn a new kata. It had taken him over half the year to get the first one down, and now he had to do it all again? He had concerns.

 

Cut to just a few weeks later, and he said to me, “I think I almost have it down! It’s easier than the first one!” 

 

Objectively, he wasn’t quite correct. The first kata is all basics, while the second kata has several new, more difficult techniques. 

 

However, he wasn’t wrong either, and his comments made me reflect on why, for many folks including him, learning second kata IS easier or faster. 

 

My theory is that it feels easier because as you’re learning first kata, you’re also learning another, even more important skill: You’re learning how to learn karate. And as you learn how to learn, it makes learning easier.

 

Any discipline has certain elements it comes back to over and over — the pointed feet and elegant posture of ballet, for example, or the proper hand positioning for a potter at the wheel. Just so, karate has certain stances, a focus on using the core, a way of holding yourself, a mindset that’s part of doing a kata well. Memorizing "downblock, punch, downblock punch” in that opening sequence of first kata is also about memorizing what it feels like to get a downblock stance nicely stable, and how to use the hips to make the turns work, etc. etc.

 

When you’re paying attention to all of those things, you’re accumulating knowledge about how karate works on a larger scale. You’re gaining knowledge in your body of how moves feel when they are working correctly. You’ll start to recognize elements of what’s going on to help you figure out the stuff that’s still missing for you.

 

All of that takes a lot of time and energy! And going back to the student’s comments at the top, once you do have some of this stuff figured out, it makes the process of getting the next kata down feel faster and easier.