Comments on: How Long Does it Take to Become a Martial Arts Expert?

By: Assorted Links 39 | The London School of Attraction

Assorted Links 39 | The London School of Attraction — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 07:12:06 +0000

[...] Short-cuts to becoming an expert. Substitute “getting better with women” for “martial arts” and this is one [...]

By: Fredrik Hertzberg

Fredrik Hertzberg — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 19:13:21 +0000

In my experience the combination of your own dedication combined with an instructor with a modern view about how to teach the students really multiplies. This also means that the instructor has to be free of any need to assert himself through bullying the students, take some time to talk to the instructor before joining. The next thing to look at is the advanced students and how they interact with new students, no point in allowing yourself to be bullied.

So my formula:
Modern cool instructor + dedication + cool fellow students = accelerated mastery.

By: Paul T

Paul T — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 23:50:57 +0000

I totally agree, I think it’s the dedication. The quality of time spent in the classroom. It’s the difference between “going through the motions”; and really putting your all behind every punch.

I guess at some point in every journey to mastery, there has to be the conscious decision to strive for mastery.

By: Dolly Garland

Dolly Garland — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 07:24:00 +0000

Matt,

Thank you for sharing this story. It’s absolute spot on, and a good reminder of how important focus and quality are. The topic’s been on my mind recently since I wrote my own challenge to become a Polymath

http://kaizenjournaling.com/becomingapolymath/

While one of the things on the list is a form of physical activity – possibly martial arts – what you’ve shared in your post applies to all of it. To master anything, even to gain proficiency to an extent where you could confidently call yourself an expert, dedication is required.

People focus so much on how much time they’ve spent on something – but rarely about the quality of that time.

By: Jacob

Jacob — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 16:04:05 +0000

Anyone looking to become and expert in martial arts should take Josh Waitzkin’s advice : The best way to launch into the learning process is by breaking down what you are learning into its fundamental building blocks. Waitzkin writes Many “Kung Fu” schools fuel this problem by teaching numerous flowery forms, choreographed sets of movement, and students are rated by how many forms they know. Everyone races to learn more and more, but nothing is done deeply. Things look pretty but they are superficial, without a sound body mechanic or principled foundation. Nothing is learned at a high level and what results are form collectors with fancy kicks and twirls that have absolutely no martial value. After readings those two posts, I ordered his book and found it to be a great read.