Repetitive Practice

Hanpuku renshū [反復練習]

Deliberate Practice

Itotekina renshū [意図的な練習]

All to often upon hearing how senior practitioners of karate preach the religion of repetitive practice as ‘key’ to mastery of martial prowess I felt the need to explain that just repetitive practice will not get-r-done.

In truth, similar to calling karate in reality ‘practical karate’, we should call it, ‘deliberate practice’!

As quoted as follows:

“It doesn't matter what subject you teach, differences in students performance are affected by how much they engage in deliberate practice.” - Brabeck; Jeffrey; Fry

“Deliberate practice is not the same as rote repetition. Rote repetition — simply repeating a task — will not by itself improve performance. Deliberate practice involves attention, rehearsal and repetition and leads to new knowledge or skills that can later be developed into more complex knowledge and skills.” - Brabeck; Jeffrey; Fry

There are a variety of concepts connected to achieving so-called “mastery” of martial disciplines - especially as a defensive method for conflict and violence.

Just saying, this doesn’t mean repetitive practices are not beneficial because they are, like kata one learns a set pattern and once a good memory of those is set then one must jump off the ledge of patternized comfort and into the deep waters deliberate practices. Repetitive practices are actually very basic for the teaching of newbie’s so we can open the doorways to more involved teaching, training and practices.

• Visualization 
• Reality-based scenarios 
• Creativity
• Improving skills in real time training
• Extend and reach beyond fundamental methods
• Extend and reach beyond fundamental methodologies
• Self-analysis coupled with partner analysis
• Going beyond set patterns and drills
• AAR, sit down with partners and teachers to discuss the training event or an after action report (discussion)

There are non-martial sources that explain the psychology and science of the brain and how memory systems work to achieve appropriate and effective methods and methodologies to utilize skills in high stress, anxiety producing and adrenal chemical effects environments and situations.

• Developing positive and creative self-talk
• Dutton, Kevin “Black-and-White Thinking” Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2021
• Dutton, Kevin “The Wisdom of Psychopaths” Scientific American, 2013
• Dutton, Kevin “Split-Second Persuasion” Haighton, 2012
• Cialdini, Robert B. “Persuasion, New and Expanded Edition” Harper Business 2006
• Kruse, Caleb “Anger Management: How to Calm Down” Kindle Scribe 2019

These are but a few to assist practitioners in their research and studies with an objective of understanding and continuing studies.

Deliberate practice involves two kinds of learning: improving the skills you already have and extending the reach and range of your skills.

Four Pillars 

• 1) Growth Mindset and Motivation. As soon as you decide to practice in serious mode, it is obvious that things are going to be harder than before. ...
• 2) Practicing Out Of Your Comfort Zone. ...
• 3) Consistency. ...
• 4) Feedback.

I would spend the majority, if not all, of my practice time, doing things I had already learned over and over again, falsely expecting to improve. (This is repetitive practice)

Deliberate practice is about practicing intentionally. To begin one must first turn a critical eye inward to take stock of one’s self-talk, or inner communication habits, because to achieve the objectives of deliberate practices one has to have a very positive thinking 🤔 process, especially in active practices. Another concept of our practice of “mokuso.”

Note: if your self-talk is not appropriate; if you have thoughts like, ‘type of self-defeating statement, “I’m just not good at ____”, creates a neverending cycle of frustration and failure. To break out of it, you need to change your most fundamental beliefs. You need to believe, that you actually can get better’. 

A book titled, “Mindset”, by Carol Dweck popularized the terms fixed and growth mindset. Fixed mindset is all about inherent ability; it supports that we are bounded by the limit of our abilities and that our potential is predetermined. Growth mindset is the exact opposite, where the main concept is that our effort and attitude are what actually determines our abilities. (http://tinyurl.com/yby42sjb)

deliberate vs. lazy practice; to be more effective in utilizing deliberate practice in your life, you should not aim to practice deliberately, but aim to avoid doing lazy practice. my article on growth mindset

http://tinyurl.com/4nc7dc22

Notes from Article

• operate on a level that challenges you and that almost forces you to improve.

• practicing the same things over and over again gives the illusion of effort, but eventually serves no purpose.

• working outside of your comfort zone is not about working harder, but differently

• practice to things that allow you to grow from your existing skills

• you should be practicing at regular intervals in order to maintain momentum and eventually develop expertise.

• a teacher, who will guide you, correct you and track your progress as necessary, or a peer, where you will hold each other accountable and measure each other’s progress

Bibliography 

Brabeck; Jeffrey; Fry “Practice for Knowledge Acquisition (Not Drill and Kill): Applications of Psychological Science to Teaching and Learning modules” http://tinyurl.com/bhytpdu