Kata - Unconsciously competent - Consciously incompetent

Kata on Monday and overall I was quite pleased and from it I was left thinking about 'the four stages of competence':

In psychology, the four stages of competence, or the "conscious competence" learning model, relates to the psychological states involved in the process of progressing from incompetence to competence in a skill.

Initially I was able to perform all 10 kata without too much conscious thought, 'unconsciously competent' and to a standard I was happy with. Of course at the point where I began to 'think' about what I had to do, to refine the technique and improve my execution of the kata everything went a bit pear shaped, 'consciously incompetent'. In particular the second kodachi kata was all over the place and no amount of instruction was going to fix that because the unconscious aspect of getting it right at the beginning meant that I actually didn't have the conscious 'blueprint' in my head of what was correct. Whatever examples were then being shown to me just ended up a visual blur that I could not replicate.

Still, I think the attached graphic may be very useful for those doing kata, kendo or any other skill, just replace the word kata, to help identify where they are in their training. Although this isn't a cycle as such, there are clearly moments, as evidenced already, that mastery of such a skill doesn't always result in an eventual conclusion. Often the process begins again or goes back a few steps. Which brings us to my other news which isn't too great...

It seems the problems that I have with pins and needles in my arms isn't getting better, having seen the consultant yesterday he advises me that I really shouldn't be doing an activity that puts "axial force on my neck from being repeatedly bashed on the head". As he said I could carry on for the rest of my life and put up with the discomfort without ever having any further issues or something could happen, though what he didn't elaborate. 

Not particularly pleasant to contemplate, especially as it's my second post of my new fledgling blog. I've another scan scheduled to confirm the Consultants diagnosis, but I doubt his advice will change. I still want to continue, but I will only do so until April, hopefully achieve my 3rd Dan in the March and help organise the Kyusha Taikai and Seminar and then take the remainder of the year off to see if there are any improvements, the symptoms in my right hand have pretty much gone afterall and maybe review it in 2013. Here's hoping...