How much practice is enough?

[shesulsa]

Greetings all. Please forgive my lack of paragraph split - I believe my laptop to be at death's door. Anyhoodles ... a parent asked me the above question recently and I thought it could seed some interesting conversation. So ... how much practice do you think is enough for children in beginning ranks? intermediate ranks? advanced color ranks? How about adults in those situations? Please express your answer however you feel understandable for the group; e.g. 'a beginning student should practice each day 25% of total class time spent during the week' or 'class time should compromise approx. 30% of total workout time generally speaking,' etcetera. Thanks!

 

[Dirty Dog]

How much practice is enough? Just one more hour...

 

[Cyriacus]

Practice for what? If were talking getting kids up the ranks, id be inclined to think that if theyre that motivated theyll make time in their free time to train and practice. But thats not what you meant. For them, an hour or two.

In my opinion of course. I dont mean to make that sound like a statement. Since you asked youre obviously not expecting one solid conclusive answer, so im just contributing

 

[Instructor]

Whether it's children or adults this is an extremely subjective question. People learn in different ways and at different rates. I have some students that just seem to careen headlong through our curriculum and I find myself having to apply the brake a bit. I have others that would never promote if I didn't tell them they are ready to move forward.

So the answer, it depends on the student.

 

[clfsean]

How much practice is enough? Just one more hour...

Yep ... x + 1

 

[harlan]

Minimum of nine hours a week, broken up anyway you like, in order to learn (slow) and/or maintain a base level.

 

[seasoned]

Whether it's children or adults this is an extremely subjective question. People learn in different ways and at different rates. I have some students that just seem to careen headlong through our curriculum and I find myself having to apply the brake a bit. I have others that would never promote if I didn't tell them they are ready to move forward.

So the answer, it depends on the student.

Great answer. As a proactive instructor, one that is in tune with the student, one program does not fit all. Everyone should move at their individual pace. As a Sensei we need to make the training challenging rewarding and above all FUN. Once we have the proper learning environment, the absorption response is enhanced. "Long story short, don't kill them".

 

[arnisador]

For young students, asking for 15 min. to half an hour a day may be all that's realistic. It's no good to have them feel guilty that they aren't doing it if they're youngsters.

 

[Xue Sheng]

For young students, asking for 15 min. to half an hour a day may be all that's realistic. It's no good to have them feel guilty that they aren't doing it if they're youngsters.

I learned that with my daughter and Aikido...

Go to train with her and we get about 15 min and she is now ready to jsut do rolls or ride her bike or run around the basement. So I let her go and then I train a bit and what I discovered there was she starts asking me a lot of questions about what I am doing and then she wants to try

I also do things to try and tickle her and she is reposnding using her Aikido, she thinks it is fun, and it is...but it is still training... and if I am there all day it is easy to get 30 minutes to an hour of training with her... but to her, at this point, most of it is just playing with daddy

But, if you think about it, running around, riding her bike or just doing rolls is all training

 

[oftheherd1]

Whether it's children or adults this is an extremely subjective question. People learn in different ways and at different rates. I have some students that just seem to careen headlong through our curriculum and I find myself having to apply the brake a bit. I have others that would never promote if I didn't tell them they are ready to move forward.

So the answer, it depends on the student.

Good point.

For young students, asking for 15 min. to half an hour a day may be all that's realistic. It's no good to have them feel guilty that they aren't doing it if they're youngsters.

Also true.

I think some students are serious enough to do some practice on their on, without being told. Others will try a little at home, especially if their parents encourage (not demand) it. Always, care must be taken to encourage them in the dojang, and monitor what they are doing at home so they don't learn something incorrectly.

Young students versus adult students? I think it depends on their maturity and commitment. Age doesn't necessarily count.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

I think it depends on each individual person. Some will need more and some less and of course some will be driven and never get enough!

 

[jks9199]

How much practice is "enough?"

Are you good "enough?" If you are -- then you've practiced enough. But if you aren't good enough... you need to practice more.

Functionally... for kids, I'd encourage "some" practice every day. That might be 10 minutes, it might me 3 hours. Depends on the attention span and how much fun they're having.

 

[Aiki Lee]

It really depends what the person's goal is with their training.

 

[DennisBreene]

Great answer. As a proactive instructor, one that is in tune with the student, one program does not fit all. Everyone should move at their individual pace. As a Sensei we need to make the training challenging rewarding and above all FUN. Once we have the proper learning environment, the absorption response is enhanced. "Long story short, don't kill them".

Agree, with the little squirts, about 1/2 hr a day, if they have the attention span. If they are your own squirts; you can start them off young with brief games that incorporate things like blocks and they don't even know they are practicing. I suspect that when you send kids home to their parents the practice has too be somewhat focused, ie. learn these steps to a form. They seem to go off the rails if they don't have much guidance as to proper technique and maybe do better with more time in the dojang if possible for shorter sessions. Well meaning parents often make corrections in technique that they are not trained to provide. So it seems that part of the homework is teaching the parents what they should be focusing on. As they get older maybe an hour a day with an occasional day off so that it doesn't feel like drudgery. As you get more advanced and committed, there is always something to practice and then it becomes a matter of fitting it into what your schedule will allow and avoiding over doing it. Twelve hrs a day is probably the realm of the MA who has nothing else to do and can devote themselves totally. Probably pretty rare in modern society.

 

[Zero]

I would agree for the little wee ones that it is great just to have them going along and looking forward to class so if you can get them putting in another 15mins every other day or in the weekends that is great. I like the approach by them seeing what you (the parent) are doing (if the parent knows the style that is) and just getting involved and seeing it as fun, rather than pushing them at all.

Older than that, it depends in part what the focus of the club is.

For early teens onwards as long as it does not interfere with studies I would say an hour per night (or an hour in total per day) of extra/home training if they want to do well in kata and/or kumite tournaments. I never saw training as a chore and loved it from an early age and I would think for any dedicated young teen onwards that would be fine. Although they may have other sports they are also into and that require time – ah, you never realise just how much time you have on your hands when you’re a kid…

For mid- teens onwards into early twenties that are serious in doing well in tournament and want to get into nationals, an extra hour on skills per day would be the minimum and with base training (stamina/road work etc in morning before studies or at night) tagged on top of that as well.

That’s from my own experience in TKD and karate and from seeing the teens that take medals in my old club, they were pretty dedicated. When I competed while doing uni studies I would run in the morning, go to the club at least three times a week at night (1.5 – 2hr sessions) and then often a weekend morning session and do weights most days midday. If you love it, there is never too much time you can spend. You don’t want to over train but even when resting you can go through techniques, watch fights etc.

The comments that it depends on an individual are also correct to a large degree but if the focus is competition then no matter how inately good you are, you need to spend the extra time as that is what others are doing. Outside of competition, you also need to put the hard time in for getting good at techniques and understanding of the art.

 

[chinto]

as much as you can , but be careful of burn out

 

[Cirdan]

Our first rule for kids is "train a little every day". If you do 5-10 minutes every day it adds up to a LOT, several thousands techniques practiced over a year.

Secondly, serious training is three times a week. Maintainance is twice a week. Once a week is a hobby. Kids can still learn a lot from showing up at the dojo once a week, but will find it hard to progress beyond beginner level.

 

[TKDTony2179]

Greetings all. Please forgive my lack of paragraph split - I believe my laptop to be at death's door. Anyhoodles ... a parent asked me the above question recently and I thought it could seed some interesting conversation. So ... how much practice do you think is enough for children in beginning ranks? intermediate ranks? advanced color ranks? How about adults in those situations? Please express your answer however you feel understandable for the group; e.g. 'a beginning student should practice each day 25% of total class time spent during the week' or 'class time should compromise approx. 30% of total workout time generally speaking,' etcetera. Thanks!

Like most say it really depends if the kid is serious or not. Most of them do it for a hobby/sport and not really care about what you and I would worry about. Also it depends if the kid have other sports on his/her plate. Where I am from most of the kids do karate and then they do outsides sports so when they hear class time minimal of two days that is what they stick to and never want to train anymore days. Our class is about an hour and on certain days you know you will see Billy and john cause they are brothers and they come together on Tue and Thurs and sometimes you will see Summer and she only comes on wed and fri.

I would love to see my students come in more days as they progress but they don't and when the summer hits it becomes harder to progress the intermidate and advance because they go on vac. But on the plus side I do get more beginners signing up.

 

[EddieCyrax]

For me personnally, there is never enough practice. With this said, my children train as well. I have learned to let them set their own goals, as each of them are in it for different reasons than myself. I would hate to push them beyond their want and have them become burn-out or lose interest.

I know they could do more, but MA is an individual journey.

 

[MJS]

Greetings all. Please forgive my lack of paragraph split - I believe my laptop to be at death's door. Anyhoodles ... a parent asked me the above question recently and I thought it could seed some interesting conversation. So ... how much practice do you think is enough for children in beginning ranks? intermediate ranks? advanced color ranks? How about adults in those situations? Please express your answer however you feel understandable for the group; e.g. 'a beginning student should practice each day 25% of total class time spent during the week' or 'class time should compromise approx. 30% of total workout time generally speaking,' etcetera. Thanks!

IMO, it's too hard to put an exact number on this question. Is say that, because the time will differ for a child vs. an adult. A 6yo child most likely isn't going to have the attention span. Even for some adults, practicing for an hour, on their own, without the motivation of being in a class, can be difficult for some, unless they're able to motivate themselves.

Practice can be done over the course of say an hour. Your average tv show is an hour, so every time a commercial comes on, get up and do a kata. Of course, as I said, if the person is really self motivated, you can easily spend an hour straight, working on things.

But, as I said above, it'll really depend on the person.