What I learned at the WTKO Training Camp, part 3

continued from part 2. 

3. Being uncomfortable is valuable.

I had to ask Amos-sensei for clarification on this one.

Practicing a technique in a comfortable fashion has limited power to make you better at it.  That doesn’t mean it’s without value, just that after a while you become stuck there.  Sometimes you have to push yourself past what’s comfortable and be ok with it feeling uncomfortable.

It sucks to feel uncomfortable, especially when a specific technique used to feel “good”.  It’s definitely hard on your ego!  Once you can get past that, however, you find you’re enabling progress, and that’s never bad.

To be more specific, he demonstrated turning with a block.  If you push yourself and go faster than you’re used to, you’ll have a lot more momentum to deal with which throws your timing off in the middle and your stance off at the end.  Instead of feeling the need to dial it back to make it more comfortable, you’re better off getting used to the different timing and extra power, and figuring out how to make it work with the extra speed and power.  That’s the path to improvement, and you have to travel over speed bumps to get there.

This can apply to performing prescribed solos (the same solo over and over) or pushing your projection past what you think might feel silly.  It can also be more physical, like playing a solo just a little bit longer than your endurance is used to.

I've definitely talked about this concept before.  Once you're comfortable doing something, you risk stagnation letting it stay there too long.  It's great to get to that point after working hard, and if you're always struggling you'll burn out.  Best to find a balance!