Those critical last few minutes of class: Most people associate the most important part of the class is the sparring section. There is a lot of truth to that – sparring is the single best way to translate knowledge into skill by a landslide. Others will say it's the drilling section – that is a definitely a fair assertion – drills impart knowledge and provide a valuable first step in converting that knowledge into skill in ways that can make a vast difference in your performance. A few will say it's the warm up because this provides some level of conditioning and helps reduce injuries that can disrupt progress. There is definitely truth to all those claims. One part of the class that gets no attention but which I strongly emphasize is the post workout review/discussion. This is where we sit down and puzzle out the problems we ran into during the main sparring session. The immense value of this is that IT SETS UP TOMORROWS WORKOUT. Remember that real progress never comes from any one workout – BUT ONLY FROM LONG STRINGS OF WORKOUTS WOVEN TOGETHER THAT BUILD UPON EACH OTHER INCREMENTALLY OVER time. By finishing with a resolution of outstanding problems today you set yourself up for improved performance tomorrow – and that's what it's all about. So take a few minutes at the end of class every now and then to problem solve in ways that make today's frustration into tomorrow's breakthrough – and watch your progress quicken
