On the difference between training and practice.

Reflecting on history through the science and philosophy of keiko.​

In classical Japanese martial arts, the concept of keiko (稽古) is often mistranslated as “training,” yet it literally means “to reflect upon what is old.” This reveals a fundamental difference between training and practice. Training implies applying external load or instruction to produce measurable adaptation or technical efficiency, a process that can be standardized and externally directed. Keiko, however, refers to practice as reflective exploration: an internal study where understanding arises through movement itself.

As Zoughari (2022) explains, “the employment of this kind of movement demands from the beginning, an intimate knowledge of one’s body, as it involves using the whole body as a single unit with all its physical potential,” and “this same principle can be found in every Densho and Makimono from Bujutsu; in all disciplines without exclusion” (pp. 13-14). Through such keiko, the practitioner is not merely repeating forms but engaging in a living inquiry into balance, timing, and intent. Although the outward form appears constant, no two executions are ever identical, each reveals subtle variations in perception, intent, and control.

This reflects Bernstein’s (1967) principle of “repetition without repetition,” which demonstrates that even the most practiced movement is never reproduced in exactly the same way. Skilled coordination emerges through continual adaptation to the constraints of task and environment.

Rob Gray (2021) expands on this in his discussion of the ecological approach to skill acquisition, describing practice as a process of guided exploration in which performers learn to detect information, adapt to variability, and self-organize movement solutions rather than mechanically repeating fixed patterns.

Taken together, these perspectives reveal that keiko embodies both the philosophical and scientific essence of practice. It is reflection through embodied movement, an active dialogue between perception, action, and principle. The body becomes the site of study, the movement, the method and awareness of the outcome.

Thus, keiko represents not the training of the body alone, but the cultivation of understanding through the body: a continual, exploratory refinement in which the old is reflected upon, rediscovered, and made living in each new moment of practice.

References
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• Zoughari, K. (2022)  Budō & Koryū: Articles and Interviews . 13–14.
• Bernstein, N. (1967) The Co-ordination and Regulation of Movements.
• Gray, R. (2021) How We Learn to Move: A Revolution in the Way We Coach & Practice Sports Skills.