You have a point, but there is always a happy medium. There is something to be said about pure immersion, both training the mind and the body, experimenting on the floor as well as in your head. Martial arts are not just about the body, it's something that -- as i am beginning to see moreso each day -- one can stick with for the rest of their lives.
I believe that someone who doesn't train hard is fundamentally missing out on half the art, and someone who doesn't think hard about it -- conceptualize, discuss, theorize, enjoy conversation, go over scenarios, shadowbox, etc etc -- is also missing something very important.
two halves of the whole really. In my opinion at least.
Grandmaster Park held that martial arts develops the three domains of learning:
psychomotor: physical movement, coordination, the use of the motor-skill areas
affective: "social" areas of our mind feelings, values, appreciation, enthusiasms, motivations and attitudes
cognitive: the mental aspects content knowledge, intellectual skills ranges from recalling facts to evaluation
Think of each domain as a circle, the three interlocked like this:
http://www.daviddarling.info/images/Venn_diagram.gif
The bottom two are psychomotor and affective; the top is cognitive.
In martial arts (and other similar things such as sports), Park wrote, we start with activities that are almost all psychomotor and affective.
As a beginner, learning is almost all related to activity related to the psychomotor and affective domains.
As you get into the black belt, instructor, or coaching levels, it begins to include the cognitive domain more and more.
Eventually you get to a level where almost all learning is cognitive.
But you can't just jump to the cognitive phase of learning without the foundation of lessons learned in the psychomotor and affective domains.
The problem as I see it is this kid is VERY gifted in the cognitive domain. I think we can all see that. So he naturally just wants to jump to that level.
But I think it is evident that he hasn't yet built his base in the psychomotor and affective domains: hence, all the advice for him to:
Get ON the martial art floor, stop talking, start listening and DOING.
He has the potential to be a brilliant martial artist but he won't get there from a keyboard. Boy needs time on the mat.
Eventually, decades later maybe, there are all sorts of things that can be learned and explored at the cognitive level. And if he builds that base, he is going to understand that while more experienced martial artists may not have his natural aptitude at the cognitive level, they have the base one needs to learn in that domain because they have invested long hours over many years, built the necessary foundation in the psychomotor and affective domains.
I have no doubt he has THOUGHT about martial arts ever since he was old enough to take a liking to them.
But I can see he has very little time in on the psychomotor domain. There are lessons there he needs to learn THERE that will open new doors in his mind.