Think Combat

…helping to learn faster and find hidden practice time

If you’re like me, it’s always a struggle to find time to practice – the world keeps throwing up distractions, and it’s hard to learn effectively with so much going on.

One method to gain more quality time is simply to employ better time management skills. My favourite method though, is to pick up the slack in your otherwise unproductive moments in the day. You can reclaim time you spend on monotonous tasks by using the often underestimated power of visualisation.

Visualisation is an incredible tool. It can improve your power of concentration and your skill level. It acts as a review and is a superb tool to shorten the time it takes to learn. Here’s a brief overview of how to start using it:

Choose an Appropriate Time.

For example, you clearly can’t use this technique whilst driving, but if you have to sit on a train or bus to commute into work, that time is a great opportunity to practice. Doing household chores that don’t require any thought, like ironing or cleaning are also perfect. Reclaim wasted time! Time spent doing chores will fly past. Just be careful you don’t practice when you should be paying attention to your loved one, or you’ll get a clip round the ear for ignoring them…

Choose a Technique to Practice

Pick a technique or form that you’re learning at the moment. Perhaps one that you know how to do all the way through, but are still a little sketchy on. By practicing using this method, in your next class you’ll see amazing results – you’ll have drastically improved your fluidity while your fellow students will still be stumbling through it. They’ll be asking you how you learn so fast!

Visualise (Method One)

The first few times you do this, it’ll help if you’re somewhere quiet where you won’t be disturbed. Once you can do it easily, then you can do it anywhere – waiting at the bus stop or walking to the shops, but for now just try to get the hang of it.

Close your eyes, steady your breathing until its deep and even. Imagine you’re looking at your dojo wall where you normally practice your form and see the scene in as much detail as possible, even down to the frayed mat you’re standing on. Then slowly, without rushing, perform your form. Feel what your body feels like as you move, keep looking out from your mind’s eye (but stay in your body) and see what you would be seeing if you were really present. Keep breathing steadily, keep visualising, keep feeling. If you make a mistake in your form, don’t kick yourself, it’s nothing, just feel your body move back to the beginning of the form and start again. If your form is normally fast, slow it down and take time to really understand and feel your way through the movements. When you speed up again, you’ll notice the improvement.

When you’ve finished, come to a close, and slowly open your eyes. Relax and breathe. There! How hard was that? It can be a little tricky to concentrate for that long to begin with, but after a few sessions, your mind will become accustomed to what you want it to do and respond accordingly.

Visualise (Method Two)

The second method is the same as the first, but this time you’ll be imagining see yourself in the third person, or as if you were a spectator in the room watching you. See yourself from another’s eyes and see if you can spot any mistakes! Pay attention to errors that your instructor normally points out.

Bringing it Together

As you practice more, you’ll find that you can open your eyes and still be able to feel your body move as it would during a form. This is when you can start playing with your visualisation and take it for a walk, do the chores with it, and generally fill up duller moments with it. You’re now free to practice whenever you have a spare moment! You’ll find if you visualise regularly, four or five times a week between classes, your moves will become surer and more powerful. You’ll make rapid progress in learning new forms and perfecting old ones. You can focus on a particular move or technique that’s causing you problems, and you may find that you have an “a-ha!” moment when you come to really understand the principles it. Best of all, it’s a free and easy way to enhance your training with no need to carry round your workout gear.

A word of caution: try not to get too carried away and practice everywhere all the time, exercise your discretion. I remember when I first began visualising, I got a rap on the knuckles after I was asked a question whilst I was visualising during dull meeting at work and I hadn’t heard a word that’d been said!

You’ll probably also find that concentrating on your art for so long while not physically practicing is quite tricky – usually after practicing I want to leap about all over the place punching the walls! It definitely leads to increases enthusiasm, which can only be a good thing.

Meditative Benefits

You may find yourself feeling exceptionally calm and peaceful after a session. That’s not too surprising, as this kind of visualisation is akin to meditation. Contemplating one thing intensely for prolonged period is exactly what meditation is all about. It can be a candle flame, nothingness or one of the great questions of life; all kinds of meditation are beneficial to you. It quietens your mind by focusing on one thing instead of letting it jump all over the place planning, worrying, scheming and fretting as it normally would. As you can imagine, it can seriously help cut down your stress levels and make you a calmer, happier (and in our case, deadly) person.

Enjoy practicing, and keep training hard!

Related posts:

1. 3 Ways to Find Hidden Practice Time