#budotraining #studentinsights #wellbeing

Pursuit of Budo mastery can sometimes seem like an insurmountable endeavour.  It is a rare person who is able to make substantial progress by only practicing during class once or twice a week.  It is not uncommon, whatever the extent of their Martial Arts goals, to find themselves stalling because they feel that they do not have enough time (or headspace) to devote to their training.

Micro-training helps.   

I am CEO of a successful law firm, have a demanding young family, run my own dojo and studio, and have lots of other interests (some Budo related, some - shock - not), yet I still manage to put in a considerable amount of personal training effort every week.  I am not, I can assure you, super-human, nor do I have any more than the same 24 hours per day that everyone else does.  I am, however, very good at putting myself into a state of “focused flow” and using odd pockets of time very effectively.  I’ve always taken the slightly fatalistic view that, as we always have less lifetime left today than we did yesterday, we should waste as little as possible.

Learning how to “micro-train” is a great way to gain benefits, and acquire knowledge and skills, without having to fix the kind of timeslot commitments that we assume.  You can simply start by taking back five minutes that would otherwise be wasted.  It doesn't take any special planning or major change, and can be started immediately:  use one of the first available five minute blocks to make a list of things that you want to cover in the future.  Anything can be trained or learnt this way - it could involve reading a chapter in a book, reviewing a section in a training manual, or picking up tips from an article (like this).  You could watch a tutorial, practice a kata (or part of a kata), do some suburi, or, for instructors, even use the time to craft a quick lesson plan.  It is actually an inexhaustible amount of things that you can do in five minutes, each of which aggregates up into substantial achievements.  These five minute “chunks” can, literally, be of anything that add value and can be physical (keep a kettlebell handy and do some lifts, for example), mental (micro-meditation is a thing) or cerebral (research, reading or knowledge building).

Five Micro-Training Tips

Don’t delay

A horribly cliché but unfortunately "don't delay, start today" rings true here. Set a timer now (your mobile phone has one, so no excuses) and create your mico-list as your first effort.

Set reminders throughout the day

If you have a fixed schedule with natural breaks, this can work well as the opportunities for Micrio-Training will be evident.  Even if your schedule is usually more unpredictable, however, you can still Micro-Train, it just becomes a little more opportunistic in nature.   Either way, still put reminders in your diary or day planner so that you don;t find full days slipping by with missed chances.

Use others to put your feet to the fire

There is plenty of research that shows that accountability drives success.  Explain to someone your new Micro-Training goal (this could be a friend or family member, or, even better, a training partner who is adopting the same approach) and check in with them on progress regularly.

Mix it up

Don’t just take one thing that would normally require an hours' worth of time and break it into five minute slots. This works, to a degree, but isn’t likely to make your new Micro-training strategy sustainable in the long term. Instead, change the types of things you are micro-training frequently. Make some tasks purely physical or use different types of media (writing, reading, apps, video), or any other means what keeps constant variation. 

Don’t compensate

You can’t “catch up” Micro-Training by doubling up later.  That’s not the point!  Don’t convince yourself that doing a 10 minute session is the same as two five minute sessions.  It may still be valuable, of course, but it becomes “training” when timing goes beyond short bursts, rather than “Micro-Training”.