In learning a new physical activity such as a martial art that requires coordination and balance, one of the best ways to improve and ensure your body is doing exactly what is should is to go slow.
But you might say I’ll never defend myself well if I go slow. And I would not disagree with that – however, if you try to go fast without the skills necessary to go fast, then your fast skill is not going to be effective.
But you might say, well, I can go fast and eventually I will learn good techniques. I would say maybe so, but having watched students as an instructor for the last 20 years, I believe there are more benefits going slow and precise in the beginning.
So, your next question might be, what are those benefits? So, below are the five (5) key benefits I believe are gained by practicing slowly.
1. Body Awareness
When you go slow, you actually have time to be aware of what your body is actually doing. You have the time to see and feel for things like: is my leg locked in attack stance, is my leg extended and locked in front kick, is my elbow tight against my side in my punches, etc. If you are going fast, you probably do not have time to process if you are actually performing the techniques this way.
2. Balance
When you go slow, balancing is much harder. For people that are struggling with balance, they may sometimes go fast to be “balanced”. However, the truth is you are not really in balance by just going fast. Balance comes from proper alignment, grounding and focus. If you are not in alignment when you throw a side kick, then going fast will not improve that. If you are not breathing, going fast will not improve that. If you are not grounded, going fast will not improve that. If you want to ensure you are balanced or improve your balance, go as slow as possible.
3. Breathing
Similar to body awareness, when you go slow you can focus on good deep breathing and be aware when you are no longer breathing effectively. If you continue to practice faster than your body can breathe, your breathing becomes chaotic and shallow. Once that happens, you start to lose focus and get tired. Once this happens, you are truly ineffective in your techniques.
4. Reduces Potential of Injury
For any physical activity, if you are injured you cannot practice and if you cannot practice you cannot improve. By going slow and learning good form (alignment, posture, etc.) and good breathing you will reduce the risk of injury. For example. if you are throwing with a lot of speed and power in a turnaway kick without locking your leg, you will damage your knee. You may not feel it at first but over time (might be weeks, months, or years) you will start to feel an ache or worse you feel sharp pain due to the damage that requires significant physical therapy or even worse, surgery to correct.
5. Speed
And finally, the benefit if going slow and really ensure you are balanced, aligned, and breathing well is you can go fast effectively sooner. What I have observed over the years if going fast and not balanced, aligned or breathing well, you are spending more energy countering that instead of all the energy and focus going in being fast. If I am using speed because I am not balanced then some of my focus (if not all) is trying to just be balanced and really not focused on speed. So, if you can go very slowly correctly, then going fast will not only be easier, but more effective from the start.
I
encourage all of you to practice slowly to ensure you are balanced, aligned,
grounded, and breathing. And if those
attributes are not within your technique, practice slowly until they are before
adding speed
Regards,
Kelly
"Everything too fast
is not good but everything too slow is also not good. You need balance. That's
why I like martial arts: it always tells you how to control your body, your
mind, your heart. Balance. Balance can keep the world's peace. I think that's a
very good thing." ~ Li Lianjie (born 26 April 1963), better known by his
stage name Jet Li, is a Chinese film actor, film producer, martial artist, and
retired Wushu champion.
