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On The Nature Of Training by Rob Jacob
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Power in various forms can generally be calculated as the product of two factors. In electricity, Ohm’s law states that power (wattage) is calculated by multiplying amperes (the quantity of electrons) by voltage (the amount of pressure pushing the electrons). The power of water coming out of a fire hose can be calculated by multiplying the volume of the water by the pressure of the water. The force of a bullet hitting an object can be calculated using Newton’s second law, multiplying the mass of the bullet times the acceleration (or in this case rapid deceleration). The power of martial arts skills can be calculated by multiplying the time in training by the intensity of training (how hard or how seriously you train).
Let’s look at the first part of the equation: time. I want to congratulate you on the time that you have spent training so far. By simply starting training, you have already done more than most people in the world who have never even seen the inside of a dojo. And if you have been training more than a year, give yourself a pat on the back. You have already surpassed the majority of people who studied the martial arts. You have made sacrifices of time, money and effort. Not everyone is willing to pay the price, or make the commitment you have. Martial arts classes have a very high attrition rate. According the book Teaching Martial Arts by Tony Gummerson, statistically, of 100 people that start martial arts training, at the end of one year, less than 15 will still be training. And at the end of two years, even less of these same people will still be coming to class. Next time you are in the dojo, look at the black belts. For every black belt you see there were many people, perhaps hundreds of people who started training, and left for one reason or another. This is a process of natural selection except that the people who are gone have in most cases culled themselves. The people who earned black belts were simply the ones who didn’t quit. But it doesn’t end at black belt either. I have known black belts who have stopped training for one reason or another. Life happens. Mas Oyama wrote in his book This Is Karate that only "1-2 out of every 100 students reach Black Belt, and of those only 1 out of every 1,000 achieves his 2nd Dan.”
But training for a long time is only part of the equation. The second part is how hard or seriously you train. For example, take a fictional pair of identical twins named Andy and Barry. Both have been taking the same martial arts class twice a week for three years. Andy hopes to join the police department, and sees the training as preparation. On the other hand Barry just sees the class as something fun to do. Andy practices at home, while Barry only practices in class. When Andy gets tired, he pushes and tries to keep going. Barry also gets tired while practicing, but will slow down, or walk off the floor to rest and get a drink of water. When Andy practices kata, he envisions his attacker, and throws his blocks, punches, and kicks as if he were fighting for his life. Barry just tries to punch and kick hard. Andy is thinking about how to make his techniques just a little better. Barry is thinking about the requirements for the next belt test. At the end of three years, which one will be more likely to keep going when they encounter an obstacle? Which one do you think will be more likely to able to push through the pain and fatigue of a real fight, and keep going? Which is more likely to have more effective techniques?
Training hard, and pushing through fatigue, causes the body to adapt. If you do 20 pushups every day, your body would adapt to doing the 20 pushups a day and stop. You might be hard pressed to do a significant number more than the 20. But if you try to do as many as you could every day, and keep pushing to do one or two more, your body will begin to adapt, and you’ll find you’ll be able to do an increasing number of pushups. The more often you practice martial arts techniques, the more they become engrained in your muscle memory (neuromuscular system). If you practice them ineffectually, that is how you will likely perform them when called upon to perform them for real. If you practice an aikido throw, or a karate kata as nothing more than some choreographed moves, you might as well be taking Tae Bo, or a dance class. Gichin Funakoshi wrote in his autobiography Karate-Do: My Way Of Life “Be deadly serious in your training. Your opponent must always be present in your mind, whether you sit or stand or walk or raise your arms.” He also wrote “You may train for a long, long time, but if you merely move your hands and feet and jump up and down like a puppet, learning karate is not very different from learning to dance.” He was talking about karate, but it can be equally applied to any martial art. This means if you are throwing a punch, or a performing a throw, practice them as if it is a forgone conclusion that someday, maybe soon, you will have to use the technique to save your life, or the life of the loved one.
Let’s be honest, we all know that even among black belts, some train harder or more seriously than others. Do you think the ones who train harder might have more endurance? Could they maybe apply their knowledge with more pressure or force? Can you think of some black belts that you would rather have beside you in a fight over others? Could it be that their volume of knowledge, multiplied by the intensity of their training, equals greater power? And could that power could be of use when dealing with attackers?
But also consider that martial arts skills have a half-life. I do not know what the half-life for martial arts skills would be, but I am guessing about six months or even less. This would mean that for every six months without practice, your martial arts skills would be cut by half. What does this mean for the person who just got a black belt, and satisfied, they stop training. If it took them four years to get to black belt level, in two years without any practice, their skills might be reduced to those of someone who has only trained for three months. If you do not practice them regularly, they will slowly decay. Think about a rechargeable battery. If you charge the battery and then put it away in a drawer unused, it will slowly lose its charge. Then six months or a year later when you need it, there will be little or no useable power left in it. Martial arts skills must be constantly recharged by training. And the longer and harder you train, the wider and deeper the reservoir will be for your skills.
Keep training, and train hard! The more you put into the martial arts, the more you will get out of them.
Rob Jacob is the author of: Martial Arts Biographies - An Annotated Bibliography.
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