Coach Freedman took me out in his backyard the other day to practice hitting with the arnis sticks. He has a tire wrapped in duct tape and mounted on a wooden frame. He showed me a small section on the top of the tire and instructed me to hit that spot as fast as I could. He demonstrated what he wanted. His striking was a smooth syncopated rhythm, an even flow of strikes that never missed the mark (see the video). After he had finished, he had me try. In comparison to his striking, mine were an erratic uncoordinated mess with half of the strikes missing the mark.
“Now,” said Coach, “I will show you how to hit the tire properly.”
He then began hitting the tire in an extremely slow manner- each strike precisely on the mark.
He proceeded with this advice. “If you want to achieve 100% accuracy, you need to start by practicing at a speed that allows you to do that.” He then instructed me to try the exercise again but at a very slow speed.
I started the exercise again and I slowed myself down to a speed where I was hitting with every strike.
“How does that feel?”, asked Coach. “Now you are hitting with every strike.”
The lesson that he was trying to teach was that we should be training for success. What happens is that we think we need to go fast to be successful. Actually it is the other way around. By training slow we ensure that we are successful. At the slow speed we can start to pay attention and notice where we are making our mistakes. We can begin to adjust and increase the efficiency of our practice. As we practice in this manner our bodies become accustomed to the movement and it begins to fix in our body memory till the movement becomes automatic. As we become more proficient our speed begins to increase retaining the accuracy. At a fast speed we get excited and start to fail. When we practice fast and continue to fail we may become discouraged and may abandon the practice altogether. We are also not learning to do the technique properly.
“There is another reason to practice accuracy.” Coach said. “In a combat or self defense situation, the strike that we miss may be the one that would have saved our life.” Coach is constantly saying, “It is better practice slow and right then fast and wrong.”
After a week of practice with the sticks I can see a major difference following his advice. I am no Coach Freedman but I have a goal to aspire to.
For more on Coach Freedman’s approach to slow training, read the post on Stickman Jeff Finder’s Escrima blog Peter Freedman on Training Slowly.
Video provided by Philip Duldulao
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