Planning

General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe in World War II. In reading a book on strategy I found an excellent quote by him.
                                           
           "Plans are useless, planning is essential."

Simple and to the point. You do kenpo or some martial art for self-defense, making a plan to defend yourself in the event you have an altercation at some future time. You are planning. You get training on what your body and mind can do to handle a variety of situations and work it over and over to help insure a successful outcome. When it happens, you respond. It won't likely be with some standard technique sequence. It should be extemporaneous and the "plan" your were given as a student are useless. Warfighters will often relay the statement that all plans are changed at the moment of first contact. In other words, the plan is useless. But all that prior training and planning is what works.
Keep practicing.