You learn to do anything, by doing it. You learn to fight, by fighting. Reading books, practicing kata/patterns... yes some theory works. But if you want to learn how to fight, you need to fight. You need to feel the fear of getting punched. To move even when you're afraid. To trust the muscle memory of what you have trained. No, just reading and practicing on a punching bag is not enough. How do you learn how to speak French? You learn how to speak French by speaking French. I tried studying, reading, understanding the grammar. But the body doesn't work that way. The brain doesn't work that way. The mouth cannot make the correct sounds without practicing. The ears cannot hear and understand without listening. The mind and mouth cannot formulate a response in a conversation without actually doing it. Our current knowledge, our fluency in whatever language is our first language, is all cultivated by doing it over and over again....