You are a failure and that's ok... or is it?
We all know we have to fail to succeed but when it comes to training methods and techniques, not all failure is created equally. Your "tolerance" level which we will discuss later is a critical element in determining your success.
Let's break it down into two camps
Un-productive failure :
Practicing something in a way that won't lead to success or is so suboptimal it will take much longer than it needs to. Though this can be related to not practicing enough or being consistent enough. More often than not it's trying to do a progression without having met the logical pre-requisites, missing key components that make up that skill or position.
For example:
Kicking up and falling over for 2 years and being frustrated that you still can't do a handstand BUT you have skipped over basic skill and strength components built at the wall. As a result, you haven't developed any strength in your shoulders or wrists and you have no idea of how to rebalance yourself if you kicked up into a decent position anyway... This could continue for another 2 years...OR even worse you are terrified of falling but arent addressing it, so you under-kick for 2 years in the middle of the room and never quite make it up.
Productive failure :
Practicing something in a way that builds and leads to success eventually.
For example :
Kicking up and falling over BUT you catch yourself and hold for a few seconds here and there. It's only becoming a thing BECAUSE you have been developing your chest to wall holds to condition your shoulders, are working on drills that expand your rebalancing ability and sought out a coach to break down the pieces of your handstand as well as give you technical feedback. Although you still have your funky days where things don't work as well, slowly but surely you are becoming more consistent in your freeholds. You are balancing a little bit longer each week or month that passes. Failure and botched attempts are present but your failing in a way that isn't reinforcing bad habits. You are "failing correctly."
Tolerance level :
This can be either a positive or a negative.
When I say tolerance level I mean how much time spent failing you can tolerate. So we can also think of it as patience.
If applied to the unproductive failure example above we can see that in this case, high tolerance is actually not very helpful. You are not going to seek out guidance or change your approach soon enough to avoid wasting time and potentially injuring yourself. A lower tolerance might have helped you act sooner and find another approach or teacher.
If applied to our productive failure example we can see that a low tolerance would mean that we give up before enough time or repetition is allowed for skill and strength development to occur. In this case, high tolerance is obviously a positive.
When coaching, spotting these roadblocks that lead to nowhere is important. by contrast, letting a student know when there are failing productively, and to persevere, stay the course, and have patience can make all the difference.
It's worth noting that even unproductive failure can be a learning experience but your tolerance level would determine how quickly you learned from it and moved onto more fruitful tactics.
Have a think about your practice to see if any stagnant progressional blind spots need to be addressed. Happy training.
Sundi
