Are long hours necessary to be good?

[ninjanurse]

Repetition is the mother of skill.

[IcemanSK]

I would argue that consistency in training is preferable to long hours. If one is training for a fight in a 6 week training camp, the body can handle that. However, if a person intends long days of hard training for months/years, one becomes much more susceptible to injury & burnout. Consistency in training without fear of the taking occasional time off, is the best way to grow one's skillset.

[sensei8]

Repetition is the mother of skill.

Solid post!!

[LLLEARNER]

My take on this is that it is like anything in life. It is a mix of natural ability, repetitions, and quality. I am a decent pistol shot without much practice. If I practice 10,000 shots badly I have only developed bad habits that need to be broken. I would get more benefit from 1,000 shots practiced with proper grip, and trigger control.

I have never been called graceful. At this point in time I feel like Godzilla tramping around Tokyo when doing my kata. I can only be amazed at the grace and smoothness others achieve. I know with time and QUALITY practice I will get better.

My biggest problem right now is it feels like it takes an hour for my hips to loosen up.

When I tested for yellow the dojo was empty and my mother had my daughter so I got to spend 3 hours before class practicing. I worked at a moderate pace switching between kicks, kata, and conditioning. I felt so good by the time testing started.

[MatsuShinshii]

Yes. The more one trains the better one becomes.

[Bulltahr]

Ask any Olympic athlete, I'm guessing they will say yes......

[cheesefrysamurai]

There seems to be a common opinion that to gain any significant and worthwhile skill in martial arts, it is necessary to spend hours training everyday requiring as much time as a regular job.

Does this make sense or is it a kind of misconception? Does it mean that those who for any reason are unable to make martial arts their entire life cannot expect to ever reach a high level of skill?

I believe it to be true at least in my case it is. My wife often describes my training as a part time job. I will say for the arts with less depth, there may not be an issue but for myself, speaking of kata, as you get closer to that shodan, there's a nuance involved that seems unlikely to be achieved without reinforcement.

I could spend 5-6 hours a week on sanchin and not scratch the surface.

[Alan Armstrong]

Long hours training doesn't come with guarantees, usually that person is open to injuries and setbacks.

Quality training with an experienced instructor does improve your chances of gaining higher standards quicker.

Training intelligently and safely with attainable goals in mind is advisable.

What are your martial art goals? That is the question you need to ask yourself. Once you know what your goal is then making the approximate steps to meet it, will give you the correct answer to how long you need to train.

My personal goal is to maintain my health, therefore I train all day in the A B C method, which is Always Be Conditioning.

So when cleaning house (wearing a backpack full of weights and wearing ankle weights also) or watching TV I'm doing something constructive for my health, such as stretching, seems like a bit of a double life.

When I not conditioning I'm actually doing martial arts alone or teaching it, for at least two hours every day = 60hrs a month.

Shaolin fighting monks condition all day, they say that the more they do the happier they are!

[sensei8]

Quality long hours over time are not required, however, if one's going to be accumulating some long hours, over time, it would serve ones MA betterment much better if it was quality.

Quality begets good!!

[gunner]

Good practice makes perfect. Bad practice reinforces bad habits.

I'm a proponent of shorter quality reps. There is no benefit to tired sloppy techniques. This is why in other sports, like baseball, players don't take batting practice for hours on end. It's much more beneficial to swing / kick properly to train muscle memory than to let your muscles remember a sloppy technique resulting from a long tired workout. Better to workout more short periods than fewer long workouts.

Endurance is a different animal. There are many methods to increase endurance but science shows that HIIT training is more effective than long workouts at medium - high intensity.