Life lessons from the dojo
Mar. 10th, 2014 11:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eveglassSo tired. So sleepy. So not wanting to write this right now, but I've got a job starting tomorrow morning, and I'll be damned if I'm gonna do personal writing my first day on a new job.
#218: Physical activity is a good way to deal with stress
It's funny -- a number of people have been surprised at the fact that I'm stressed about the job I'm starting tomorrow. And while I'm experiencing other emotions as well (relief and excitement, primarily), the big one right now is stress. I always stress out before a new job, and I don't anticipate that's gonna be something that'll change any time soon. One of the consequences of this stress is that I wanted to go into full-on hermit mode this evening, which I knew would only lead to my brain eating itself up with worry. Instead, I spent the willpower to go to karate and do some physical movement. It was still hard, but at least it was two hours in which I was absolutely not thinking about the new job. And I got to throw someone on the ground multiple times, which is always kinda cathartic.
#219: If you know the move, you can figure out the counter-move
Tonight I was working on a movement chain called seisan bunkai, which means that it's the application (bunkai) of the seisan kata. Now, I've only recently re-learned seisan, but it's coming back nicely and I think I've got a decent grasp on it at this point. The bunkai, on the other hand, was brand-new for tonight. This is one of those odd bunkai where it's actually harder to be the attacker than the defender. The defender is pretty much just doing the entire kata from start to finish, with a few little extra moves thrown in. The attacker, on the other hand, has to remember what they're doing at every step of the way, and it's not always intuitive. That said, if you really know the kata, you can almost intuit what the attacks will be. If you know the kata has a low-block as the next move, well, you're probably attacking with a kick. If you know the kata has a grab, then you've probably gotta punch. It was a really interesting exercise going through the bunkai as a novice, because it really makes you think about the kata on a much deeper level.
I sort of feel this lesson can be expanded to a lot of things with a few minor tweaks. If you're a musician and know a song has a particular chord progression, you can probably anticipate some of the flourishes of your fellow musicians and work with them. (Hence, jazz.) If you're in a debate or a negotiation and have a strong sense of what the other guy's gonna say, you're much better prepared to address it. And if you're in a D&D game and you know the GM has a combat-heavy session planned, you know to conserve your resources. See? All sorts of uses.
#220: Get in the habit of learning quickly
Pretty much everyone in class today was working on new (for them) material, most of it bunkais (kata applications). For most of this stuff, you'd get to see one or two repetitions of the move in question before you were supposed to be able to do it yourself. Moreover, at the end of class, you were supposed to remember all the stuff you'd done over the previous two hours. Moreover, if we're presented with these same bunkai in a week or two, we'll be expected to have retained it. This is not always achievable, of course. There's a lot to take in. But the more quickly you can learn, the better poised you are to refine your technique or learn the next thing.
I don't know if "learning quickly" is a habit that can be developed. I've always learned things quickly; it's an ability I've been blessed with my whole life. But if it's something you can do with a little effort, it's definitely worth putting in that effort. (On which note, I expect to be doing a whole lotta speed-learning on the job tomorrow. Wish me luck!)
#218: Physical activity is a good way to deal with stress
It's funny -- a number of people have been surprised at the fact that I'm stressed about the job I'm starting tomorrow. And while I'm experiencing other emotions as well (relief and excitement, primarily), the big one right now is stress. I always stress out before a new job, and I don't anticipate that's gonna be something that'll change any time soon. One of the consequences of this stress is that I wanted to go into full-on hermit mode this evening, which I knew would only lead to my brain eating itself up with worry. Instead, I spent the willpower to go to karate and do some physical movement. It was still hard, but at least it was two hours in which I was absolutely not thinking about the new job. And I got to throw someone on the ground multiple times, which is always kinda cathartic.
#219: If you know the move, you can figure out the counter-move
Tonight I was working on a movement chain called seisan bunkai, which means that it's the application (bunkai) of the seisan kata. Now, I've only recently re-learned seisan, but it's coming back nicely and I think I've got a decent grasp on it at this point. The bunkai, on the other hand, was brand-new for tonight. This is one of those odd bunkai where it's actually harder to be the attacker than the defender. The defender is pretty much just doing the entire kata from start to finish, with a few little extra moves thrown in. The attacker, on the other hand, has to remember what they're doing at every step of the way, and it's not always intuitive. That said, if you really know the kata, you can almost intuit what the attacks will be. If you know the kata has a low-block as the next move, well, you're probably attacking with a kick. If you know the kata has a grab, then you've probably gotta punch. It was a really interesting exercise going through the bunkai as a novice, because it really makes you think about the kata on a much deeper level.
I sort of feel this lesson can be expanded to a lot of things with a few minor tweaks. If you're a musician and know a song has a particular chord progression, you can probably anticipate some of the flourishes of your fellow musicians and work with them. (Hence, jazz.) If you're in a debate or a negotiation and have a strong sense of what the other guy's gonna say, you're much better prepared to address it. And if you're in a D&D game and you know the GM has a combat-heavy session planned, you know to conserve your resources. See? All sorts of uses.
#220: Get in the habit of learning quickly
Pretty much everyone in class today was working on new (for them) material, most of it bunkais (kata applications). For most of this stuff, you'd get to see one or two repetitions of the move in question before you were supposed to be able to do it yourself. Moreover, at the end of class, you were supposed to remember all the stuff you'd done over the previous two hours. Moreover, if we're presented with these same bunkai in a week or two, we'll be expected to have retained it. This is not always achievable, of course. There's a lot to take in. But the more quickly you can learn, the better poised you are to refine your technique or learn the next thing.
I don't know if "learning quickly" is a habit that can be developed. I've always learned things quickly; it's an ability I've been blessed with my whole life. But if it's something you can do with a little effort, it's definitely worth putting in that effort. (On which note, I expect to be doing a whole lotta speed-learning on the job tomorrow. Wish me luck!)
