![Training with the longsword. Photo by Keith Farrell, 2019.](https://i0.wp.com/www.keithfarrell.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/20190626_211230.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&ssl=1)
Details are incredibly important when learning and performing a martial art – but which details really matter at any given time?
Should you focus more on techniques or skills? Yes. Should you focus more on general physicality or martial arts skills? Also yes.
Although incredibly unsatisfying as an answer, “yes” is absolutely the answer to such general questions, because sometimes you need to focus more on the one thing and also, at other times, you need to focus more on the other thing. If you pose a more specific question related to training, then it becomes immediately much more apparent which details are more important within the scope of that question.
I often observe situations in lessons, workshops, and videos, where the message is lost or devalued because the instructor or presenter does not make it clear which details are most important to their message, or where the boundaries are for defining this particular lesson. By offering better structured and clearer definitions of the exercise or message itself, students can learn much better.
Are all details important?
In the grand scheme of things, I’d be inclined to say that all details are important, because a deficiency in any one thing is still a deficiency, and it is probably better to have fewer of these in your practice.
However, if you are currently practising one particular thing, then details related to that thing are probably more important, and details related to other things are probably less important at this moment in time.
In a technical lesson about precisely how to perform a particular kick or punch or cut or throw, the details pertaining to that technique are crucially important. The details about how to perform some other technique that you are not currently investigating are much less important, because you are not currently focusing on that other technique. Those details might become much more important in a future lesson where you change the focus and put more attention on that other technique.
In a more general skills-based lesson about how to manage distance and how to throw an appropriate technique for the range at which you find yourself from your opponent, the precise details for how to throw any given technique might be less important. Instead, the focus is likely to be on the more general skills involved in distance management, and details related to balance, footwork, coordination, and setting up opportunities might suddenly become more important.
A complete syllabus will describe and include everything that is part of a system. A complete curriculum will address every item in that syllabus, describing a course of lessons that will collectively cover the entirety of the syllabus in an appropriate order.
In any given lesson, the details most relevant to that lesson are most important. Details that are most relevant to other lessons are less important right now.
How does this help, as an instructor?
For instructors, thinking like this helps immensely! You no longer need to teach everything under the sun in one lesson, you can focus on one thing at a time.
You are not a failure as an instructor if your students cannot perform everything perfectly. Instead, you just need to be able to help students improve at a few details, covering just a subset of the system that you are teaching.
If one of your students is having trouble with a technique, you can give them the details that they need most. If another student is having trouble with a different part of the technique, you can give them the details that they need, which might be quite different from the details you gave the first student. There are some details which will be relevant to everyone, and some details which you only need to give to certain individuals.
This will lead to a more motivated and engaged class, because you won’t be boring everyone with details they already know. You can also take someone who is quite experienced and knowledgeable, who is performing an exercise correctly, and give them additional details that are suitable for their level, so that even your most experienced students can come away from the same lesson as the beginners with some new insights relevant to their level.
How does this help, as a student?
For students, thinking like this also helps, because you don’t need to be perfect at everything, and you are not a failure if you are just getting better at one thing right now. Over time, getting better at lots of “one things” will mean that you become better at everything. Improving at a martial art is not an overnight task, it takes time and practice, and so you don’t need to worry if you are getting better at just one subset of details right now.
It also helps you focus during a lesson. If you spend split your attention equally between 10 different things, then each thing only gets 10% of your attention, and so improvement at any one thing will be slow. If you can focus 100% of your attention on just one thing, because only one thing is relevant in this part of the lesson, then you will improve at that thing much faster.
Furthermore, it can help you while sparring. In the chaos of sparring, you don’t need to remember everything in the system, and you don’t need to be able to do everything perfectly! Instead, you might find it most beneficial to give yourself the goal of focusing on just a few actions, techniques, or concepts – it doesn’t matter if you “lose” the bout if you manage to improve how well you can perform your techniques under pressure.
(I am always quite happy to “lose” a bout if it means I can become better at doing something as a result of lessons learned during that bout. Some lessons can only be purchased by getting hit, thereby realising that what I am doing is not quite correct or optimal!)
Scope, boundaries, and discipline
The scope of an exercise is what you are including to be practised in that exercise.
The boundaries of an exercise are the lines that you draw to exclude things that are not the focus of this particular exercise.
Discipline is what you need to have to make sure that the exercise stays within these boundaries and remains focused on the scope!
The best training is done when students have sufficient discipline to keep the exercise within the boundaries, so that the scope is achieved, but also when the instructor makes the scope and boundaries clear. If the instructor doesn’t make the scope and boundaries clear, then students will struggle to perform the exercise correctly, no matter how disciplined and well-intentioned they are.
Conclusions
Different details will be more or less important at different times, depending on the exercise and its scope and boundaries. Understanding which details are important and relevant at any given time makes it much easier to focus on the right things, improving the rate of learning, and making it much easier for any exercise to go ahead and develop according to plan.
Understanding which details are not currently important or relevant right now can be hugely freeing, because you don’t have to worry about those things. Training then becomes a much easier balancing act, because you don’t need to be perfect at everything, you can allow yourself more mistakes and reserve your focus for the small part of the system that you are currently working to understand better.
Here are a few questions for you to think about: when instructors are explaining exercises in your club, do they set out the scope and boundaries clearly and explicitly? If so, how has this helped you, compared to explanations without such clarity? If not, do you think learning might improve if it became clearer and more explicit which details were important at any given time?
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![Keith Farrell. Photo by Lyssa Suarez, 2016.](https://i0.wp.com/www.keithfarrell.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Keith-9.jpg?resize=100%2C100&ssl=1)
Keith Farrell teaches HEMA professionally, often at international events (why not hire me to teach at your event?), and has an interest in coaching instructors to become better teachers. I teach regularly at Liverpool HEMA, and help behind the scenes with running HEMA in Glasgow at the Vanguard Centre.
I have authored Scottish Broadsword and British Singlestick and the award-winning AHA German Longsword Study Guide, and maintain a blog at www.keithfarrell.net where I post regularly.