Knowledge

The other day in the level two class, Sifu Brinker said something along the lines of “There will always be more that you don’t know, than stuff that you do know”. When you think of knowledge, it’s a very fickle and complicated thing. The ability to drive a car, program a super computer, or shoot a basketball all require a certain degree of knowledge, yet all three are extremely different things. It’s important to remember that knowledge is not something that is set in stone, or follows one singular set of rules. 

In a student/teacher setting, I find that there are two main “types” of knowledge at play, among many others. The first is the one everyone thinks of. What is the teacher teaching the student. But what most people forget is what the teacher is learning from the student. A mediocre teacher will focus only on outputting information and hoping the student can pick it up on their own. A good teacher learns from what the student is excelling and lacking in and attempts to modify how they’re outputting that information so that the student can better pick it up.

I personally enjoy working with and helping as many people as I can, because there’s so much I can learn in return. Sometimes, it’s not until you have to break down a technique or form to try and show it to someone else that you really understand and comprehend the mechanics behind it. Sometimes, you have to explain something with a little more detail than normal to actually understand what you’re explaining; to actually connect with it

There is an unlimited amount of knowledge in this universe. It’s important to remember all the dynamics to knowledge; don’t focus on merely putting words in someone else’s head. Make sure they can read and understand them. And if the don’t understand them the first time, learn from it, adjust, and try again.

Unorganized Improvement

When it comes to progress and learning, I’m one of those people who needs to be constantly reminded to stay on the right track. I have a tendency to stray with my train of thought (aka my attention span isn’t very impressive). However, I understand this and do my best to try and stay focused, but hey, it is pretty hard. Even my blogs go awry. I start with one theme and I end with another, and I get stuck thinking “huh. Now what can I put in the middle to link these together.” 

Changing topic for a second here (I promise it’s relevant, I’m not going off track), I was reading some of my blogs from my grading year and there was a few that stuck out to me. In one of which, I talked about how I personally believe we shouldn’t be defined by our strengths and weaknesses, or how we shouldn’t hold stigma to either of them. When it boils down, they’re both attributes, both building blocks which define you as a person. With that mindset now fresh in everyone’s heads, I’m going to switch back to the previous topic

Even though I can be scatterbrained and rather mentally unorganized (that is a thing, I swear) I don’t view that as a weakness or a downfall or anything in the ballpark of negative. It’s an attribute to me, and as such is one of my biggest tools for improvement. See, being as unorganized as I can be, I often need a landmark to guide myself, something I can look at to make sure I am going in the right direction. And so I look at who I was yesterday. When I do so, I can see the improvement I achieved today, and even if it the smallest of improvements, it’s still progress. 

Refreshing

One of my favourite classes of the year is the first IHC class, whether it be formal or not. I enjoy working on my new beginning, and watching other people work on theirs. 

A lot of things change when the teams do, and sometimes you don’t even realize it’s happening till you go to that first class and see all the new faces and forms and weapons. Sometimes I wonder where I would be had it not been for the IHC. Being in Kung Fu did worlds of wonders for me in itself, but joining the team at a younger increased that 100 fold. And watching it do the same for other people, it just puts a smile on my face.