Martial arts training requires a tremendous amount of repetition. Regardless of a person’s athleticism or years in training, the difference between the average black belt and the amazing one is usually the result of repetition training. Unfortunately repetition is not fun, and therefore most people have a hard time staying motivated to practice.
Repetition training requires narrow focus and a lot of time. No one likes doing the same kata for hours or practicing the same punch for years on end. Whether people like it or not, repetition is how skills are developed. There is no other way to become excellent.
Many students practice a lot, but not a lot of the same thing. So in all their training time, they have completed very little repetition. The common error is that students practice things only when they are new and interesting and then they move on to the next skill. The problem is that students want to refine their more advanced “cooler” techniques and they look past the value of the basics. Advanced technique is always rooted in something simple – something that gets boring if we repeat it too often. Boring or not, the best way to practice is to choose something simple and focus on it.
Just to give you all an idea of what I mean – I don’t count doing something 10 times as repetition training. Repetition training is doing straight punches for 30 minutes, or doing kata for and hour and half straight. Repetition training also means that every practice session involves this kind of effort. For example, to develop good kicking, it is better to focus on 2 or 3 kicks and really train them hard for an entire workout, rather than to practice 15 kicks (by doing a few of each) for 20 minutes as a segment of a workout. The best way to develop kata is by constant repetition. Sometimes, with kata, students need to focus on just one segment of the kata for hours, or weeks, or years.
The other issue is that if you tell people they need more repetition, they don’t understand how that will help them “advance” to their next belt. Repetition is not something you can show on a test, because on a test you only get one chance to get things right. However, if a student is used to high numbers of repetition, then the belt test is simply one more repetition, and not a dramatic or defining moment.
By using this kind of thinking, all skills are attainable if we commit ourselves to repetition training. We also have to accept that repetition training is our own responsibility and not our instructor’s.
This is true in my own career. It was always my choice to practice the same movements again and again – I was not forced or coerced to train. I happily accept the result of that choice and its consequences – the things I focused on I usually became good at. The things that I did not focus on and did not repeat, I did not become good at – and I accept that as well. I do not blame my instructors for my inability to focus or my lack of training on certain aspects of my martial arts. Nor do I think that my weaker techniques are inherently “bad” or “wrong.” I know that I just have not refined them for long enough to understand them quite yet.
I had a sensei that used to say “Repetition is the mother of mastery.” I don’t know whether he was quoting someone else or if he made that up, but it is really true in martial arts.
#1 by Craig Jackson on September 24, 2009 - 11:14 pm
I can attest to what Sensei Julian is saying. I was a student with him many years ago, and the lack of focus on belt advancement was very effective in making the training about the growth of character and ability as opposed to “getting that black belt”. After spending a few years in class, I began not to care about getting the next belt. For my most recent orange belt my sensei had to actually insist I advance to the next belt because I showed no interest in testing.
This is very different than most schools I have visited since and something that really separates art from sport in my opinion. Different people progress in different styles of learning but the excessive repetition is the only way I can feel like I have mastered something. If a technique or kata doesn’t feel like a basic motor function without concentrating on the motion itself, then I haven’t mastered it.