Part two of “Study and Training” will be a continuation of the three study barriers. The first barrier to study is “Lack of Mass.” The second barrier to study is “Too Steep a Gradient.” These study barriers are part and parcel to any activity one is learning.
In particular, Martial Arts schools could not accomplish the goal of training students without the proper application of gradients. This segment will define gradient, and what it means by “Too Steep a Gradient.” Actual phenomena will be delineated, so a student can identify what barrier one is experiencing. Once one identifies the phenomena, one can apply a remedy.
Gradient is defined as a step-by-step process of increase in knowledge and understanding. Any subject or activity has its fundamentals. These fundamentals are vital to the development of knowingness and skill. For example, a student learns the five steps to applying a front kick: 1) Bring the knee up, 2) extend the leg, 3) ankle down and toes up, 4) bring the knee back up, and 5) set the leg down. Each step leads to an ability to eventually apply a front kick. It is a doingness. As one can see, there are gradient steps to learning.
The second barrier to study is “Too steep a Gradient.” This means a student has gone one or several steps further than one was ready to go. Skipped gradients or gradients where one didn’t understand that it will cause inability to move forward are examples of this barrier. If one took the example of the front kick, and one didn’t know one of the earlier fundamental steps, didn’t understand it, or didn’t apply one of the steps 100% correctly, one could not obtain a result.
Another example that may make “Too Steep a Gradient” more real would be the elementary school student who was learning how to add and subtract. If one didn’t really understand how to add and subtract it would definitely affect the next level. The next gradient one is attempting to learn is multiplication and division. If a student did not know how to add and subtract, the student couldn’t multiply and divide. There would be a missing gradient causing the student to not be able to do the next gradient. Therefore, one would be at “Too Steep a Gradient.”
As a student training or an instructor teaching, it is vital to be able to identify the phenomena that occurs when one is at “Too Steep a Gradient.” The physiological phenomena that occurs is “a sort of confusion or a reelingness that goes with this one.” (Student Hat page 44) The remedy is to have the person go back to the last time he really understood what he was doing. Locate the thing that one didn’t understand about that gradient, and clarify the lack of understanding of the particular thing until one is at a point of understanding. One will see that one will be able to move and progress to the next gradient without any difficulty. In gradients, it is the actions we are interested in.
It is vital to make certain that one can identify 1) lack of mass, and 2) too steep a gradient as one is studying and training in an activity. Study and training will go smoothly with the correct identification of the “Why?” and the correct remedy. Anyone can improve, and find success in their study and training.
Sifu Villanuevateaches in Vallejo and can be reached at 552-7598.
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