aptitude?

[traz]

I was just curious about how you guys felt natural skill related to martial arts. For all the masters browsing these forums, were you guys always "gifted" martial arts students? Or when you first started, were you average or even below-average students who worked very hard to be excellent?

Just curious and thought it would be an interesting discussion

 

[Blindside]

Well, I'm no master but....

We have 6 blackbelts attending our studio right now, of those 6, 4 are what I consider to have alot of natural talent. Coordination, flexibility, a good mind-body connection, and can internalize information rapidly. My instructor isn't one of those six and he laughs and says it took him 9 years to make black, and that he is largely responsible for his instructor not having much hair left. Having tried to teach him a new form that I brought in, well, lets just say I'm glad I'm not HIS instructor. That being said, he is a VERY good fighter and a better instructor, it might have taken him a while to learn, but what he got he GOT.

I was a natural, I learned fast and could make things work pretty rapidly. But it hurt me, I would do it "right," but I didn't know why I was doing it that way. When I started instructing this deficiency showed up pretty quickly. It probably took me a year+ to figure out all the "whys" of what I was doing.

One of my fellow instructors was a brown belt with me and we tested for black within six months of each other. We studied together and I KNOW how much harder he had to work than I did to learn the material, in many ways I respect his black belt more than my own.

Lamont

 

[terryl965]

Well I guess I'm a Master But feel as though I'm a student for life and when I was growing up I was never the best but I worked my butt off and became pretty darn good. If I can blow my own horn..

 

[Chronuss]

I'm with Lamont on this one, I'm not master and exceedingly far from it... picking up material isn't too hard...learning the why's and how's is the hardest.

I think when I first started...I had no natural talent at all. I had to gain the flexibility and coordination from practice and repetition.

 

[Sin]

Everything comes with practice....

i don't care who you are..you may have natural talent but thats just Raw marterial...your instructors mold it into something great

 

[TerryC]

Me? Absolutely no talent or athletic ability when I started. I could just barely lift one leg high enough to rest my foot on an ordinary chair seat without falling down. But my instructor took pity on me and over the next 9 years made me slim and trim and if I say so myself, a pretty good fighter.

Now 20+ years later, age has taken it's toll. I'm still quite flexible (work at it every day), but haven't sparred in around 15 years.

Believe me, the "golden years" are only a myth!

 

[Paul B]

Hmm..I don't really know if I am a "natural" or not,I guess you would have to ask someone who knows me. That being said,some things I picked up quickly and some things I had to "ganbaru" to get.

Natural ability will only get you so far without the proper focus.When taking technique at face value,one can learn any number of techniques,but without understanding the principles of techniques they are only copying motion. Being able to see and being able to do are two different things entirely. I don't feel that I'll ever be able to say "Aha,I think I've got it!",because there is always something more to it than what I am able to see right now. That would be my 2 c's. Oh,and somebody please shoot me if you ever hear me call myself a "Master." No offense.

 

[sdizier]

I think being athletically talented will definitely give you a head start in the “physical aspects” of the arts but that's all it is, a head start.

sdizier

 

[Miles]

I don't know about natural ability. I have always had an aptitude in making it to class on time consistently over a long period of time. I love training and I hate being late....for anything.

Miles

 

[Ka'alako]

To quote an old pro full-contact fighter: "The harder I work, the luckier I get"

I love that one