There are some beginning students who believe that all the practice they need occurs at class. This is a recipe for failure. You must practice to get better and you must practice at home. When you make practicing a priority, you are paving the way to improvement. We have an old saying around the dojo, “If you’re not getting better, then you’re getting worse.” Don’t allow yourself to get worse than you are now.
Break down your practice into interesting bits. Do katas on one day. Then do combinations the next. Do your material at the park on sunny days. Next, do your material in the pool mostly underwater. Wash your car in stances or in deep stretches. Watch TV shows in the Horse Stance and do push ups during the commercials. Your only limit is your imagination.
Practice leads to success in all endeavors, not just Kempo. Take your ability to practice and enjoy the art with all your activities like basketball, flower arrangement, art, or crafts. You can use your Practice Priority at work too. Is there something hard to do or something takes a long time to finish – practice doing it in small bits or make it streamlined. A ouch of prevention (and planning) is worth a pound of cure.
Use class time to refine and clear up matters uncovered during your personal practice. If you don’t review your material, how will you know where your difficulties lie? Your instructor can clear up confusing points or help you recall tricky techniques. But if you don’t know what to ask, then you can’t fix it. Remember, don’t wimp out and find excuses to skip class. Make practice a priority and you will be successful.
