Why We Need Plateaus

By Alec Rains

When you’re just starting out in martial arts (or any skill), it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. There’s so much new information — stances, movements, drills, terminology — and it can all feel like mental clutter.

Imagine walking into a room where clothes, books, toys, dishes, and paperwork are scattered everywhere. It’s hard to think clearly, let alone know where to begin.

Training can feel exactly like that.

Gathering and Organizing

Just like cleaning a cluttered room, your first step is to start sorting. What matters most? What needs to be tossed? Where does each thing belong?

Training is no different. With time and repetition, your mind and body begin creating “buckets” — places to store knowledge and reactions. You stop reacting randomly and start responding deliberately.

This is the information gathering and organization phase — and it’s essential to future growth.

Streamlining and Refining

As you move beyond the beginner stage and into intermediate training, something shifts. You start to access the information you’ve gathered with more confidence. Movements flow more easily. Concepts begin to connect.

And importantly — you begin trimming away the excess.
Unnecessary steps. Hesitations. Overthinking.

You begin to refine your technique and thought process. This is where you start working smarter, not just harder.

“The plateau is nature’s way of creating change opportunity in ourselves.”

The Purpose of Plateaus

Eventually, one of two things tends to happen:

• You hit a wall of analysis paralysis — stuck overthinking when to act, even if the answer is obvious.
• Or you fall into complacency — comfortable with your current skillset, but no longer pushing forward.

Either way, you’ve hit a plateau.

And that’s exactly where you need to be.

Shifting the Perspective

Plateaus get a bad rap. We often view them as slumps or signs that we’re not improving. But in reality, they’re the setup for your next breakthrough.

Growth in training is really just positive change — improvement. But if everything is working, there’s no pressure to improve. Plateaus create that pressure. They highlight the limits of our current methods, forcing us to adapt, refocus, or seek guidance.

That’s the moment change becomes possible.

Supply and Demand (of Growth)

Growth is a response to demand — a need for something better. But identifying that need on your own isn’t always easy.

That’s why we have coaches, instructors, and training partners — to help you spot what’s missing, and point you toward what’s next.

The Ongoing Cycle

The cycle of:

• Clutter →
• Organizing →
• Refining →
• Plateau →
• Breakthrough

… never really ends. With each pass, you become more precise. More aware. More effective.

That’s what separates advanced students from others — not perfection, but refinement. And that’s why we say:

“There’s always something to learn.”

Final Thought

So the next time you feel stuck — like you’re plateauing or overwhelmed — understand this:

You’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.

The plateau is part of the process. What you do with it will determine whether you stay where you are, or move forward.

So step into it.

Sort the clutter.
Refine the work.
And keep climbing.