Quote:
Mary Malmros wrote:
I can see that as an optimal way to proceed (if probably not ever 100% achievable in real life) - but in what way is it a shortcut?
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Let us assume, in the most benevolent sense, that for him it is a shortcut by virtue of this principle helping to better maximize the usage of his time, and that to not focus on such principles is a sub-optimal use of his time.
This is perfectly legitimate as an answer in that you can block out a certain amount of time for training, but within that period of time the actual amount of accumulated training time on the thing you are trying to train may really be shockingly small - you could describe this as frequency. And on the other hand, you can increase the actual training stimulus that occurred in that moment - you could describe this as intensity. Now, if you are not even sure about what is the most optimal use of that time in the first place, then may Flying Spaghetti Monster help you.
A good example of this as regards martial training is standing (a.k.a. "zhan zhuang" or "post standing" or "santi shi" or...). If you are doing, say, a form, then by the time you realize you did something wrong, the moment is already in the past, and you have both physically moved somewhere else and your mind is also doing something else. So the training effect of a form may be really small, because both the frequency with which you were able to work that moment in a given circuit of the form, and the intensity with which it allowed you to focus on it, is not great. So now if you were to stand still at that one moment, and work it for the entire block of time minus breaks for rest, well, you're suddenly getting both a higher frequency of that moment, and at the same time since extraneous elements have been removed you can devote better focus to it and thus also address the intensity aspect.
Training smarter is rarely a bad idea.