I remember as a Go-kyu that my sparring was suddenly good for that level. I was really making it work on the dojo floor. One session a few weeks later I got up, stepped onto the dojo floor and nothing worked. I couldn't make even the simplest of technique work. I slipped, I forgot and sometimes I could see the move coming but I stood there and got clipped. I was as bad as the first time I started to one-step spar practice.
What is going on here? Learning plateaus, that is what is going on here. I have hit those walls frequently over the time of my practice. In the beginning I almost quit it hurt so much, the ego that is. That first time went on for a while then like when it began I stepped up to the dojo floor and whoa, things got real frosty. I apparently exceeded my previous levels and ability. It was like my mind and body forced time to pass so it could encode or contemplate or whatever my subconscious was doing so I could actually learn and grow.
The learning plateaus taught me that there is a method to nature's madness and that all things have their own time and place. There are intervals that are a part of nature and nature is not going to let you bypass them to get to the good stuff.
Tiger Wood goes through this and it is obvious but then one sudden day it all falls into place and he is off the charts. This is what you will do as well. Recently I got an email from a fledgling black belt - Sho-dan. Who had been there for only about a year. He mentioned he was thinking of quitting as he couldn't find any more. I made some suggestions and I hope he made it past his learning plateaus - hopefully.
Your breathing, good. You get a cold and breathing becomes labored and a strain. You wait it out, do what you need to do and then the cold is gone and all things are right with the world - same thing but different.
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