Micro Training

In modern society it is hard to find huge chunks of time to do anything. If you work 40 plus hours a day and have a family, it is hard to block out a two hour period in a day unless you do it first thing in the morning or schedule it at night. If you have school, your schedule is equally as hectic since most of the studying is done outside the class room. Anecdotal studies say that it takes 10,000 hours to master any skill. If you spent an hour a day training, it would take you approximately 27 years to master martial arts. It also takes deliberate practice to focus on areas of weakness so that you can master the skill.

So how can we log enough time to achieve martial arts mastery, if our day is loaded with other tasks that require our attention? The answer is micro training, short workouts that can last from 5 - 20 minutes in which your training has a single focus. Here is a sample of some micro-training sessions:

you want to work on punching technique, you can take a short break at the office and find a quiet space with little distraction(At my office there are courtyards where there aren't any offices within walking distance). You spend 10 minutes doing sets of punches - 100 horizontal fist punches, 100 vertical fist punches, back fists, hammer fists, reverse punches. The entire workout can be done in 5 - 10 minutes depending on the speed.

You can do isometric exercises at your desk.

Then you can spend your next session working on techniques mentally. Visualize an opponent attacking you a variety of different ways. What would be some of your responses. if you have the space - do some light shadow boxing.

Work on movements like forms - you can do one form at a tai-chi like speed. Or go over more than one form if you have the time.

If you work 8 hours in a day you can get through 8 sessions. If you do each session for 5 minutes you have 40 minutes of focused training time. If you did 10 minutes that would be an extra 1.5 hours you trained in a day. You can easily add this to your regular morning or evening workout routine to supplement your training.