I was told a similar story by a martial arts instructor once. If I remember correctly, it involved an eager student who went to a kung fu monastery to study the ancient art with the greats. His first day there, his sensei gave him a bucket and told him to walk down to the river, fill it up, and bring it back to the monastery. When he got back, his sensei told him to smack all of the water out of the bucket using only his open hands. Once the bucket was empty, the student, eager to learn, asked the sensei what next. The sensei gave him the exact same instructions.
And so it continued day after day until an entire year had past. After the year was up, the frustrated student left the monastery disappointed and headed back home. Back in his town, around supper, his friends and family asked him to show them all the cool kung fu stuff he had learned in the past year. At first, he refused and tried to change the subject, but his friends and family persisted. Finally, he stood up and exclaimed, "It was a huge waste of time! I didn't learn anything!" And he smacked the table with his open palm and broke it in two. Everyone clapped in amazement. Masha Allah Tabarak Allah.
Something like that is in the karate kid too