The Five Things Exercise

This sparring exercise enables you to concentrate on five distinct techniques or concepts within a single training session. It’s designed to facilitate the transition from structured drilling to more dynamic, combat-oriented practice.

How It Works

Set a timer for a duration divisible by five - 25 minutes works well. Ideally, use an interval timer with one-minute segments so you know when to switch focus.

During this period, spar while rotating through five different focuses, spending approximately equal time on each. Partners don’t need to synchronize their focus switches or disclose which specific skill they’re working on.

Your goal overall is to practice all the skills for approximately five minutes each in total. The switches can be organic - when you feel you’ve worked something enough, move to the next focus.

Example Five Things

Here are some focuses you might choose:

• Moving Entry: Maintaining constant weapon motion while advancing toward your opponent
• Fly in, fly out: Entering with purpose, exiting immediately upon completion or failure
• Five blows in sequence: Emphasizing offensive continuation rather than single strikes
• Defend only: Focusing exclusively on parries and defensive actions
• Avoid only: Pure avoidance without blade engagement
• Disarms: Employing disarming techniques safely when opportunities arise
• Strike to the hands: Targeting hand areas exclusively
• Tempo-specific actions: Attacking only during opponent attacks or wind-ups
• Forward-only movement: Continuous forward advancement without retreat

Choose five that address areas you’re developing or that complement what you’ve been drilling recently.

Why It Works

The exercise offers several benefits:

Space for new techniques. You have permission to try things that might not “work” yet. The objective isn’t winning - it’s practicing specific skills under realistic conditions.

Forced discomfort. Constraining yourself to specific actions pushes you into uncomfortable tactical situations. That discomfort is where growth happens.

Partner discovery. You’ll learn which training partners suit specific skill practice. Some people are great for working defense; others challenge your offense.

Structure with variety. You get the focus of drilling with the dynamism of sparring. Neither pure drilling nor pure sparring offers this combination.

The approach balances structure with variety while maintaining improvement focus over competitive victory pursuit. You’re not trying to win the sparring session - you’re trying to improve five specific things.