(Approx 2 minute 25 second read)

I was at school in the 1970s when a friend of mine managed to sneak into the cinema to watch Enter the Dragon, the iconic Bruce Lee movie.
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The next day he was so enthusiastic about it that, even though I had never heard of Bruce Lee or knew anything about Kung Fu, I had to find a way to see it. I was 13, it was X-rated, so getting in was going to be an issue. Fortunately, I had a dad who was open-minded, and he got me in.
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That was it, I was hooked. I bought everything I could about Bruce Lee, Kung Fu, and the martial arts. I turned 14 in March and joined a dojo. Being in a small town there was only one club, not Kung Fu, but it would have to do.
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From that moment on, I sought out as much information as I could, magazines, books, movies, and conversations with others who practiced different arts, always looking for something I could use, not just collect.
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What interested me most was Bruce Lee’s reputation for cross-training, for building knowledge from other arts and sources. After all, knowledge is everything, right?
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“Knowledge is power,” or so people say.
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I don’t agree. Knowledge isn’t power, it only has the potential to be powerful. There’s a difference. Knowledge without application is nothing. Too many people are more interested in knowing than in doing. They collect knowledge like books on a shelf.
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As Bruce Lee once said, “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”
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I remember a 2nd dan who wanted to train with me saying, “I know all your kata.” Apparently he had watched them on YouTube. That’s knowledge without substance.
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Knowledge only becomes power when you understand it and can apply it. There’s no point in theory without practice. Learning isn’t about memorization and rote performance. For me, practice has to be practical, it has to work in the context I apply it.
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People often say you can’t get realism in training because of safety concerns. I disagree. Of course you can’t go all-out, but you can still replicate many of the traits an attacker might use. And remember, there are countless things that can be done before a fight even starts.
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And all of that knowledge needs to be tested. Be clear on what is being trained at any given moment, and pursue skills in line with that objective.
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Why? Because the problem is you, as the martial artist, don’t know what the criminal is going to do, and they don’t act like martial artists.
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So when moving from theory into practice, you need an end goal. You need to know what you want to do with the knowledge you’ve gained. That means understanding the fundamentals, the basics, the principles, so you can always return to them as a baseline in the context you’ve chosen.
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Apply what you’ve learned. Expect to fail, and learn from it when you do. Think about what to do when things go wrong, because they will. That’s experience.
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Trying to acquire experience only from theory is like trying to satisfy hunger by reading the menu. Applied practice will always outperform theory alone.
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Don’t be like that nidan. I never saw him again after that conversation, maybe he tried another school, I don’t know. But what I do know is this:
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Knowledge has potential. Applied knowledge is real power.
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Written by Adam Carter – Shuri Dojo
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Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Enter the Dragon.