Once I learned to empty my cup when approaching a new art, then all my previous experiences became a consistent benefit. (You can ask @JowGaWolf how I do now when introduced to a new system with different body mechanics from what I'm used to.)
I agree with this, and I have a lot to say, but my original post turned into a book. Lots of good stuff, but too long for this response.
You do much better than others with "emptying your cup" Here's what I noticed about your previous experience at the time when I didn't take it into consideration in teaching the long fist. On the teaching end I just taught you the same as I would as beginner so that I wouldn't make assumptions about things that I thought you would catch on quickly about.
1.
You have a good feel for "Sparring to learn" which i an exercise that requires "emptying your cup"
2.
You trusted the technique. There are Jow Ga practitioners who trained Jow Ga for 30+ years who still can't do this. I think your previous experience made this easier for you. Once you understand what it takes to learn how to use a technique in one system then you can just plug that learning path into Jow Ga.. You also trusted the technique by doing it as I showed you vs. trying to change it. You jumped right in and then saw how I reacted, which was a real reaction and not staged. It's the same one that most people give.. I didn't get the feeling that you were trying to make the technique work similar to something you already knew of.
3.
You had realistic expectations of yourself. "Its me not the technique." mindset is very important. I never got the feeling you were trying to "Test" the technique. It was more like you were trying to learn and understand the technique. You took the technique for a "Test drive" but I didn't get the feel that you were trying to see that it works.
4.
You went back and used it in sparring against someone else again "Test driving" a technique.
5.
You paid attention to when it worked and when your opponent was getting around it. Again, great stuff, but that type of mindset comes from experience in learning new things.
I think you naturally have good listening skills and a willingness to try to understand things as they are taught vs trying to use another system prinicple to make it work. You could have easily tried to use Jow Ga with the MMA engine for the long fist. But you didn't.
This is the problem that Rokas has with his Aikido. He's trying to drive Aikido techniques with a BJJ engine and it's not going to produce a lot of desired results. When you used Jow Ga you tried to drive it with a Jow Ga engine.
Even though some long fist techniques try to use a boxing engine. I think they would get better results with long fist engine. They would the same number of KOs, but they would also get additional use out of it to drive combos. The one thing I've never seen in MMA is for an MMA fighter to use that MMA long fist for something other than a "One Shot Strike" But with the Jow Ga engine you were able to throw multiple long fist strikes. Similar strikes, different engines.
I see previous experience in 2 categories
Previous physical experience = How many ways does your brain know how to move your body? The more martial arts that you take that have different movements, the better your brain will be at making your body learn new movements.
Previous mental experience = the more martial arts you take, the more time you spend learning. The exposure you have to learning different things, the better you become at learning and emptying your cup.
I never got the feeling that things were just bouncing off of you. I've taught enough people to know when I'm just teaching myself. The amount that you absorbed was also impressive since I said a lot but only touched the surface of how to actually do the technique
I think when it comes to experience. The more complex the movement is from past experience, the more beneficial it will be when learning a different martial art.
lol it still turned out to be a book, so I'll stop
