How long does it take?

[Ray Pina]

How long must one study to become proficient, confident, competitive?

Master and martial "artist" is a lifetime pursuit, but I'm asking how long to grasp the foundation principles and go?

How is that kids can enter high school and join the football team for the first time and be competing a month later, varsity captain a few years later and then playing college ball 4 years after initiation? How do some of these guys go pro, say 8 years after initiation?

I think this is related to the debates going on over learning a "delivery system" as apposed to a style of techniques.


.....

My opinion:

I think its common for people to set up walls. I've had classmates and seniors in the past reinforcing how complicated and difficult things were when they actually weren't. Maybe a MA foundation as a kid helped, but like all things I think you get out what you put in.

If MA is Thurs. night and Sat. morning, yea, it may take a while to sink in. If you dive in, thinking about it, studying up on it, practicing, testing and then going to class better and demanding more, I think on average one can grasp a style's flavor in 3 years, be quite good at it in 5 to 7.

[red5angel]

I think it's dependent on several factors, the ability of the instructor and the ability of the student being two of the biggest. Sometimes it also depends on the art, wingchun was pretty easy for me to pick up on, the shaolin stuff I am studying now I am sort of struggling through at the moment.

[MasterKiller]

In general, I think it takes between 3-5 years to train a decent CMA fighter. I'm speaking from a pure Long-Fist background, though.

Hopefully, we can be spared another discussion of why it takes this long when it only takes 3 months to make a state champion high school wrestler....

[Shaolinlueb]

Originally posted by MasterKiller
In general, I think it takes between 3-5 years to train a decent CMA fighter. I'm speaking from a pure Long-Fist background, though.

Hopefully, we can be spared another discussion of why it takes this long when it only takes 3 months to make a state champion high school wrestler....

ive seen guys go from studying with a good instructor for 2 years and being good. then going with a master and things explode for them.

[Ralphie]

I think there are some other questions you could ask as well. Like why after 4 years of playing football, do most kids only get marginally better? You say delivery system, but you could also say pattern, I think. That is, some people have patterns down that give them the ability to deliver a strike/blow/takedown/submission. These patterns can be practiced over and over, and give the person a game in which they can compete. That to me is why sport is a great way to learn skill, because that's the point of a sport and competition. My opinion is that many schools don't stress the importance of learning basics in conjunction with an overall strategy, then provide an environment that pushes people to be better in those areas.

[MasterKiller]

Another thing to stress is that only 1% of college players are good enough to play professionally. So, while the delivery system is the same for all players, only 1% of them are talented enough to make the jump from amateur to pro.

[David Jamieson]

depends on a few things

your ability to learn.

your teachers ability to teach.

the validity of the material.


there is no definitive time limit on it. it's different for everyone and the key things are as above.

cheers

[Meat Shake]

You are also talking about a very broad and generalized skillset as opposed to learning numerous specific actions and responses.
Run, throw, catch, run people over... Fairly basic use of the body's motor functions.
Compare that to the specific actions prescribed by kung fu. The nessecity to develop fine motor skills for kung fu seems a bit higher than in football, where your main factors are going to be based more on gross motor function.

[IronFist]

How long must one study to become proficient, confident, competitive

Proficient, confident, and competitve in what? Fighting? Forms? Knowledge of the "art?"