Developing a Fighter Training Program Using the Five Elements of Training

What This Is

A diagnostic framework for building a fighter training plan, identifying weak links, and separating knowing a thing from being able to do it.

Original Handout

Original class notes are available as a DOCX.

Class Material

Why Make a Plan?

Having a codified plan gives you something to diagnose. If you are unhappy with your training results and have no plan, you have no reliable method for adjusting the training.

The class frames successful training as methodical rather than accidental: confidence in the cause, leadership, and a deliberate approach to improvement.

Principles of Mastery Used by the Class

• Mindfulness: placing attention where it will do the most good.
• Flow: focusing on the process rather than only the outcome.
• Adopt useful beliefs, including growth mindset and the belief that problems can be trained past.
• No injuries: training must leave you healthier than when you started.
• Pareto Principle: 80% of outcomes come from 20% of causes.

Diagnosis and Weakest-Link Training

The class uses a cycle of diagnosis and repair: find what should be focused on, fix the weakest link, then diagnose again.

Training activities are questioned directly: What is this supposed to accomplish? Does it actually do that? Can you test the outcome? Is there a better way to accomplish the same end? Is that end actually useful?

Knowledge and Skill

The source preserves an important distinction: knowing how to do a technique is not the same as being able to do it.

Five Elements of Training

• Lizard Brain: reactive and autonomic action that can work for or against you, and can be trained to recognize new patterns.
• Logical Brain: deliberate response, strategy, diagnosis, and the work that sets the stage for the lizard brain.
• Muscle Memory: learned mechanics built from foundational actions toward more complex mechanics, with feedback.
• Athleticism: strength, stamina, and speed, trained with attention to goals, the body, and avoiding injury.
• Integration: bringing the other elements together through sparring, complex drills, and tournaments.

Developing a Training Plan

1. Run diagnostics and keep a log.
2. Apply the Pareto Principle.
3. Determine what you need to work on.
4. Determine what you want to work on.
5. Categorize the work using the five elements.
6. Take the top 20%.
7. Develop a plan with that top 20%.
8. Have someone check your plan.
9. Incrementally add the bottom 80%.
10. Go back to step one.

References in the Source

• Training Plan Template - Rapier Training Plan Template.
• Seven Principles of Mastery, Guy Windsor, 2013.