First in an occasional series. Photo by Melisa Spence.
How can I get better at judo? Come to judo class! The more you come to class, the better you’ll get. Pretty obvious, right? But why? Let’s break it down.
Each class can be categorized as follows:
- Learning new things, new techniques
- Getting corrections and refinements on things you’ve already been introduced to.
- Doing repetitions of things you already know
- Chaining together things you already know in different ways to create new combinations
As a beginner, you’ll be doing a lot of #1. If you come to class consistently, you can go past step 1 to steps 2 through 4. That’s how you build skill! If you don’t come to class very often, you’ll be starting over at #1 each time, and progress will be slow.
Consistency over bunching
In terms of class attendance, consistency is better than bunching. For example, it’s better to come to class once a week for twelve weeks in a row than it is to come to class every day for two weeks in a row and then disappear for a few weeks.
Consistency can mean different things in different contexts. For instance, suppose you consistently train two weeks on and two weeks off, for whatever reason – maybe your schedule takes you out of town. That would be a good type of consistency, even though it’s very different than coming once a week.
The point is to make a commitment to a certain schedule and stick to it. If you do that, you’ll get better.
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