Repetition is useful. Necessary, even.

But repetition can also make things feel predictable.

Sometimes the real lesson begins when something doesn’t happen quite the way we practiced it.

We are often quick to judge a stance, guard, technique or training method as good or bad. But without knowing the context, that judgment may not tell us very much. Sometimes the better question is simply: works for what?

Someone recently mentioned practicing karate kata with weapons.

I have no problem with exploring that.

What I question is the next step, where being able to make a weapon fit the movements becomes evidence that the kata was originally intended for one.

Those are two very different things.

Cooperation helps us learn. Resistance shows us what remains when things stop going according to plan.

If someone suddenly pushes you off balance, your body doesn’t stop to build the correct stance. It simply tries to keep you upright.

Perhaps there is something worth remembering in that when we train.

Hard training has its place. But a test should give the student something they can actually learn from. Sanchin testing can involve pressure, resistance and impact. But if the student is simply standing there taking harder and harder strikes, what exactly are we testing?

Mawashi geri is everywhere in modern karate, but not in the older kata.

That does not mean it doesn’t work.

Perhaps it means karate was solving a different problem.

We often talk about seeing openings. Sometimes, though, you feel them first. That may be one of the most useful lessons kakie has to offer.

Cross-training can be extremely valuable, but timing matters. Before we can really benefit from other methods, we need enough experience to understand what we are looking at and why it may differ from what we already know.

Still correcting myself after over fifty years of karate. If that sounds discouraging, it isn’t, it’s the whole point. The day you stop adjusting is the day you stop training.