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By Bradley J. Steiner, American Combato
We recall reading an article years ago that stated that to become proficient in any given physical technique (regarding a sport, a discipline of another kind, or a combat technique, etc.) one needed to do at least 3,000 repetitions.
We cannot recall the author of this article, nor can we remember what “credentials” he possessed that made his thesis seem correct and unassailable. In fact, however, whoever the hell this author was, and despite his possessing three PhD degrees from Harvard (or whatever the hell, if anything, he could lay claim to as evidence of his being an authority) we insist that his entire presentation was pure, unadulterated b-u-l-l-s-h-i-t.
We know that this nonsense about 3,000 (or 1,000, or 5,000, or ten million, or whatever the hell anyone claims to be the “necessary number of repetitions before proficiency is achieved”) is crap. And we know it from our personal training experiences, and from the experiences we have had with more students over the last half century than we can remember.
Both Prof. Bryans and we have had the experience of having a student—after only a rudimentary one or two lessons—render one or more of the techniques that he had been shown against a real adversary, during an actual attack.
How many repetitions of, say, the Chin jab, hand axe chop, or side kick did the student have under his belt? Maybe 40 or 50 if he did his homework between lesson one and two and practiced what he had been taught in his lessons over and above what he was required to do to learn the techniques. Three thousand repetitions, our ass!
Now we certainly do not wish to suggest that lots and lots and lots of repetitious practice and drill is not necessary for well-rounded expertise to form in the individual. The more repetitions, the better. But it is important to know that every person is different, and, depending upon how any given individual applies himself and focuses during training and review, he may require less or more time to acquire whatever technique is in question.
Some people learn and pick up skills exceedingly fast; others may take a long time. But stating that some arbitrary fixed number of repetitions is invariably required by everyone to learn any skill, is nonsense of the worst kind.
We advocate that every student gets to know himself—his strengths, his limitations, his strong points, his weak points—and that he simply endeavors to practice as much as possible and concentrate and focus seriously and intently whenever he does practice.
The student who does this will learn at his own fastest pace, and he need not have some dumb number in mind which, after racking up that many repetitions, he will expect to be proficient.
Will he be unable to apply a technique after 2,995 repetitions? Or will he, despite unusual physical irregularities and a far below-average level of physical acumen, be quite able to do whatever any expert can do, once he reaches the 3,000-repetition mark? Come on.
You will require that number of repetitions necessary for you to master the technique. Neither we nor any other teacher can set down a fixed number and assure you that, somehow, that number of repetitions will ensure that you will be able to apply what you have been taught.
Train seriously, and train as much and as often as you realistically can. Have no preconceptions regarding “when proficiency will manifest.” If you train earnestly, it will come about. Be satisfied with that.