For those of you who have been training for a while, by whatever standard you judge(d) competence, when did you finally think to yourself that you had a basic, decent level of skill? How has that view changed?
For me it changes often. Some days I think, What am I going to teach today, others I could go on and on about the tiniest of details. Things plateau too, You work on your sidekick, then realise your front kick sucks. You get that rights and all of a sudden your balance needs work. Tomorrow I've been invited to teach a session and Unreal Combat's Three Arrows Academy. As I sit here now I'm thinking, What can I show the students of the English Champion, and the English Champion too. Tomorrow though it'll be different. I'm sure we've all left class thinking that it's hardly worth going because things feel so wrong. As an instructor though I can tell you that what you don't see is the other students coming up and saying, "have you seen so and so's jab? It's real sharp". We often don't realise how far we've come. The MAP Meets and the chance to cross train is a good indicator of how much there is to learn. Instructor one minute, student trying to learn something new the next.
Simon has a point. I think the bigger the skillset you try to develop, the less competent you're going to feel. Maybe this is why sport martial artists develop a very narrow repertoire of high percentage techniques. I've been doing martial arts (predominantly sport Taekwondo or styles like it) going on 28 years, and I use half a dozen techniques 80% of the time. I'd probably consider myself more competent than most people in those few techniques, but that also means I do so at the expense of leaving gaping holes elsewhere in my skillset. I suppose it all depends on what your goals are, really.
I think the further you progess the further the goal posts shift. I started to feel competent in grappling when I knew I could reliably outgrapple, control and submit people who were bigger/stronger but less experienced. I don't feel specialised. My game is very limited in the grand scheme of things. I have positions where I am incredibly weak. My competency in striking is feeling the power I can generate on pads and knowing my timing and distancing has developed to the extent I can spar well and can give and take shots. I think there is a difference between competency and proficiency but they are both the product of refined basics. The more you know the more you realise what you are lacking and hopefully you know what to do to close the gap between concious incompetence and concious competence (or at least someone else to point it out and coach you).
Its a bit like decorating the house. You realise that the banister at the bottom of the stairs is looking a bit tatty so you paint it. Then you see that all the other banisters are tatty in comparison. So you paint them. Now the shiny banisters show up the old paint on the walls. So you paint the hall and the stair well. but then the front room looks tatty in comparison. By the time you have painted the whole house you realise that the banister at the bottom of the stairs is looking a bit tatty.
Today I watched a video of Jackie Chan being taught a Shaolin staff form by a child. No matter who you are, how old you are, or whatever your experience, you can always learn something new from anyone who is willing to share there knowledge. I have no doubt everyone tomorrow will have a good time and come away having learnt something new and made some new friends along the way. And that my friend is what martial arts is truly about.
It's a funny one. Some days I feel that it's all going well and that I've nearly mastered a technique, but then other days I question every aspect of what I'm doing. I've also noticed that it's really easy to see how others can improve, but it's difficult to see where I need to.
That's the story of my journey. :cry: More generally, for a long time I'll feel incompetent. And then everything will "click," and I'll be terrific for a long time. And then I'll get my butt whipped by someone, and I'll start over feeling incompetent for a long time. And then everything will click again, and then ...
In one Chicago tournament, I used "single leg" to win 7 rounds in a role. I then knew that I had developed my "1st dependable skill". After that day, I started to develop my "2nd dependable skill". Today I don't compete tournament any more. But I still like to test my skill such as if you can hit my head before I can get a clinch on you, you win that round, otherwise I win that round. If I can use this more civilized testing method (you play offense and I only play defense) to test my skill 1,000 round with more than 80% successful rate, I'll feel competent.
Things changed when I lowered the bar for competency. Competency to me now is someone that is consistently above average in a field. This means that a competent martial artist is consistently better than half of all martial artists in performing a given task successfully. I've seen many with great potential ending up not being really competent because, despite moments of greatness, they are inconsistent. I've also seem slightly above average folks accomplish great tasks by just keeping it going and learning from their mistakes. It is sort of like the tortoise and the hare tale. If I apply this to self-defense mentality, big mistakes can get you killed. Incompetent means you make big mistakes. ----- I think to be consistently great is very, very rare, but there have been a few like that. Edit: I wonder how many here believe they are consistently better than over half of all other martial artists that do what you do. Consistently above average isn't something insulting, it is actually really good.
Personally I remain very humble. I know there's many out there who are much more experienced than me and I make a point of making sure anyone who trains under me knows exactly what I have or haven't done. It's all about keeping it real, but I also know that having lots of experience in training or even fighting doesn't make you a good teacher. You can have trained in Thailand for 20 years but if you have the mentality of a two year old and the personality of a house brick you're not going to be very good regardless of how many people walk through your door.
As a few people have already said, a feeling of competency is entirely dependent on the situation. When I am teaching basics to the blue belts I feel supremely competent. When I am teaching kata to the brown belts I feel quite competent. When I am at a seminar surrounded by 3rd and 4th Dans I feel just a tiny bit competent and when I am teaching kicks to 16 year olds who have the flexibility of an octopus I feel a bit incompetent and very, very old.
For me it fluctuates with changing circumstances, competence comes in the form of being able to defend myself on the street but this changes with increased knowledge, levels of fitness, and even mood: 1) I first felt competent when I was six 2) Until I got beaten by some kid half my size, big ego bummer 3) I later tried many martial art styles and felt competent due to my range of knowledge 4) But later I completely froze in real fights and lacked strength, I no longer felt competent 5) I then started kickboxing and didn't feel competent until: 6) After just a few lessons I won 3 real self defence situations Kickboxing, muay thai and krav maga have increased my confidence/competence greatly, however i might still doubt myself at certain times of day and in certain places (e.g. tired, hot, outnumbered, limited space etc)
What Ap said. There really isn't a standard bar of competence. There are some incompetent black belts out there. What I look for in my own training is improvement. I feel I've made a lot of improvement over the past year especially. Since I can only improve so quickly, I'm happy if feel I'm matching or approaching my maximal rate. Where am I now in my overall competence level? I get by. I train 4 nights a week in WMA and Judo (2 nights each). I'm better than I was last year.
