You are shown the technique and practice it. You are corrected in your technique, usually several times, and adjust accordingly. You are praised for “getting it” and are now searching for the next. This is the usual routine for most students learning a new technique. And this is where most students fall short.

Learning a new technique is finding a new path through the woods, from one village to the next. You are told where you need to go and accept it readily. Through instruction and repetition, you are given the landmarks and shortcuts; avoiding the thorns, animals, and sketchy bridges. Through correction, most students navigate their way through the technique or the woods, arriving at the technique’s completion or next village.

But a freshly worn path is only as good as the moment you made it. Soon after it will be overgrown and slow moving. It’s not enough to break the path, you must wear the path. Your movement along it gets smoother, quicker, and with little hacking along the way.

You see this manifesting when 2 grapplers do the exact same technique, village to village, but one looks so much more slick, smooth, and “quick”…the other looks janky, jerky and almost painful.

The repetition that counts most in learning a technique, are those that happen AFTER you “understand” and can imitate the technique, AFTER the path is broken. Once you think you have it, THAT is the time to drill it most.

Traveling a freshly worn path frees your mind to relax, and more easily find new paths along the way.