Maybe too much information has also been killing off the deeper understandings and insights to be gained in martial arts. There’s a lot to be said for mindful repetition of skilled movement and too much ‘thinking’ and information overload blocks these insights.

Because of the structure of our society we confuse the more we know about something with actually knowing it. There’s a big difference between accumulating knowledge with the simplicity of doing it with a few basic principles that encompass the knowledge to be gained through repetitious practice rather than tripping over mental information that couldn’t possibly be accomplished at that level of training.

A great coaching skill is to teach in principles, giving a theme to a period of time giving the students enough time and opportunity to practice with encouragement and correction until the student is able to repeat it back to the coach and validate the teaching.

This leads to a structured learning programme where the student gets a deeper understanding and gains personal insights through their own repetitive training unencumbered by all the superfluous trivia that they didn’t need at the time.