Do drills lead to bad habits?
This question typically arises because of the notion that drills often seem unrealistic, or otherwise don't accurately represent what would happen in a real situation.
That's absolutely right! But let me qualify that assessment.
It is critical to first understand exactly what a drill is. Fundamentally a drill is an artificially constructed set of movements, either within the confines of a specific context or completely removed from any context.
The purpose of a drill is to take a basic unit of movement and repeat it over and over in a compact way so as to train the muscle memory for that movement. Those units of movement are constituent parts that are later combined to develop a specific skill.
When viewed (improperly) as technique, drills look unrealistic or compromising in some way. Well, yes. It is absolutely true that drills come with assumptions and presuppositions. That's why they are "drills."
Let's take sumbrada as an example, also called laban laro (laban = fight, laro = play, "play fight"). It has a number of parameters defining how it is typically performed:
Of course, the natural argument to that is, "aren't you then learning bad habits when you make all those assumptions?" Yes, but not as a fault of the drill itself. Rather, it can happen if you either do the drill either incorrectly or improperly.
"Incorrectly" refers to not adhering to the rules or parameters defined in the drill. I have first-hand experience of being shown a drill completely backwards. The person who showed it to me didn't fully understand it in the first place (I had otherwise been shown the drill from the source, so I knew how it was actually supposed to work).
"Improperly" refers to compromising your own movements, such as foregoing good habits out of laziness. I can't tell you how many times I've seen sumbrada done terribly - poor (or no) footwork, sloppy strike form, strikes that wouldn't actually hit their target, weak blocking structures, the list goes on and on. Does that make sumbrada a bad drill? Of course not. Sumbrada is wonderfully rich and complex if you dig into it deep enough. But when you do it badly, you don't benefit from it, or worse yet you create the bad habits. Or in other words, bad habits come from doing the drill badly.
Everything I've said thus far assumes that the drill is well-designed. However, it's also possible, but unlikely, that the drill could be faulty. If it's structured in a way that you can't perform it without compromising your movements, something might be wrong with the drill. Again using sumbrada as the example, let's say theoretically that one of the blocks requires you to turn your back to your partner, and there's no way to do it without turning your back. Well, that's probably a poorly designed drill. Or perhaps it's a parameter of the drill that's simply invalid and needs to be removed or revised. Again, not typical but not unheard of.
The artificial nature of drills is not a shortcoming but rather a shortcut. They distill out the essence of the movement to allow you to focus your attention strictly on that component. Drills are the tool for that concentrated kind of learning. Once you learn whatever it is the drill is supposed to teach you, you can put the tool away and reintegrate your movement back into your larger skillset. Every now and then your skills might dull, at which time you call pull the tool out again to resharpen. Drills aren't necessarily static either - as your skills increase, the tool can change and evolve with you. It all comes down to using the tool properly.
That's absolutely right! But let me qualify that assessment.
It is critical to first understand exactly what a drill is. Fundamentally a drill is an artificially constructed set of movements, either within the confines of a specific context or completely removed from any context.
The purpose of a drill is to take a basic unit of movement and repeat it over and over in a compact way so as to train the muscle memory for that movement. Those units of movement are constituent parts that are later combined to develop a specific skill.
When viewed (improperly) as technique, drills look unrealistic or compromising in some way. Well, yes. It is absolutely true that drills come with assumptions and presuppositions. That's why they are "drills."
Let's take sumbrada as an example, also called laban laro (laban = fight, laro = play, "play fight"). It has a number of parameters defining how it is typically performed:
- Counter-for-counter structure (back and forth, alternating attack and defend)
- Specific pattern for strikes and blocks
- Specific response to each specific attack
- Specific follow-up to each defense
- Regular, steady timing
Of course, the natural argument to that is, "aren't you then learning bad habits when you make all those assumptions?" Yes, but not as a fault of the drill itself. Rather, it can happen if you either do the drill either incorrectly or improperly.
"Incorrectly" refers to not adhering to the rules or parameters defined in the drill. I have first-hand experience of being shown a drill completely backwards. The person who showed it to me didn't fully understand it in the first place (I had otherwise been shown the drill from the source, so I knew how it was actually supposed to work).
"Improperly" refers to compromising your own movements, such as foregoing good habits out of laziness. I can't tell you how many times I've seen sumbrada done terribly - poor (or no) footwork, sloppy strike form, strikes that wouldn't actually hit their target, weak blocking structures, the list goes on and on. Does that make sumbrada a bad drill? Of course not. Sumbrada is wonderfully rich and complex if you dig into it deep enough. But when you do it badly, you don't benefit from it, or worse yet you create the bad habits. Or in other words, bad habits come from doing the drill badly.
Everything I've said thus far assumes that the drill is well-designed. However, it's also possible, but unlikely, that the drill could be faulty. If it's structured in a way that you can't perform it without compromising your movements, something might be wrong with the drill. Again using sumbrada as the example, let's say theoretically that one of the blocks requires you to turn your back to your partner, and there's no way to do it without turning your back. Well, that's probably a poorly designed drill. Or perhaps it's a parameter of the drill that's simply invalid and needs to be removed or revised. Again, not typical but not unheard of.
The artificial nature of drills is not a shortcoming but rather a shortcut. They distill out the essence of the movement to allow you to focus your attention strictly on that component. Drills are the tool for that concentrated kind of learning. Once you learn whatever it is the drill is supposed to teach you, you can put the tool away and reintegrate your movement back into your larger skillset. Every now and then your skills might dull, at which time you call pull the tool out again to resharpen. Drills aren't necessarily static either - as your skills increase, the tool can change and evolve with you. It all comes down to using the tool properly.