Plateau
February 23, 2009
I think in anything we learn, we hit plateaus in improvement and struggle to get past it. For me, kung fu holds more plateaus than anything I’ve ever done. You can’t fake martial arts – you either can or can’t do it. With each plateau I’m hitting, I’m finding it harder and harder to get out of it. It’s taking more input each time to improve. It’s like the law of diminishing returns rearing its ugly head even in martial arts.
Recently I’ve had the privilege of meeting a few new people and train with them. Training with new people for me is always a very exciting thing. Training with my regular friends is still one of the things I look forward to all week but after awhile, you all settle into a certain training style and it becomes almost predictable. For me, that’s when I feel my improvement lags.
So, with new people coming in, they bring in much needed stimulus to my training and keeps me on my toes. My favorite part is just learning and adapting to their styles and idiosyncracies. It’s certainly not a matter of who’s better than whom, but more of how do I overcome this, or that, or this again.
Using this, I think I’m overcoming my latest improvement plateau, one which I’ve been stuck on for a few months now. I’m also trying to push myself a bit more than before. I’m also training a lot more frequently, thanks in part to another motivated class mate. I’m just hoping I can keep up this momentum.
This journey seems to be becoming more difficult but at the same time, it’s getting exciting.
