Learn Karate in "Three Or Four" Years?

[JP3]

The number I've heard most often about the time it takes to truly master a physical skill is 10,000 hours. That's a LOT of mat time, isn't it. 10,000 hours, at 2 hours a day... 5,000 days. that's just shy of 14 years of every single day, 2 hour practice. Not quick.

Go twice a week, and it takes close to 50 years. Big difference between "hobbyist" types and those of us who go (or rather, went, in my case) every day for a long while.

 

[Buka]

Only took me three or four years. Eight or nine times.

Now if I could only get it right. Hey, one can hope.

 

[DaveB]

“One becomes a beginner after 1,000 days of training, and an expert after 10,000 days of practice.”
~ Masutatsu Oyama

So 2.7 years to become a beginner, and a little over 27 years to become an expert.

Surprisingly consistent with Itosu's remarks,

Actually 2 hours twice a week would be 208 hours per year, so a little over 14 years.

Well done, you spotted my deliberate mistake. You've passed my test and proven yourself worthy of my 10th Dan Certification. All you need do now is pay a small admin fee of 99,99.99 and I can mail it straight to you!

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Only took me three or four years. Eight or nine times.

Now if I could only get it right. Hey, one can hope.

There's always next time, man.

 

[Fuhrer Drumpf]

Because it doesn't fit your narrative?

My narrative?

The 10 Precepts of Karate was written to convince Japanese school educators to allow karate to be taught to the students. The idea was that they would learn in a few years, and then teach the younger kids, until eventually every Japanese kid knew karate.

Precept 10 proves my point:


If karate should be introduced beginning in the elementary schools, then we will produce many men each capable of defeating ten assailants. I further believe this can be done by having all students at the Okinawa Teachers' College practice karate. In this way, after graduation, they can teach at the elementary schools at which they have been taught. I believe this will be a great benefit to our nation and our military. It is my hope you will seriously consider my suggestion.

 

[Fuhrer Drumpf]

Actually it's not. Skills are learned by the neural growth in the brain for both muscle memory and comprehension. The time it takes for synaptic growth is kinda set by biology and evolution. There are no short cuts. Hours in, skills out.

Yeah. And three or four years allows this.

 

[Fuhrer Drumpf]

I sense a lot of passive aggressiveness aimed at me. There's no need to post in my thread if you're just going to be that way.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Yeah. And three or four years allows this.

At 2 hours a day, sure. Calendar time isn’t the issue.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I sense a lot of passive aggressiveness aimed at me. There's no need to post in my thread if you're just going to be that way.

I’m not sure you’re using that term correctly.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

If karate should be introduced beginning in the elementary schools, then we will produce many men each capable of defeating ten assailants. I further believe this can be done by having all students at the Okinawa Teachers' College practice karate. In this way, after graduation, they can teach at the elementary schools at which they have been taught. I believe this will be a great benefit to our nation and our military. It is my hope you will seriously consider my suggestion.

The first sentence in that quote does not lend credibility to the rest.

 

[hoshin1600]

Yeah. And three or four years allows this.

It all depends on your definition. It's not unlike growing up from teenager to adult. It's a proven scientific fact that the brain is not fully developed until the age of around 23. When we are teenagers we think we have it all figured out, that we know what we are doing. As we get older we look back and think how immature and stupid we were.
George Harrison wrote " the farther one travels the less one knows"
Some of us here have been around a really long time. We look back and laugh at the times we thought we knew everything. If we disagree it's not to belittle you or your opinions,,, it's just that we have been there before and maybe had the same thoughts you have now,,, but time has shown and taught us to know the truth on some things.

 

[Tez3]

I sense a lot of passive aggressiveness aimed at me. There's no need to post in my thread if you're just going to be that way.

Would you prefer to be told straight out that you are an idiot or do you want a more polite round the houses way? Generally many people seem to read into things people write that aren't actually there, I suggest this is what you are doing. People read other's posts from their own perspective as well as mood and way of thinking which is usually completely different from the way the writer meant it.

 

[Buka]

There's always next time, man.

Next time's a given. Just as last time was.

 

[frank raud]

Respectfully< I disagree - if it takes 10,000 hours
to master a technique, then 3 or 4 years doesn't even
scratch the surface..

OP started a previous thread about how martial arts shouldn't take years to learn than posts a quote from a master saying it takes years to learn.

 

[frank raud]

Yeah. And three or four years allows this.

And again, according to you it shouldn't take years. Choose a position.

 

[Finlay]

Learn is a relative term

At what point can you say you have learnt Karate.

The quote states 'understand'
Again this is a very loose term and doesn't mean mastery.

In many schools it take about 4 years to achieve 1st degree. At 1st degree we can say we understand our art but it is far from Mastery or any sort of high level

 

[jobo]

I was reading Anko Itosu's "Ten Precepts of Karate" (1908) and found this peculiar passage:

3. Karate cannot be quickly learned. Like a slow moving bull, it eventually travels a thousand leagues. If one trains diligently for one or two hours every day, then in three or four years one will understand karate. Those who train in this fashion will discover the deeper principles of karate.

it just seems the same as your other thread? Now,as then you are correct, but your definrions are so loose that everyone else is,correct as well.

but id add, if you spend two hours a day for four years, you really should have got the hang of it,, if you haven't then you never will

 

[JP3]

Only took me three or four years. Eight or nine times.

Now if I could only get it right. Hey, one can hope.

Solid response!

And yeah... me too. I really REALLY liked the way my training was forced to start over from what I "thought" was "scratch" 5 times. I felt like I was collecting white belts! LOL! Funny thing was, when I got my third arts black belt... and started ont he 4th one, again because I had to because I was moving due to either education or career path stuff... I noted that (it only took me the fourth time through the beginner process to notice it) I was learning a bunch of the same exact stuff, all over again, just with different descritptions, different adjectives, different ways of saying the same old stuff.

There are many roads to the top of the mountain, but there is only one top.

 

[JP3]

Yeah. And three or four years allows this.

Nope. It doesn't.

Learn to put which foot where during class, doing a kata? Sure.

Having mastered the entire skill set of a master of karate, so that the movement skills are so internalized as to automatically flow, without thought, at the reflex level?

Not in 3, 4 years. For some, not in 30 to 40 years, depending on their time spent training.

Expertise? Sure. MMastery? No. I think what is happening here is one of Gerry's favorite things, a "definitional debate," eh?

Could be it.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I think what is happening here is one of Gerry's favorite things, a "definitional debate," eh?

You've caught onto that, have you?