Apples and Oranges 2: Imitation and Understanding by Lynn Seiser
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Which came first, the apple or the orange? If you want to be an apple,
do you try to imitate it or try to understand it? If you want to be an
orange, do you imitate it or try to understand it? If you want to be
an apple, should you spend time trying to imitate or understand an
orange? If you want to be an orange, should you spend time trying to
imitate or understand an apple?
What is my obsession with the comparisons of fruit? In my years of
trying to understand things in the world, like martial arts, I was
always told to stop comparing apples to oranges. They are by nature
two different things and may best be understood separately, as I
mentioned last month in state specific learning.
Many instructors wanted me to just keep training, imitating the
technique, until I got it. There was no verbal explanation of the
technique, just rote repetition.
Imitate: (1) to follow as a pattern, model, or example, (2) to be or
appear to be like, resemble, (3) to produce a copy, reproduce, (4)
mimic, counterfeit.
Imitation is one of the most frequently used forms of training. A
student watches his or her teacher and then imitates their
movement. Imitation is a natural way to learn a craft. It is learning
the tactical techniques. It is the who, what, where, and when. It is
not the how or the why. One problem with imitation is that there is
often something lost in the translation and that is that seldom is an
imitation as good as the genuine original article.
Very seldom was I asked to understand what I was doing. For some
people this understanding may naturally come from the rote repetition
and rehearsal of the physical movements. While this may automate the
response and minimize the internal descriptive dialogue, it did not
help me to understand the conceptual how and why. I wanted to
understand the principles, concepts, and strategies that governed and
dictated the efficient and effective techniques that I was training
in.
Understand: (1) to grasp a meaning, (2) to accept, (3) to interpret,
(4) to comprehend and appreciate, (5) intelligent knowing.
The understanding came through reading, viewing, discussion, and
dialogue. To overcome a severe inferiority complex, I became an avid
reader after finding there were books about things I did not know were
things. Since I could go to see all the great instructors I wanted to
train with, I began collecting and watching tapes and discs that
contained both the visual image and the auditory directives that
contain the concepts and principles. While talking on the mat is often
frowned on, I began openly discussing the bigger picture with my
training partners. These dialogues and discussions helped me to see
the bigger picture, the conceptual understanding. This was the
art. Some say if you talk too much you are an annoyance, but if you do
it on paper you become an author.
For some people, imitation sequentially leads naturally to
understanding. For others, an understanding sequentially leads to a
better imitation and execution of the technique. For people like me,
the two were not necessarily related. They were as different as apples
and oranges.
Thanks for listening, for the opportunity to be of service, and for
sharing the journey. Now get back to training. KWATZ!
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