Zero to USAMC in 7.0? (months) - John L's Training Journal

Sooo…

(Disclaimer: Everyone is different and some people have no problem mixing systems. Just about any type of system construction can be eventually trained to fluency, even a mixed one. But…)

Since your goal is competition level speed, I recommend you pick a single approach and push through the work of building a consistent system.

When you’re trying to go fast, (especially very fast), you want as little hesitation as possible and you want to be able to “automate” as many factors as you can in order to free up your focus and brainpower to actually construct your memorable scenes. You want the least extra active processes to have to run in your brain as possible.

If you are mixing systems to create your number list you have to actively engage your attention to recognize which numbers belong to which system. This can slow things down a lot.

When I first attempted to fill in a 3-digit system, I took this mixed approach. Most entries used Major, but some I tried for instinctive association like 007 as James Bond and 666 as Satan. The problem was once I started trying to train for recognition, I’d be going fine sounding things out
004 - Scissor
005 - Sicily
006 - Sausage
007… Um… Suh suh kuh.. suh zuh guh… Errrr…

And I’d blank out, then I’d realize oh right this is one of my exceptions.

It would totally derail my pacing and be a distraction that prevented me from moving my recognition speed into fluent territory.

In my opinion, the best way to avoid this is to base your number system on a single system. I love Major and always recommend people try it out first. Its like learning a language but once you’re fluent, you can basically just “read” numbers (and cards) as if reading words on a page.

If you’re interested, I’ve posted my complete 2-digit Major list here. It includes people, actions, objects, all based fully on the major phonetics. (It also has locations and adjectives derived from major as well, but don’t worry about those.)

As I said up front, it may turn out to be no problem for you to mix systems, but I think its worth taking a little bit of extra time at the beginning of your training to work on consistency.

You’re off to an awesome start with everything, keep it up!!

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