10,000 hrs alone 2,000 hrs together and a few moments in action

Last Saturday I attended an incredibly insightful seminar with Jack Hoban Sensei. It was very interesting because Jack pointed out that although everyone can attend seminars and watch videos that only gives you the external view. However, you can't see what is really happening inside someone's body as they apply a technique, and that is a vital part of the result. In fact it was suggested that one reason many people might plateau is because working on the external alone can only take you so far.

During the seminar, basic movements were broken down and the anatomical movements of joints and isometric activity of muscles were explored using various simple looking but brain frying exercises. Progressively these concepts built upon each other to create very stable and recognizable basics. Jack kept repeating with a smile, 'Today we are doing 1983 style basics!' and as I thought about old seminars, videos and photos I could start to see the connection. More importantly I could start to 'feel' the basics. I may have moved like a robot at first, I may have broken a sweat doing a simple few repetitions of Ichimonji no Kata, but, I could begin to understand how with a bit of practice more efficient movement could be created in the long run. In fact as the seminar progressed it was apparent that in many cases that doing or not doing something internally could make or break the technique.

During one of our breaks Jack asked if there were any musicians in the room. As it turned out there was not that day. Jack is an accomplished musician and he talked about the pinnacle of his music career, which was playing with B. B. King twice. An incredible opportunity and a level of performance that many guitarists can only dream of. However, as Jack pointed out, in order to get to the point where he was even lucky enough to have that opportunity he had to play with his own band for 2,000 hours. 2,000 hours to obtain just two performances. He then pointed out that in order to play in his band he had to practice on his own for 10,000 hours. 10,000 hours on his own, 2,000 hours in a band in order to play twice with B.B. King.

The parallel was then put forward to us. In our lives, we may never get in conflict if we are lucky, but for most of us, even if we do, it will only be for a few moments. However in order to survive the few moments, we need those 2,000 hours training together as preparation. And in order to get the most out of those 2,000 hours training together, we need to spend 10,000 hours training alone.

I didn't even feel I needed to ask the question, "what kind of training should we do in those 10,000 hours?". It was pretty obvious from the seminar what I had to work on.