So you are a beginner and trying to master fighting with armour on. You love SCA combat but in the back of your head wonder how long it will take to get better. Heck the guys who seem to destroy your defense with ease have had the same thing done to them in tournaments they go to….so where does that leave you?
An idea developed by psychologist Anders Ericsson According suggests it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert.
So fighting practice is 3 hours long but you spend one hour of that chatting with friends and slowly putting your armour on. Then there is some standing around time… we’ll give you 1.5 hours of practice a week. And then an event every weekend where you fight for 2.5 hours total (only to drive home bruised). So you are looking at 4hours/week – needing 2500 weeks to make up 10,000 hours – or roughly 48 years….
Holy Crap! I don’t have that long. And I started at age 30 (or 20, or 40, it doesn’t matter). What do I do?
The short answer is fight more. Every week, every day, every hour – it doesn’t matter. If you want to get better then find a way to fight more. Put a pel in the yard and hit it until it breaks. Hit an old tree. Practice throwing shots and shield work every night.
Or you could be like the other people in the SCA and walk around talking about it instead of doing it.
Choice is yours.
No comments:
Post a Comment