consistency in practice...

I’ve been trying to impress upon my students the importance of regular, consistent practice. While it’s true that you don’t substantially lose what you’ve gained from your many years (or weeks) of practice, your timing and continuity of motion certainly do suffer from breaks in your practice schedule, and the longer the break, the more noticeable the loss.

The best advice I can give anyone trying to master a martial art (or any discipline for that matter) is to work consistently. You don’t have to put all your time into it, or practice in binges, but you do need to practice regularly, a minimum or 3 times a week to make even gradual progress, and more if you want to improve significantly. Less than 3 times a week will keep you fairly consistent at your current level, but improvement will take a very long time.

There seems to be a plateau that one reaches after learning a few basics, or even at the intermediate and advanced levels, where you can maintain that level, but not advance. At those times, it takes an extra effort to break your own inertia and advance to the next level of understanding and performance. And even that is not necessarily done by practicing every day or multiple times a day, but by steady consistent practice (3 or 4 times a week is sufficient).

Your practices should be between 1 and 2 hrs each. You can do more on special occasions if you like, but very long sessions can leave you over fatigued and mentally dull, unable to retain what you’ve learned. Extra long sessions can also undermine your determination to practice consistently.

Art is the proper task of life.
--Friedrich Nietzsche