Practice routines and techniques at home. Yes Kempo has homework! The best method of acquiring new skills is to practice daily. This helps on three fronts.
- Practice helps you retain the information
- Continual review of material helps you understand the information
- Repetitive movements become smoother and ingrained in the body — muscle memory
In short, there is no fast way of gain great skills in Kempo without practicing a lot. Just like in school, homework is a form of practice for math, writing and science. You need to do it so you can learning, know it and apply it. Don’t shirk your obligation to do homework whether it is assigned (or not) from school or martial arts. It just helps.
Take some time to reprogram yourself. Pop culture via television shows constantly bombards you with false information such as “home work is boring”. When you reprogram your thoughts, you teach yourself that homework is enjoyable. Fake it until you make it. If you don’t like it, continue to do it until you do see the value and thus enjoy the work.
The path to success requires effort. My favorite quote is from Thomas Edison.
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
Divide the material up into sections that are doable each day. For instance, you can assign Monday as Kata day, Tuesday becomes Weapon Defense day and Wednesday can be Combination day. Just rotate the schedule and keep working.
That’s all I have today.
