Peak performance

Here's the thing.

I warm up, do some jogging, jump rope, do some stances, stretch a little bit, and after a half hour finally I'm ready to practice some kung fu. So I pick a form, or just a couple techniques out of a form. I'm all ready to work just that selection for an hour. Thing is, I usually peak in about 15 minutes -- meaning, the form or technique I'm practicing looks and flows best after about 15 minutes of practice, I get the most information out of it within that time. Then it just degrades from there until within about 30 minutes it looks just like it did when I started practicing.

If I go to another form or technique, I get nothing from it and no noticeable improvement.

Now I read magazine articles all the time where tai chi masters and professional wushu players alike talk about practicing nonstop from dawn till dusk, the majority of that being forms work. But the more experience I get, the more those articles sound like BS. "Oh, we practice 26 hours a day! Americans are too lazy to do that!"

Nah, not hardly. We have full-time jobs and often families. And if our kids do martial arts, no matter how good they are at it, school takes priority.

So I pay more attention these days to "quality vs. quantity," in magazine articles and in my own practice. I progress better in skill if I don't wear myself out doing hours of repetitive work. (If I were 10 years younger that might be different.) I read training articles from several different disciplines -- running, boxing, gymnastics -- and updates from sports medicine journals.

Past 30, an athlete of any skill level needs to pay attention to a few things. Don't push through pain. Know the difference between isometric and isotonic conditioning. Know the difference between aerobic and anaerobic conditioning. Become familiar with the term "core." Understand how all these things intertwine with kung fu practice.

15 minutes of practice a day is way better than no practice. Most students do 3 classes a week, max. Nothing wrong with that, but if you really want to improve at kung fu, practice every day, even if only for a few minutes. But make those few minutes quality ones. No distractions, no TV. Do just one or two things, three max. Such as, train stances or work on your newest technique. The improvements will be noticeable, maybe not right away, but sooner than you think.