Tag Archives: perfect practice

Train Less and Save the Fun Stuff for Last

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It’s been said many times in many ways that “practice doesn’t make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect”, but I was reminded of it with a particularly good phrasing of this concept in a new book Winning on the Ground by AnnMarie De Mars (her blog):

“The difference between being #1 in the world and #100 isn’t so much the hours on the mat. It’s what you are doing in those hours.”

I think this applies to people who train professionally as well as to people who train as a hobby for different reasons. In the former case, your body and mind can only take so much in a day. Anyone who’s ever tried to drill (really drill) a move for an hour will know the wear it can have on you, not physically, but mentally. The focus required to perform a technique to the best of your ability is as draining as trying to solve a difficult math problem (or puzzle for the non-math-inclined).

For the hobbyist, the reality is that you really do have a very limited amount of time per day that you can train. Ironically, with the higher constraint on time, I find that people do less of the good stuff (drilling very specific techniques, transitions) and more of the fun stuff (rolling in jiu jitsu, randori in judo).

rocky-in-russia-in-the-snowI was always of the opinion that you have to earn the fun stuff. To me “fun” is rolling without any constraints on my game, without a focus on a particular position/technique, etc. That’s very good to do a lot of, especially if you have 4-6 hours a day to train. But if I only have an hour (or less as usual), I have to become my own drill sergeant. I’ll get in 30-60 minutes of hard fast paced drilling on a dummy or a partner no matter what, and enjoy a few sets of training. It’s a balance between short term “happiness” and long term “happiness”. Ultimately, I really enjoy getting a better understanding of the art of jiu jitsu, and that requires the not-so-fun process of drilling and rolling with a purpose.

By the way, I’m also realizing that “drilling” is like “dieting”. It’s a concept that is used by a lot of people to describe a wide variety of activities. So I have to be more specific. I do a lot of kinds of drilling, but the one I refer to as “really drilling” is where I do 100-200+ reps in 30 minutes of one technique. This isn’t some new technique, it’s one that I’ve already done thousands of reps of and most importantly have tried in positional training, live training, and competition. Every other kind of drilling is more relaxed. This is hard work. Productive hard work.

Wrestling Mindset and The Perfect Practice

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Mike Denny ran a hell of a good (tough) wrestling practice Tuesday. Emphasis on pressure, always hands on the opponent, pushing him and yourself.

Live training didn’t have “sorry”, handshakes, rest breaks. Pushing the cardio, and yet (at least the guys I went with) didn’t use much muscle, all crisp technique.

Of course, my favorite part was the non-stop drilling, for about 30 minutes. Shot after shot. I went with Tom who is a tough no-bullshit guy, and again doesn’t use muscle, just clean technique. I don’t think he said a single word to me the whole time, which is perfect.

That brings me to the idea that I’ve been after for a while which is what makes a good (and even “perfect”) practice:

  1. A short warm up (not too taxing cardio-wise, but breaks a sweat), followed by a quick stretch. I usually do my own stretching before hand since I have a few specific problem area I need to loosen up (shoulders, neck, groin, lower back).
  2. Drills of fundamental techniques. Keep the pace up, but no muscle, technique has to be 100% perfect. No talking, no breaks, no questions (except if you’re completely lost).
  3. Live training. If I’m going hard, I like to keep this part short (only 3-4 matches of 6 minutes), but if I’m relaxing and focusing on learning then I can  just roll forever.

My criticism of any practice, even one Mike ran is not enough time for drills! I like to get high number of reps in. That’s where I start enjoying a technique, the more and more I understand every little details of it, the more it becomes effortless. For me, there’s nothing like the feeling of pulling off a technique without using any muscle, purely based on timing and leverage. That’s when I know I only have 10,000 reps to go ;-)