What do you do to help remember your curriculum?

[Gerry Seymour]

i think @skribs had a good method. i have kept a note book since day one. in my early days it earned me the nick name Encyclopedia Brown (an old kids book reference) because i could remember everything. i still use that method today but its more for remembering pieces of random information or ideas i am working on or trying to figure out.

for me personally i dont like to remember a large curriculum. it goes against the data showing more choices will delay the response. but if you practice a style then your locked into the curriculum.

There's a lot of research that keeping a handwritten notebook is a strong reinforcement of memory. The best theory I've seen/heard is that the re-compilation necessary to put it on paper in different words (we tend to resynthesize more when writing than when typing) is the key.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Yes I get it. I've been there. I'm not unaware. through experience, I have chosen to not follow that path.

I look at a lot of it as drills. I don't think that's how it was intended, originally, but I can't really get myself to believe some of the techniques were ever really going to become go-to for any likely situations. But they do help teach important principles that become useful in adapting the go-to techniques to other situations, or they develop some physical sub-skill (like a speed bag drill does). I try to de-emphasize those parts and guide students to spend more time on the areas that have the most direct application. I looked at removing some techniques, but determined I'd need to come up with other drills to replace what folks learned from them, so they stayed.

 

[hoshin1600]

I look at a lot of it as drills. I don't think that's how it was intended, originally, but I can't really get myself to believe some of the techniques were ever really going to become go-to for any likely situations. But they do help teach important principles that become useful in adapting the go-to techniques to other situations, or they develop some physical sub-skill (like a speed bag drill does). I try to de-emphasize those parts and guide students to spend more time on the areas that have the most direct application. I looked at removing some techniques, but determined I'd need to come up with other drills to replace what folks learned from them, so they stayed.

A key factor is that there are different methodologies for different styles, thus our vocabulary has different meanings. I think we recently had a thread about the definition of techniques & combinations. In my kenpo days there were "combinations" .....person punches a straight punch to the chest, my response was an inward middle block as I turn to a side stance, same arm does an elbow strike then a back punch to their face, then I swing my arm in a big clockwise circle as I bend over and grab their ankle for a takedown and finish with a knife hand to their groin as they lay on the floor.....all that was one technique or combination. There were 108 of those in the curriculum.
I believe there is a lot of "fat" put into some styles in order to prolong and milk out the learning process.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

A key factor is that there are different methodologies for different styles, thus our vocabulary has different meanings. I think we recently had a thread about the definition of techniques & combinations. In my kenpo days there were "combinations" .....person punches a straight punch to the chest, my response was an inward middle block as I turn to a side stance, same arm does an elbow strike then a back punch to their face, then I swing my arm in a big clockwise circle as I bend over and grab their ankle for a takedown and finish with a knife hand to their groin as they lay on the floor.....all that was one technique or combination. There were 108 of those in the curriculum.
I believe there is a lot of "fat" put into some styles in order to prolong and milk out the learning process.

I think some of it was down to try to standardize as a style expands beyond a single instructor, which I don’t see as a good idea.

 

[dvcochran]

I think some of it was down to try to standardize as a style expands beyond a single instructor, which I don’t see as a good idea.

I'm not sure I understand. Expansion of a style/system to the point it requires additional instructors is a Bad thing?

 

[dvcochran]

I think some of it was down to try to standardize as a style expands beyond a single instructor, which I don’t see as a good idea.

I'm not sure I understand. Expansion of a style/system to the point it requires additional instructors is a Bad thing?

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I'm not sure I understand. Expansion of a style/system to the point it requires additional instructors is a Bad thing?

Sorry, no, the standardization is. It means all instructors are trying to use the same methods, which won’t be optimal for some instructors or students.

 

[dvcochran]

Sorry, no, the standardization is. It means all instructors are trying to use the same methods, which won’t be optimal for some instructors or students.

I think there is an evolution that takes place in any MA system. Think slither/crawl/stand/walk/run. It all had to start somewhere. Refinement is an aspect in every part of life. IMHO

 

[oftheherd1]

I have not been able to practice my art for a long time due to health reasons. In the Hapkido I learned, 1st and 2nd already had lists of the moves. Not perfectly detailed, but enough to recall what you had learned in class. I had to write up the 3rd Dan techniques as I learned them. I found those things helped me. I also found that meditation, going over the techniques in my mind until I could do them as quickly in my mind as they needed to be done in application helped. That included the/an attack and my defense.

That may not work for everyone, but it sure helped me.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I think there is an evolution that takes place in any MA system. Think slither/crawl/stand/walk/run. It all had to start somewhere. Refinement is an aspect in every part of life. IMHO

Refinement, absolutely. But once you standardize it for other instructors, they can no longer assist in further refinement and evolution - a process that should be never end.