TRAINING PROGRESSION

 by Phillip Starr

In an earlier article I spoke of being consistent in training. Consistency is essential to acquiring and maintaining skill in anything, especially a physical activity. However, the other half of the equation is training progressively. That is, learning step by step, taking your time and avoiding the temptation to hurry or move things out of sequence so that you (think) you'll learn and achieve skill faster.

A good instructor is careful that students learn everything progressively. There are reasons for this:

• Until a given movement (I'll call it “A”) is learned thoroughly, the student simply lacks the coordination and/or the proper strength/muscle tone to perform more complex movements. If the student attempts to do so, she may develop some really bad habits (which can be more than a little difficult to break) or even injure herself.

• The principle(s) learned in “movement A” are often essential for learning more complex movements. The basic principle(s) upon which “movement A” are based must be thoroughly learned and a certain level of skill in the application of that principle must be attained before going any further.

  
  
  

Of course, this necessarily means that students can't go whizzing through a list of techniques. They have to learn them progressively, step by step...and that means that there will be times that they will become rather bored with the tedious repetition of fundamental movements and techniques. There are ways around this, of course and that will be the subject of another article...but many instructors worry that students will drop out of training if they become bored. And that means loss of income. That has had a very negative impact on contemporary martial arts worldwide. It is my opinion that a good instructor, an instructor who is true to himself and his art, will train his students properly. Period.

Training progressively also applies to your own personal training outside of the training hall. If you stop practicing for an extended period and then start up again, you can’t simply start up where you left off. Your body is not longer accustomed to the movements and you may injure yourself. It’s like lifting weights. You move along progressively and if you stop lifting for a month or so, you mustn’t start up where you left off. An injury is pretty much guaranteed if you do!

Progressive training isn’t structured haphazardly. A good progressive training schedule is carefully developed over time by a teacher who understands not only the art and the various elements that comprise it, but human learning as well. Your personal training schedule should closely mirror the schedule used by your instructor. You can develop some slight variations by inserting various drills that make your daily practice more interesting and enjoyable but in the main, it should follow closely the schedule used by your teacher.

We learn faster and more thoroughly if we are relaxed and enjoying the process (as opposed to being fearful, tense, and/or bored half to death). Use your imagination to develop effective, challenging, and enjoyable training routines. Just because training must be progressive doesn’t necessarily infer that it has to be tedious!