Regular practice is more important than quantity of practice. 5 minutes a day can be more profound for your long-term growth in a skill than 5 hours, once per month. Keeping a new skill in the active portion of the brain allows you to return to serious study of that skill (for example in a weekly class), more ready for new information, and with a much higher level of retention of previous material.
I am personally a big fan of the "5-minutes-a-day" regime (if indeed you can call something as short as 5 minutes a regime). It’s easy to complete, easy to fit in, and it often breaks the training inertia between you and a larger session. Sure, it’s not a great amount of time to break a sweat or truly absorb a new school of thought, but it will help you keep that knowledge active for the times when you can make that more serious commitment to study.
There are a myriad of different rhythms that you can find; what I recommend is that you discover one that works for you. A sporadic pattern of practice is significantly more difficult to maintain and certainly easier to miss than one that has a system to how it happens. Having a routine also prevents your forgetting, and will make setting aside time to practice second nature.
A few thoughts that might help you find your rhythm:
1. Use a calendar to set regular and consistent times. 30 minutes on three days of the week is great but make it always those same three days.
2. Tie your practice to something you’re already doing on a rhythm. If you go to the gym on Tuesdays and Fridays, bring a sword with you and use some gym space for exercises. If you have a TV show you always watch, make sword exercises a regular part of your commercial breaks.
3. Get a buddy on the same schedule. Whether you practice together or just check in with each other to make sure that neither of you cheat, friends make everything easier and better.
If you’re serious about making forward progress in this art or others, find the schedule of practice that works for you. Then be both easy and honest with yourself. If you miss a day, don’t make excuses--just forgive yourself and get back on your schedule.
I hope you enjoy the reward of a long-term rhythm.
Devon Boorman is the Co-Founder and Director of Academie Duello Centre for Swordplay, which has been active in Vancouver, Canada since 2004. Devon’s expertise centres on the Italian swordplay tradition including the arts of the Renaissance Italian rapier, sidesword, and longsword, as well as knife and unarmed techniques. Read more from Devon Boorman.