Well, lets look at this from a time stand-point. Say you're a student at a dojo 4 times a week for 1 to 1.5 hours each time. To build skill, you need to prioritize the things you need to work on to be a well-rounded fighter. Here are the things you could do:
1) Katas/Forms
2) Hitting different kinds of bags or pads
3) Sparring (either ground or standing), would include drills in this category
4) Setting up 'realistic' scenarios and taking turns doing them
5) Full-contact, 100% 1v1 matches with someone of equal or greater skill/experience.
Remember, you only have between 4 and 6 hours a week to do this. Katas/Forms are easy to practice and fairly quick to do. Weapons training tends to get the best benefits from this kind of repetition. However, perfecting complicated katas can eat up lots of time with little return in fighting skill. Working the heavy bag or contact mitts is good for conditioning and doesn't take too much time. Better than katas for building skill, but can breed over-confidence if done too much. Sparring is an outstanding way to build skill if done right. Requires a partner with some level of skill and can be time-consuming but really allows you to advance in your style. Sparring too much can make you sloppy, though, so don't overdo it. Scenarios are very time consuming and can degenerate into bullshit sessions very easily, but can help develop tactical and strategic thinking/reaction. Also requires an extremely good instructor and lots of props and equipment to do right. Full-contact fighting is rarely done by most people, but gives you large jumps in overall skill. Unfortunately, it takes a toll on your body and can be time-consuming. You must be very careful in who you pick to do this with, since the chance of injury can be fairly high.
So what does all that mean? It means you have to make a decision on how much time you want to spend on some of this stuff (4 hours isn't a lot of time). For myself, here would be a sample breakdown
kata/forms: 5% (shadowboxing in mirror, sprawl/shoot practice, karambit work)
contact mitts/heavy bag: 10%
sparring: 80% (submissions/kickboxing)
scenarios: .1% (not a strong-suit of my school)
full contact matches: 4.9% (tournaments, once a week 'Circle of Pain')
As you can see, I could probably do less sparring and more kata/forms and scenarios. There is a balance that has to be struck in all training to get maximum results. If you break up your training time the way I did, you may spot areas that need more or less time. I think I have pretty good skill for the time I've spent, but I'm in danger of stagnating if I don't switch some things up. Plus, as I get older, the percentage of full-bore competition stuff I do will probably decrease.
I would be interested to see how other people break down their training (and see if I'm on the right track or just kidding myself).
1) Katas/Forms
2) Hitting different kinds of bags or pads
3) Sparring (either ground or standing), would include drills in this category
4) Setting up 'realistic' scenarios and taking turns doing them
5) Full-contact, 100% 1v1 matches with someone of equal or greater skill/experience.
Remember, you only have between 4 and 6 hours a week to do this. Katas/Forms are easy to practice and fairly quick to do. Weapons training tends to get the best benefits from this kind of repetition. However, perfecting complicated katas can eat up lots of time with little return in fighting skill. Working the heavy bag or contact mitts is good for conditioning and doesn't take too much time. Better than katas for building skill, but can breed over-confidence if done too much. Sparring is an outstanding way to build skill if done right. Requires a partner with some level of skill and can be time-consuming but really allows you to advance in your style. Sparring too much can make you sloppy, though, so don't overdo it. Scenarios are very time consuming and can degenerate into bullshit sessions very easily, but can help develop tactical and strategic thinking/reaction. Also requires an extremely good instructor and lots of props and equipment to do right. Full-contact fighting is rarely done by most people, but gives you large jumps in overall skill. Unfortunately, it takes a toll on your body and can be time-consuming. You must be very careful in who you pick to do this with, since the chance of injury can be fairly high.
So what does all that mean? It means you have to make a decision on how much time you want to spend on some of this stuff (4 hours isn't a lot of time). For myself, here would be a sample breakdown
kata/forms: 5% (shadowboxing in mirror, sprawl/shoot practice, karambit work)
contact mitts/heavy bag: 10%
sparring: 80% (submissions/kickboxing)
scenarios: .1% (not a strong-suit of my school)
full contact matches: 4.9% (tournaments, once a week 'Circle of Pain')
As you can see, I could probably do less sparring and more kata/forms and scenarios. There is a balance that has to be struck in all training to get maximum results. If you break up your training time the way I did, you may spot areas that need more or less time. I think I have pretty good skill for the time I've spent, but I'm in danger of stagnating if I don't switch some things up. Plus, as I get older, the percentage of full-bore competition stuff I do will probably decrease.
I would be interested to see how other people break down their training (and see if I'm on the right track or just kidding myself).
Comment