Batman Training 10,000 Hours per Ability

In the comments to This War Continues a couple of us have been talking about what it takes to be an expert. I had recently read that it takes three hours per day of training to become an expert.

Those three hours per day are actually an estimate on the number of hours per day to become an expert in approximately ten years. As mentioned by M.C. Elroy, it's actually based on the 10000-Hours-Rule. The 10000-Hours-Rule is a claim made popular in the book Outliers by Malcom Gladwell (make sure to watch the three videos found on the side bar) that 10,000 hours of delibriate practice are required to become an elite expert at any given thing. The idea itself comes out of the work of Anders Ericsson who did studies of what he called elite performance or expertise.

Ericsson lists three very broad ingredients that are need to produce an expert:

1)Measure - Lord Kelvin once said, “If you can not measure it, you can not improve it.”

2) Deliberate Practice - Practice does not make perfect. Repeating what you already know how to do does not help make you an expert. Focused effort to do something you don't do well or can't do at all (called deliberate practice) is the key. 10,000 hours of this and you're on your way.

3) Finding Coaches and Mentors – The best coaches know skills will need improvement at the next level not just your current level and so can help tremendously to ensure deliberate practice.

Batman is currently the 14th most powerful comic character according to ComicVine's Rank Game. He is ranks first in Unarmed Combat, Escape Artist, Tracking, Gadgets and Stealth. Plus he ranks 4th in Weapon Mastery and Marksmanship. According to the 10,000-Hours-Rule, to be an expert in all those requires 70,000 hours or 21 hours per day for 10 years straight of dedicated practice.

What's the Point?

Every once in awhile I like to take a post and restate my purpose with this blog. Although I will post about Batman comics or Batman TV shows from time to time, this isn't really supposed to be a general blog about Batman. I am trying to introduce myself to as many of Batman's skills and abilities as I can. Notice it is not my intent to master any of these skills but just to try them out.

So far I've got my yellow belt in Jui Jutsu, learned to make homemade smoke bombs, tried my hand at archery, read a book on forensic science, learned to make very good, very quick estimates from very little information (These are called Fermi Problems. We estimated fun comic-book things like how much energy Mr. Freeze gets from diamonds, how much food and how much oxygen the Flash needs, how strong Spider-man must be to stop an out-of-control train, how much stronger Superman must be to catch it if it came off the tracks, how heavy is Dark Claw with his adamantium skeleton, how much Kryptonite is on Earth, what was the mass of Krypton, how many buses are in Gotham City), I started bouldering and wall climbing when ever I get the chance, I tried my hand at picking locks, I did personal experiments with sleep deprivation and caffination, I now know a variety of knots and I bought and started throwing boomerangs (so cool).

This mission takes a lot of time. It can also prove expensive from time to time so I don't post often but I try my best. I'm always looking for suggestions on what I should learn next. I put off starting martial arts training until reads convinced me that it was absolutely essential. So feel free to leave suggestions at any time.

You should also try reading some of the blogs linked-to in the right hand column. I recommend them all (that's why they are there).

BatSkills

Let's get organized:

I won't be able to learn all the skills that Bruce Wayne gained on his trek to becoming the Batman in one day. I'll need to take start one at a time. So first thing is to make a list of Batman's abilities.

BatSkills:

boomerang throwing

lock picking
first aid
acting
wall climbing/buildering
urban repelling
forensic toxicology
emergency driving
piloting
acrobatics
shurikenjutsu/star throwing
criminology/forensic psychology
forensic science
escapology
martial arts
strategic/tactics methods
practical chemistry
crime scene analysis
strength development - athletic training
hacking
ambidextrous
code breaking
scuba diving
base jumping
counterfeiting
puzzles/riddles
strategic/tactics methods

This list is by no means exhaustive (it gets a little nit-picky at the end too) and if you have any more suggestions I'd love to hear them. We'll update and change this list as time goes on.