To have any chance of mastering the last three components, you must first master the basics. Basic techniques (stances, blocks, hand strikes, kicks, and body motion) are taught to all beginning students during their first few weeks of training. Then, over the years, they are taught to perform these basic techniques in patterns, sparring, and breaking.
Many students, of all ranks, think of a technique as just being a single technique. For example, when asked to perform a side kick, they execute a side kick, with no consideration given to the components parts of the kick that they learned during their first weeks of training. Because of this, when they use the side kick in a pattern, it looks sloppy; when they use it in sparring, it is always ineffective; and when they use it in breaking, the boards do not break. Then they get frustrated and try to force more speed and power into the kick, but the kick only gets worse. At this point, the instructor tells them to "remember the basics!"
When a side kick is performed using all the basic motions (high knee and foot chamber, proper foot shape, knee thrust and hip rollover, and high re-chamber) the kick works. Even when the side kick is performed with lighting speed, each of these motions is still present.
If you concentrate on the basic motions of every technique as you perform it, the movements will become engrained into the muscles and nerve connections until the movements become instinctive. However, this will only occur when you consciously concentrate on achieving each of the basic motions every time you perform a technique.
Problems occur when the basics are neglected. If you allow a technique to become sloppy as you train, the instinctive motions of the technique will also become sloppy. As students progress in rank, they tend to consider the basics as being something for beginners to worry about. Their patterns become sloppy, and, when sparring, they rely on the fleeting attributes of youth, such as speed and quick reactions. As they get older and slower, their sparring skills deteriorate and they begin lose interest in sparring. However, when the basics are emphasized while they train, their patterns become works of art and, as they age, their sparring is still sharp because they rely on the basics, not on youthful attributes.
Another problem with neglecting the basics is a stagnation of skills. If you neglect the basics, you will reach a skills plateau where you never seem to improve. However, if you concentrate on perfection of the basics, your skills will continue to improve as you inch ever closer to the unachievable state of perfection.
If you concentrate on performing technically perfect techniques, at some point everything will come together and you will find that people complement your beautiful patterns and are in awe of your sparring skills. As you train, there is always that one repetition of a technique that feels "perfect." When it occurs, you feel good about yourself and you try to achieve that feeling again, but it never seems to occur again. If you concentrate on perfecting your basics, at some point you will begin achieving this feeling regularly. It may take years to achieve this level, but when it happens, you will feel that you are now really understand what Taekwondo is all about and that you have achieved some level of mastery of the art.
