The other day I was working with one of teens that is a 2nd degree Black Belt on his form when I told him to correct a stance. “What stance?” He asked. “The stance for the X Block is a back stance, not a Front Stance.” He looked at me in stunned amazement and said, “You never told me that!” Now, I had a feeling of stunned amazement. “Dude, I have corrected you on that stance a thousand times!” I said with a little of the “old man anger” in my voice. Teenagers really do tend to bring that out of me on occasion. “Really?” He asked with his head tilted like a puppy dog with his big sad eyes like he was wondering what the heck was going on. I couldn’t help it; I gave him a little jab on the shoulder! “YES I HAVE YOU MORON! NOW FIX IT!” He just laughed and I couldn’t help but think he was intentionally trying to get a rise out of me. It wasn’t until after class he admitted that he really believed it was supposed to be a front stance and had actually been working on making that stance better. “Why did you think that?” I asked. “I dunno, it just sorta felt right.” He said with a shrug. “That’s because that move is done in a front stance in the brown belt form. But not in this one!”

That is when I saw a light go off in his head as he went “Ohhhhhh!” It always amazes me when people think we “taught them wrong” or “didn’t correct them.” To give laymen an insight into this, I was trying to show a student what they did wrong one day but couldn’t without serious effort! I have repeated those moves so many times over the years it is sometimes very hard to imitate a serious mistake. Almost all instructors are that way. We show the students the forms over and over again so if they just listen or pay attention, they will see it right dozens of times a week. So why do they make mistakes? It is something I call Form Confusion. Form confusion can be momentary or practiced. A momentary instance of form confusion occurs when you are under pressure and your instincts betray you slightly. I, in fact, had this occur at a tournament one time. I was competing as a 2nd degree black belt. As I did my black belt form I was extremely focused on getting more power into every technique and preceded to move into a different color belt form. I immediately realized what I had done and when I looked up at the judges that were chuckling a bit and asked, “Would you like to do your form again, sir?” I, of course, did the form correctly the second time.

Even if you are not an instructor, this sort of confusion can happen within your own form. For example, I have seen Sr. Red belt students at the end of their form do a second round, spin side kick sequence instead of two rear leg sidekicks. Did they, or I, do this in practice? Of course not! But there are times pressure just causes momentary lapses and our instincts go wonky. Now, the second version is practiced form confusion. For the parents out there, I think it is important for you to understand how we teach forms. At the beginning of the testing cycle, we demonstrate the form every time we do it and correct the students as we go. Near the end of the testing cycle, we will have the students do it on their own while still correcting them as they go. We will tell them repeatedly to fix this or that. But sometimes a disconnect will happen between what the student wants to do and what they are actually doing. The instructor sees what the student is doing, tells the student and the student tries to fix the problem and, in the presence of the instructor, corrects the mistake. But the next class, that same mistake shows up again, and again, and AGAIN. While the instructor has provided the training, the question then becomes has the student focused on fixing it? If an instructor ever corrects a student, it is the student’s ultimate responsibility to fix that as soon as possible, so the correction can become instinctual. Otherwise, that bad habit can, and often does, reappear under pressure because our instincts will remember it the old, and usually, incorrect way instead of the corrected way. Again, under pressure, our instincts can go wonky.

Now, having explained all this let me emphasis that if everyone could and would fix everything I tell them to fix the first time I tell them, everyone would be black belts in a month. It just doesn’t work that way. There are times when we are doing the wrong thing and for the life of us, we feel as if we are doing it right. It is part of taking the art from a conscience thought to instinct. Unfortunately, during that process, sometimes our instincts can and will betray us. That is why it takes years of practice to gain true proficiency and why great respect should be given to the people on the floor, both students and instructors, because we are all trying so hard to do what most people think is is impossible. Control our every action and retrain our instincts.