The most distracted generation – ever, and boy does it show up on the dojo floor. I don’t mean the hyper-activity, the lack of attention of the ever popular ADD diagnosis I am talking about the thing I call the WIN syndrome it stands for “What Is Next.” mind frame. Yeah I made up the name WIN but the behavior is not new, it is part of youth you can see it demonstrated by simply watching adults and children eat ice cream.
Adults get a bowl, get some ice cream and take smaller, slower bites, the youth has has already emptied their bowl and are begging for more. This is adult v. child, and the WIN attitude is appropriate for kids. If you saw that behavior in an adult you would find it off putting, and certainly lamentable. Yet the WIN behavior is OK, to use in sports and of course the dojo, the syndrome is more about acquisition and not as much about — should I say enjoyment?
So I have to tell you a quick story here about an instructor I knew was doing a walk through of a health club with the karate instructor he was going to replace. The outgoing instructor asked of the incoming instructor, “You guys do weapons?” “Some.” was the reply, “Yeah I used to, but I mastered them and moved on.” nice…nice example of the WIN mentality.
Forget ADD, the WIN syndrome; hurry, acquire, amass, move on, it creates the distraction of always looking ahead and not being present with what is happening right here.
Oh and for the record I have to diagnose myself as recovering from WIN, years ago, sure, but WIN none-the-less.
Hahah, yeah I think I get what you mean. We notice that a lot too, training college students in Arnis/Escrima. Very few really commit for the long term, thinking of course that one sem’s worth of training means you’re done, move on to some other activity/martial art. I guess the media developed low attention spans also have something to do with it.
One semester – oh that has got to be a hard one, an institutional end to the training, ouch.
kris+
Been thinking about this alot lately, it seems like often people see training as a way to get to a goal…you do X drill so that you can get to Y. I think especially for newer people this is what they see as the way to do martial arts, just acquire and complete some stuff so you can be done with it.
It doesn’t really work like that though, alot of times you end up with something very different than the goal you were actively training for, and you never really complete anything, you’re never done.
I think there is no way for someone new to training to understand that though, it seems to be something you figure out over time.
“Oh, there’s no actual end to this”.
For me that discovery was a great one, but I think for some it’s intimidating to realize that all these goals are just kind of …helpful mirages I guess you could say.
“Helpful mirages.” consider that stolen Zach!
I’ve noticed this too in Krav. Going over basics again and I can see some people’s eyes glazing over and them getting more sloppy because they’ve “done that”.
I think there’s a fine balance that commercial schools have to find between drilling things over and over to avoid complacency, but at the same time holding students’ interest.
I’ve been very conscious of this in my own mind while training and have started to force myself to pay more attention when I feel the boredom creeping in and treat it more as an opportunity. Don’t always succeed, but this is a good reminder to keep working on it. Patience is a hard-won skill
BTW, having problem with your RSS feed at the moment – am only getting the podcasts through in RSS and not the blog posts?
Pewari –
This is what I have to say to your comment — Exactly! In regard to the students and yourself. As for the RSSOddly we are working on the RSS right now – but thanks for the tip, much appreciated. Making the whole experience as easy as easy as possible is very important.
Be well and thanks for the listen!
Kris+