In the old days when we learn an art, we don’t expect to become an expert unless we train regularly for up to 10 years.

Then Malcolm Gladwell wrote about the 10,000-hour rule to becoming an expert. Later I learned that there were more to it than just putting in 10,000 hours.

When I learned iKali Tuhon Apolo stressed that we need to practice for 10,000 repetitions to have a basic grasp.

Last year I read Rickson Gracie’s book “Comfort in Darkness” where he mentioned that he just practiced instead of counting the hours or repetitions.

Which approach is the best?

I don’t like to keep count of hours or repetitions because they tend to distract me. I only learned to count in iKali because I was intrigued by how I would keep losing count when trying to keep track of the techniques and repetition when doing the left and right sides. I could see why learning to count is important, especially when leading a class.

For me a more important question is how to accelerate one’s learning? Is it just a question of number of hours put in, the number of repetitions, or just keeping doing until you make it?

If you are learning something for self-defence then obviously the need to train for 10,000 hours or 10,000 repetitions can be daunting unless you do not have to work or fanatical enough to put in the training.

Consider that you practice for 2 hours a day, the sum would work out to 10,000 hours / 2-hour per day = 5,000 days / 365-days in a year = 13.7 years.

What if you practice for 8 hours? 10,000 hours / 8-hour per day = 1,250 days / 365-days in a year = 3.42 years. That’s faster but how many of us can really put in these hours.

What about if we focus on repetitions instead? What if we just put in various repetitions per day? These look more attainable :-

10,000 / 100-rep per day = 100 days (about 3.3 months)
10,000 / 1000-rep per day = 10 days

This so much more better. I think anyone can easily put in 100 to 300 reps per day. I once completed 10,000 repetitions over a few days. I had planned to do it over a week but I knew that if I did not get it over quickly I could end up not completing the target. The exercise I did for this 10,000 repetitions comprise :-

2 basic knife thrusts
2 basic knife slashes
2 basic movement of the non-knife hand

That’s basically 6 movements. When you consider that the movement is basically just thrust, slash, non-knife hand movement for the left and right side it is basically just 3 movements. The difference is if one side the movement is with palm up then the other side is palm down.

So that’s my own data. Based on my experience it is possible to get a good grasp of 6 movements with 10,000 repetitions.

Now I want Paul to learn 6 new movements but he is daunted. With the work he has put into practicing the 6-Blocks these new movements which I dub the 6-LinkingHands would be a walk in the park. For the learning of 6-LH this is what I think :-

Do it 100 times look clumsy.

Do it 1,000 times look better.

Do it 10,000 times look like advanced student.

Do it 100,000 times look like expert.

What does this translate to in terms of learning? Making an educated guess Paul could actually learn and attain basic competency is doing the 6-LH in a day. How many repetitions to put in? My estimate :-

100 repetitions to remember the sequence.

1,000 repetitions to eliminate the hesitation when performing.

10,000 repetitions to have a feel for the movement.

This does not mean that he can apply the 6-LH. Its to bring him to a point where he can move towards the real work of refining, throwing out excess movement, imagining the application as if its real, adding the tempo, the power, the body movement, breaking and reordering the sequence, inserting the 6-Blocks, then the movement of the other hand.

Thereafter (or at the same time), if he has a partner he can go through the applications to help learn the 6-LH better.

In conclusion, what seems difficult to learn or takes forever to learn is really not so once you analyze how to learn efficiently and effectively.