Drilling | ||
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What is drilling?
When a teacher tells a student to drill something,
they mean that a form, exercise or
partnered drill must be practiced until told to stop.
This could be 5 minutes or perhaps 30 minutes.
It depended entirely upon how much practice was required
that day.
Focus
'Drilling' entails the repetition of a single aspect of the
syllabus.
One repetition is not drilling.
It needs to be at least 5-10 times. Unless you have mastered a skill, drilling is necessary.
Qigong
Sifu Waller feels that 5-10 repetitions of a given
qigong exercise is
usually adequate.
The maximum recommended number of repetitions would be 20.
He did each single thing as if he did nothing else.
(Charles Dickens)
Form
Traditionally, a 'form' can be repeated up to 3 times.
However, if you are learning a new movement, this should be drilled
as many
times as necessary until the pattern is instilled and
familiar.
Home practice
Solo drilling is vital.
It trains muscle memory and ultimately becomes hard to
forget.
The aim is to drill until you no longer have to even think about the movements.
This sort of training also builds up
strength.
Muscle memory
One
major advantage of consistent on-going
home practice is the cultivation of
muscle memory. Rather than having to recall every
movement, the exponent's body knows where
to go and what to do.
This is the first step in
moving in a tai chi way...
What's the catch? To accomplish this, frequent,
mindful practice is needed. There's no other way to
attain this skill.
The more often your body performs tai chi movements, the more likely
it is to remember them automatically.
Autopilot
High repetition of qigong and tai chi
movements results in muscle memory.
The muscles are familiar with how and where to move and the
brain directs the action.
It will feel as though they moved by
themselves.
This is essentially no different to what happens when you drive a bicycle or
a car.
However, with tai chi you are learning long, complex sequences of movements/combat
drills/applications,
so the challenge is greater and more diverse.
The advantage of muscle memory is habit.
You do not have to think as much.
You can become immersed in the
event itself.
Partnered work
For partner drills such as 'pushing hands', students should aim to commit
at least 5-15 minutes of class time drilling a single exercise.
You may change partners but you should refrain from moving onto a new drill
prematurely.
Continual, mindful practice of a single drill encourages the
mind to think less,
and the body to learn the sequence and the appropriate sensitivity skills.
Cursory practice, lasting only a minute or so, is essentially pointless.
Applications
Shuai jiao,
chin na and
form applications should be drilled at least 10 times
each.
With 'shuai jiao', it is not necessary to go to the floor every time but some of
the examples should involve greater commitment, otherwise the application is not
realistic.
Older/less flexible students should avoid going to the floor too vigorously or
frequently.
Combat sets
Combat drills such as 'san sau' require a large
amount of drilling,
both solo and partnered.
In order to instil instinctive responses, aim to commit a good 10-20 minutes
each time to drilling a single combat set thoroughly.
Change partners regularly to encourage greater versatility.
Boring?
For the distracted student, drilling may seems utterly
boring at first.
However, one facet of any Zen-related discipline is the
repetition of a form or pattern; the accurate reproduction of a deliberate
sequence of actions.
The aim of this practice is to lose the sense of self.
No thinking, no worrying, planning or anxiety.
Just being.
After a while, boredom will pass and you will simply feel the movement, not
yourself.
This is progress.
Tired muscles?
This is a good sign.
Sore joints is not a good sign and indicates that you are
using the joints too much or maybe
stretching too much.
Challenges
We have dozens of drilling challenges in the
syllabus to ensure that students gains the necessary
amount of practice.
Some are just 30 mins a night for 4 weeks.
The longest is 2 hours a night for
48 weeks.
Quality
Careless drilling is fruitless.
It is not necessary to drill many items in succession.
Be concerned only with what you are doing right now.
If this means that you don't get to work on other material, fine. Accept this.
Drill mindfully, consciously and you will slowly
improve.
Only careful, sensitive and skilful effort can achieve enduring results.
(I Ching)
Page created
18 March 1997
Last updated
16 June 2023
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