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Tuesday, January 12, 2010

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.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Resolving to keep resolutions in MMX

As is customary at this time of year, We are all making our New Year's resolutions on what we want for 2010. I have made tons of resolutions through the years but very few stick. My goal this year is to keep to my goal list. Since the primary focus of this blog is martial arts and Kung-Fu in particular. I am posting them here to keep myself accountable to the few readers who read this blog (thank you for your comments and input) I think accountability for resolutions is a good key to keeping them. I also think that defined goals that can be accomplished incrementally will also allow me to accomplish my resolutions. Having a fuzzy, pie in the sky goal like - "I want to be Kung-Fu awesome" is not as readily achievable as - "I plan on improving my overall strength and flexibility by 20%" or "I will cut my body fat percentage by half". The latter can be measured and progress can be gauged. I guess it is the engineer in me that likes something quantifiable. Being awesome is subjective and can only be defined by others. So without further adieu here is my goal list for 2010 as it pertains to Martial Arts

Train Daily - I will train every day. Whether it is working on technique, strength training, endurance. I will do at least one training session of at least 20 - 30 minutes at a time. If I can squeeze 2 or 3 sessions in a day then that will be ideal, but my minimum is one 30 minute session a day. The sessions will have focus and intensity . On days where my body needs a rest, I will focus more on internal exercises like tai-chi and Qigong. I may also look into possibly trying out new martial arts like boxing and grappling.

Meditation - I will meditate daily for a total of 20 to 30 minutes a day. Whether it is doing it early in the morning or late in the evening. I can combine it with my training schedule. Meditation does not necessarily mean seated meditation (zazen). It could mean practicing tai-chi with full awareness, walking meditation or some form of Qigong that is meditative in nature.

Martial Arts Program - I've had an idea for a couple of years to start a non-profit martial arts program for at risk youth in my area. The goal is to make an after school program for at risk youth.my target demographic are adolescents to young adults. I think that there is so much benefit that can be gained from studying a martial art; confidence, health and discipline. I also think that it is a duty as a human being to improve our little corner of the world. This would be one way for me to do that. I have had a couple of false starts in 2009. I had meetings with my instructor that never went anywhere because we were all doing other things. There will be no such excuses this year.

The Vegan Experiment - I have been flirting with going on a completely vegetable diet for a while now. I haven't made it stick for an entire year. This year I do it. The caveat is that my diet will allow me to maintain and possibly enhance my training regimen. I don't think that will be a problem since there are plenty of world class athletes who don't eat meat. I will track my progress and maybe try to post my food log. I will also look into organic foods and juicing.

Philosophical and Mental Training - I plan to increase my knowledge on the history and philosophy of my art as well learn about other arts as well. I will read and learn more about Chan Buddhism, Taoism and Kung-Fu. I will also look at the history, philosophy and techniques of other martial arts. Every art has a warrior code of ethics, I will absorb what is useful to me and make note of it.

Practice Outside the Training Hall - If I train for an hour a day but do not incorporate my training into my every day life then my training is useless.I believe that often we only focus on the physical and neglect the mind and spirit. This is not an endorsement of any religious point of view. You can work on developing character without any particular religious framework. There are core principles that are common to all cultures.Traits like honesty, compassion, and courage are character traits that are essential to being a warrior. I signed up to be part of istartswith.us and I thought that would be a great way to exercises things like compassion for others. Nate St. Pierre's site is inspiring and I don't think you can not read his blog and not be fired up. All it takes is 15 minutes a day helping others, it doesn't sound like a lot but 15 minutes each done by a lot of people is huge.

So those are my goals and I'll be doing my best to achieve them. I'll be having the rocky montage playing in my head when I go through them.