Truisms That Aren’t: Practice Makes Perfect

By: Jason Kraus

We are told from our earliest years that “practice makes perfect”. That in both academics and on the playground, the amount of practice is directly proportional to increased improvement. No more so than for high-skill, difficult to gain, physical expertise like karate.

At face value, this is obvious, but it’s not actually true.

We all grow up on that truism. In fact, we’ve all said those exact words to another person, reaffirming our conscious and unconscious belief that they are true.

But those words are demonstrably false. Practice does not make perfect.

Practice makes permanent.

Bad habits, lazy techniques, and shortcuts only become more ingrained through practice. The more bad practice, the more difficult it becomes to undo the damage.

That is one reason why the beginning is such a delicate time. When climbing the kyu ladder toward the dan ranks, the insightful guidance of skilled sensei is invaluable.

A true sensei will keep you from developing bad habits that can build the foundation for a healthy lifetime practice.

If not careful, some bad habits can slowly cause degrading damage to your joints and ligaments that will have a deleterious effect on your quality of life as you get older. Ten thousand oizuki from improperly aligned stances will cause problems, I promise you.

Train with skilled sensei. Pay attention to their guidance. Do your best to follow it.

The dan ranks are not free of this warning, however. In fact, black belts can be just as susceptible to bad practice habits as anyone.

Dan-ranked karateka must be extremely strict with themselves during training and especially during solo practice. Black belts have a habit of thinking that they are experts, that they fully understand something, which allows bad habits to creep back in. Black belts must pay close attention to foundational kihon and basic waza. Pay strict attention to stances and alignment, footwork and center of balance, spinal alignment and the pelvic floor, the kinetic chain.

Your karate only improves if you pay close attention to how you practice. Because practice makes permanent. Related: A Karate Lesson

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Jason Kraus is a lifelong martial artist. Jason spent decades in various martial arts including traveling to and living in both Japan and Korea. He has most recently returned to his first love, Shotokan Karate and trains at Missouri Karate Association.