In David Epstein’s Range he defines different environments in which we develop ourselves or compete in. He defines those in which we can recognize patterns as kind environments, and those that are the opposite as wicked.
“In wicked domains, the rules of the game are often unclear or incomplete, there may or may not be repetitive patterns and they may not be obvious, and feedback is often delayed, inaccurate or both” (Epstein 21)
Kind environments allow us to develop ourselves through repetition and pattern recognition, but wicked environments can actually punish us for following repetition.
Epstein then makes a comparison to the game of chess and an associated experiment through National Geographic in 2007 based on initial tests from the 1940’s (Epstein 24). When chess players were briefly shown a screen with a picture of a chess board with pieces in different real positions, those with higher ratings were more likely to redraw the piece positions when asked. Grandmasters performed better than Masters, and masters performed better than amateurs.
Interestingly though, the experiment was repeated in 1973 at Carnegie Mellon University. This time pieces were placed in positions that would never occur in a real game of chess. In this instance, skill made no difference in people’s ability to redraw the position of the pieces when asked.
Let’s take a look at the rules of a lot of stand up sparring in Tae Kwon Do, Tang Soo Do or some other forms of Karate. When I say rules, I do not mean what is legal or illegal, I mean what normally happens in a bout between two skilled fighters. I am referring to how skilled practitioners usually react to things that are presented to them and the dance that you usually see between students.
When we look at sparring a white belt in a standup art, they are like the chess board that has pieces in places that are unrealistic and sometimes impossible. This presents a challenge for an adept fighter. Many times the wildness of a very new student can throw off a senior student. While the junior student may not dominate the senior student, the senior student may look a little unusual while sparring.
Fighting on the ground and grappling, in my opinion, is different and you see much less of the idea of finding a beginner difficult to spar. On the ground, sure you look for openings with your eyes, but you also can feel your opponent. This sense of feeling is something that does not discriminate on skill level! That is to say that it does not give the beginner an advantage. Stand up sparring involving striking relies primarily on visual cues similar to the chess example above. .
So what does this mean for those of us that practice striking arts and our self defense skills? We can take two lessons from the chess experiments above. We can train the patterns that we truly expect an assailant to have in a form of organized chaos. Think of drills involving sneaking up on someone and throwing them a haymaker punch. They have some real training in this instance provided that the attacker does a good job throwing an attack with intent. This takes a wicked environment and makes it more kind.
We must also acknowledge that no matter how kind we try to make the environment that we call the street, we must understand that our defense against a mugger must be quick and direct. The longer we as skilled fighters stay in a wicked environment the greater our chance of not successfully exiting that situation is!
Not every part of our lives will be a kind learning environment. We must learn to roll with the punches both literally and figuratively. Just like how one way to heal imposter syndrome is to learn about imposter syndrome, you will stand to benefit from just learning about these different learning environments today. Now let’s put it to practice and get to work!
Sources Cited
Epstein, David. Range. Penguin USA, 2020.
