The Importance of Developing the Subconscious Mind in the Martial Arts
For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been learning to drive standard. Having driven automatic cars for over 16 years, it’s a difficult transition. This learning process is an excellent analogy for learning a martial art.
My first time driving standard was the worst. I was told exactly what to do to get the car in first gear, but ended up over-revving the engine, or worse, under-revving it, causing it either to clunk awkwardly into gear or stall it out. Making the transition between any gear requires a fine touch, letting out the clutch slowly while giving it just the right amount of gas. It took every ounce of my focus and I still screwed it up half the time.
“This seems dangerous! How am I supposed to concentrate on the road when it’s taking all my focus just to shift gears?” I frustratedly asked Chris, who was teaching me.
“That’s why we’re starting in a parking lot,” he smiled. “Once you get comfortable shifting gears, you won’t need to think about it. You’ll even be able to improvise creative shifts in emergencies.”
It was then that I realized how similar the learning process was to that of the martial arts. When you first learn a complex technique from a martial art, you use your conscious mind to walk your body through the motions. It’s awkward and slow. It takes all your focus because your conscious mind can’t think of more than one thing at a time and there are multiple technical points that make it work. People naturally wonder how the technique is effective. At that level, it’s not, of course.
The longer you practice the technique, the more you develop your muscle memory, which is governed by your subconscious mind. When you don’t have to actively think to do a technique, your reaction time is instantaneous and your body even starts to be able to improvise adaptations for different but similar defensive situations. And that’s when it really becomes fun.
Chris told me the same thing about driving standard; that when you can do it without thought, it becomes really fun. It’s hard to imagine how moving a stick around for the sole purpose of changing gears could ever be considered “fun,” but I can at least see a light at the end of the tunnel that is my frustrating learning process.
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I just find that it gives my hand something to do whilst I drive =D
Interestingly put and very true. When you get to that standard when you can move without thinking about it, training does become fun but very t. When two experienced grapplers spar, it is great to see how they both transition and scramble. As many people say, it does become similar to a chess match.
Exactly like a chess match. It ends when one person makes a mistake.