20 hours

I saw this TED speech that talked about the first 20 hours of learning a skill, and how if practiced efficiently through deconstructing the skill, that all it takes to be decent/mediocre at said skill and that 10,000 hours is the number to become expert/sifu at a skill.

That sounds about right.

If you do an hour a day, that's 20 days. Around a month.
It makes me want to start a group/class that only lasts for a month. Probably for middle school aged kids. Yes, a Kung Fu class. The after school program across from Woo Ching White Crane, stopped because the college kids who run it are already out. Then the summer program picks up again in July. Obviously I am a little late and frankly too busy to start this now.. this year, but it made me think. Maybe the school could slip in and provide Kung Fu for those same kids, maybe in the same classrooms, still for free, for just a month. In that month they should be able to learn enough to be decent. Which means they could theoretically practice on their own (until next year) or with each other, plus they would have some ingrained basics and even sections of forms that they could have in their body.

Another good use of a month of practice everyday would be right around Chinese New Year season. Offer a lion dance, drumming, and basic Kung Fu class (or maybe the Kung Fu would just be a warm up) everyday for an hour for about a month. Then the end celebration of the skill is you do the Chinatown Parade. If we get lion dances before that that conflict with the class, obviously part of your training becomes helping out at said performances. Truth is you can learn gong and cymbals in like 15 minutes unless you have absolutely no sense of rhythm wahtsoever. Sos what's that like mid January to Mid February?

WHat's great about the class being over in a month is the people don't have to make such a commitment. To choose between doing this or that. Plus when it finishes, it's not like they quit. The class ended. And then they walk away with that skill. They could probably come back next year or to other events without doing the class again. Then again since the class is only a month. Maybe they will come back again next year, for just a month, and possibly build on what they already know.