Moving from unconsciously incompetent to consciously competent—

I was thinking about an article that Mr. Shields posted awhile back concerning the difference between memorizing and understanding. As I was reflecting on his thoughts, I started thinking about what it means to “grow in taekwondo.”

There are three ways to grow in taekwondo. The first is to grow in your skill level—or growth in the body. This involves developing your strength, fitness, flexibility and speed. This is probably the easiest area of growth for many students. It’s easy to memorize moves and practice. You see your kicks get higher. You break boards easier. You become more confident in your sparring. And, you advance in rank. Those who really embrace “growing” in physical skill take on new training practices, new eating habits, and new fitness strategies. They realize that simply coming to class a couple of times a week isn’t enough to get fit, stay fit, and get stronger in their taekwondo. Fitness and taekwondo become a part of their daily lives.

The second way of growing in taekwondo is in the mind. This is increasing the mental aspects of your training—which really has two parts. First you become aware of your physical state and strive to improve it. You see your side kick isn’t chambered correctly. You see your forms lack power and depth. You see where your sparring needs to improve. Secondly, you start “understanding” your martial art. This is tougher to explain. People often say that they reach a point when they are learning a foreign language they start dreaming in that language—they’ve arrived. Mental growth in taekwondo is similar. All of the sudden you start thinking about your forms—not the moves, but the form. You start seeing subtleties that you never were even aware of. You realize why Eternal Grand Master used one stance over another. You arrive on another plane.

It is possible to grow in each of these areas independently. In the first, as you grow in you r physical skill, you are becoming more competent. Your awareness hasn’t changed much so you are in a state of unconscious competency. You have moved from the state of unconscious incompetency—not knowing what you know or can do. In the second, you grow in the mental aspects of the art, but you don’t grow physically—you are consciously incompetent. We all go through times when we fit into each of these categories. When we first move into a new belt—we are definitely unconsciously incompetent. Then we watch someone do our new form and we become aware that we can’t do that yet—consciously incompetent. Or, when we first memorize the moves of our form, we may lack total understanding of the form itself—we just go through the moves. Welcome to unconscious competence!

To truly grow in “The Way” of taekwondo, you need to grow in both the physical and mental aspects of Songahm. You need to move into conscious competence. You see, you do, you understand, you grow. Without a doubt, I am happiest in my progress when I find myself in this state. Outside of conscious competence, I am dissatisfied and feel like I am out of balance. When there is a physical aspect that I have not mastered—I am frustrated. When I can’t figure out “why,” I feel distracted. When I am in a place of understanding and ability to perform, I feel complete and balanced.

Unfortunately, I’m not in this state of conscious competence nearly enough—but that is always my goal. That’s where I want to live—in a place of balance and understanding. So, as a new student or a veteran who has developed the physical side but not the mental, how do you reach this place? In my opinion, it is easiest to grow the physical. Growing the understanding and mental aspects of taekwondo take much more time and patience. You really need to be willing to “navel gaze” and quite frankly, study. Reading the posts on this blog is a good start. Mr. Shields and others have put up some amazing thoughts! Reading your ATA magazine also provides some great insights and current thinking of the Masters. The Way books are probably the most valuable print resource you can get your hands on—and very easy to collect as you move through the ranks. Start with the volume on Philosophy! Finally, go to camps, go to tournaments, and take advantage of opportunities to learn from the Masters and Legends of taekwondo any chance you get! The talent and knowledge we have in our very own region is astounding—take advantage of it!

Good luck on your journey!

Mr. Bailey