More Learning

Over the last week, I went through tactical shotgun training and certification. I definitely enjoyed it, and as always there is a few things I can take away and relate to Kung Fu.

I think the biggest thing for me was how different the method of learning and improvement was. The qualification exam to pass the training involved making several shots from several distances in varying times. This is all fine and dandy, but I found that the time restrictions were a big obstacle for me. I do not have a lot of previous firearm experience, and the need for speed caused me to panic and frequently mess up my aim. 

Something we promote strongly at the Kwoon is to learn a technique slowly and work on speeding it up afterwards. We did not do this. I did not once have an opportunity to work on my aim without the dreaded "times up" buzzer occurring a few seconds later. We just did several practice rounds of the qualifying exam throughout the week as preparation for the actual qualifying exam. 

While this originally seemed greatly ineffective to me at first, it worked. My score started really low, but with every practice round, it only went up. By the time we reached the actual qualifying exams, I shot well over the passing grade on my first try. If anything, it served as a really good reminder to me that there is no universal right answer or way of doing things. We need to be open and receptive about our learning methods; being closed minded and thinking something isn't going to work is the fastest way to ensure that it won't work, even if it has all the potential in the world.