Some of my favourite things aside from my family are computers, martial arts, and cooking. Thus the title.
At first glance you might think ‘Wtf? What do these have in common?’. Bear with me. They may not have much in common on the surface, but perhaps there is more than we think if we view them all as systems. Perhaps looked at in the right way, this can help us in general in whatever we might be learning next.
Martial Arts
I have been part of several martial arts organizations in the last twenty five years. Their teaching methods often differed significantly from very traditional ‘line up in class and practice horse stance’ to more informal club style gatherings with free practice. In the last eight years I have settled in with a small stable group of enthusiasts. We lean much more towards the informal practice, tribal method.
What do we practice, you ask? TKD, Karate? BJJ? Perhaps some Wing Chun or kick boxing? Arnis? I can’t give a clear cut answer on that, because like many of the systems in the last couple decades, we draw influences and training from a number of sources. I’m not going to debate the pros and cons of focused, specific system training as opposed to a variety of systems — I believe that either can work and that it really depends on the student, not the system. What I want to focus on is the methods behind the training and the concepts we use to improve and be effective. We will poach ideas from a lot of sources. We feel that if they work, they work, regardless of who came up with them. We will always give credit where it is due however.
To clarify, our people and our system don’t generally compete or focus on the sport aspect of martial arts, though I believe that everyone I train with loves the sport and skill aspect of training themselves to move and respond efficiently and effectively. Competition can be very fun and certainly can have it’s place.
Part of what I really enjoy about how we train is our focus on concepts. Angles and movement. We are not ‘technique collectors’, though on casual inspection our framework may seem to contain many. Once you are past the initial stage and immersing yourself in how we train, you realize that it is essential to understand the movement behind the techniques and the concepts in common that underlie the different aspects of defense. an angle of attack is for the most part the same whether you are using a fist, an open hand, or an elbow though the range might differ. The idea of your closest weapon to the target often being the most efficient and quickest weapon make sense regardless of the angle or the part of your body you are using. For a surprising number of situations, a movement you may use while on your feet will work very similarly if you are on your back.
It is a mindset — instead of thinking that you need to learn nine different knife hand strikes, you begin to realize that it is one knife hand. What changes is range, intent, available targets, position. You don’t need to look at wrist locks as being a number of completely different techniques. You learn that it is a matter of similar pressure or angles on different joints, so knowing how the body works becomes more important.
Don’t get me wrong. There are always some specific details that need to be adjusted and always tweaks that can be made to what you are doing to improve your skill. That is another aspect of practicing martial arts that I enjoy very much, the continuous improvement which is usually directly dependent on the amount of time you invest in it.
The group I train with feels like ‘home’. It feels like the people that I should be training with. I feel like I am not just learning the techniques as mentioned above, but deepening my understanding of how to be an effective martial artist from both the art and practical defense standpoints. I also feel that I can apply many of the principles we work with to other aspects of my life to try and be a better and more effective person.
In my own long-winded fashion I am looking at the age old concept of ‘Teach a person to fish and they can feed themselves for a lifetime, buy them a box of fish sticks and they will be hungry by bedtime’. Maybe I don’t have that quite right, but you get the idea.
So….Computers?
So how does this relate in any fashion to computers or electronics or technology in general? Where is there a commonality between the study of a martial art, the study of programming or circuit design or network design and security?
Concepts. Understanding. Learning the building blocks of the system or subject that you have chosen. If you are a programmer and you spend the time to understand the basic concepts involved with the field and build them up from there, then your understanding will carry you through new learning much easier. Mind you, I said easier, not necessarily easy.
If you are a programmer and you understand binary/hex, Boolean logic, the idea of loops (or if you are into functional programming, recursion perhaps?) and decision making, these are all examples of things that are part of most programming languages in some form or another. Understanding how the hardware handles your code at a base level may allow the programmer to learn new and different systems more quickly because they have a bit of insight into how things are working under the hood. In circuit analysis, breaking a circuit down to its basic components may make it easier to wrap your head around the more complex outcome it is designed to provide.
To expand on one of my examples from earlier, consider binary and hexidecimal numbers. I learned what they were in the early 80’s on my VIC-20 and Commodore 64. The scope of them many have changed a little now, but manipulating binary or hex numbers is the same now as then. It is ingrained that I can look at one of these and recognize what it is in decimal (ok, if it is a big number, it is going to take me a minute). Where are people still directly manipulating these sometimes? Any of the microcontroller work I do, I see some, and I do see a lot of web programming reference hex color codes directly as well, to name two.
But…Cooking?
A long time ago in a galaxy far away, I obtained my (here in Canada) Interprovincial Journeyperson certificate as a cook. When you work as a cook, you realize very quickly that organization, efficiency, and planning are more important than your favourite recipes. We see the celebrity chefs on TV and though innovation and creativity are also essential components, if you can’t organize your way out of a paper bag, you probably won’t make it.
My wife and I are slowly teaching our son to cook. We started when he was quite young, involving him with simple tasks, until how he comes up with his own soup or stew or casserole, asks me to buy what he needs if we don’t have it, and makes it on his own (getting him to do the dishes and clean up properly is a whole other matter…) Our focus is not on learning specific recipes,though there is some of that, but on the concepts and methods behind safe, tasty, organized cooking. Why do we braise or boil certain items and saute others, why are certain temperatures important, why certain ingredients work well with others (and not with some). Knowing what purpose each ingredient in a dish serves can help you substitute or modify a recipe or formula if you need to. That gives you flexibility and power, making you better at cooking. What part does fat play in a bakery recipe or formula? How does modifying certain parameters affect the final product?
Could I not substitute ‘program’ for ‘bakery recipe’ in my last sentences and apply it in general to testing a script I have written?
Closing Thoughts
That is where I now see a clear commonality — the idea that learning the base principles of the system I am working with, regardless of whether it is a programming language, a martial art, or a specific cooking style, will allow me to understand what I am doing at a deeper level and modify and manipulate it as I need to depending on the situation.
I now do my best to apply that open mindset mindset to anything I am confronted with. If my son is trying to explain something about music and piano playing to me, I try to look at it initially not as ‘how does this music stuff work? Its confusing’ and instead look at it as ‘this is a system — how does it work in general? What are the basic principles?’.
I am in no way saying there are not system specific ideas and techniques that you need to know — every system, whether martial arts or a programming language or a style of cooking has it’s own advantages or limitations. I believe that really being grounded in the seminal ideas will almost always give you a bit of an advantage in learning those specifics in another system. I’m sure that an experienced C programmer could pick up Python much quicker than I am doing, and that a seasoned Silat practitioner could pick up Wing Chun more quickly than someone starting new if they have the right mindset. Yes, there may be ‘bad’ habits to unlearn from the previous system, but approaching it with an open, receptive mind will probably give you an advantage.
Another important aspect of learning any system or framework of any type is repetition. However, I don’t completely believe in the idea of ‘any practice is good practice’, as you can very quickly adopt poor habits if you persist in repeating something poorly. Good, clear, effective practice is what you want, practice that allows you to hone your efficiency and confidence in what you are doing, make it more instinctive.
Of course, this is all dependent on what you are trying to achieve. If your focus at work or in your study is very narrow and specific, it may not be worth your while to spend the time studying the underlying machinery of a system. Sometimes time, money, and interest will mean a more specific, focused approach is the way to go. Each situation is different, and applying some of the same principles I spoke about earlier in the article, being flexible about how you apply your thinking is important. Knowing a system of any type is fantastic — but it should allow you to to not just follow that system perfectly, but also modify and manipulate it at will.
