Start your training sessions with a sense of purpose: probably the single most common error i see in most athletes training routines is a failure to have a clearly outlined sense of purpose in their sessions. Too often I see athletes arrive on the mat with no sense of what they will try to accomplish in next few hours. As a result, the session meanders into sparring where at the completion there is no obvious sense in which you can say that you are now better than when you started the session. It is permissible to have occasional playful, relaxed sessions like this, but the majority of your sessions must have a strong sense of direction if you are to improve over time rather than just remain at whatever level you currently are. At the start of most classes I always begin with a short statement of what is the skill we are working on, why it's important and what we want to do to get the job done. This immediately creates a sense of direction in the class towards which we can move. Then it's into the main part of the class – technical details and the sparring. Just as a man walking in a forest without a compass will inevitably end up walking in a useless circle, so too, a years worth of training sessions without direction will end up with you at the same point you started. Whenever we train without a goal we inevitably go back to the same old moves we always use and progress eventually halts. EFFORT EXPENDED IS NOT A MEASURE OF PROGRESS – only effort expended in a positive direction gets you to where you wish to be.
