History Main / ImprovisedTraining

** ''Anime/DragonBallSuperSuperHero'' uses the return of the Red Ribbon Army as a means of getting Gohan to snap out of his current (if far less than usual) training slacking. [[spoiler: Cell Max was not part of Piccolo's plans.]]

You can tell a group got improvised training because they will absolutely marvel at the luxury of well funded professional teams and arenas. The richer, posh kids will sneer at them, while these kids will reply they didn't need sissy advantages or buy success with money.

Despite the zero budget and dubious training methods, it turns out the rougher and unconventional training pays off and helps them win. The more traditional (especially the ultra well funded prep or snooty Legacy Team that always wins) will have such [[TechnicianVersusPerformer rigid and inflexible mindsets]] that the ragtag team keeps catching them by surprise. Be it with creative plays or enduring more pain, or outperforming them. Occasionally, the training itself may even give them comparable or superior physical performance, at times bordering on {{Charles Atlas Super Power}}s.

* Subverted in ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'' where Sano (a brawler) attempts to train while traveling to Kyoto by knocking down trees with his bare hands. Eventually however he admits, that this isn't really training and he's not learning anything useful by doing it. At least while he's lost in the forest he does meet a mentor who does train him and show him new techniques.
* ''Manga/Eyeshield21'' had this trope going in the beginning. Ojou were so luxurious they owned a castle in Germany for the sole purpose of training in it. Deimon? They pushed a truck half way across the US in a month (part of the reason was also because they didn't have enough money for more gas).

* In ''Fanfic/NeitherABirdNorAPlaneItsDeku'', Izuku can't use his powers in public, so he needs to find a place away from prying eyes that he can access on a daily basis to practice. He decides on Korusan Island, the corpse of an abandoned {{Kaiju}} that emits a gas so corrosive that no one else can approach it without dying. There he refines his control over his ComboPlatterPowers well enough to easily earn a spot at U.A.

* ''Film/AKnightsTale'': They used jury rigged contraptions to teach William to joust. Plus he had to wear a dead guy’s armor.

* ''Film/ShaolinSoccer'', a washed up pro soccer trainer converts a team of washed up kung-fu trained brothers into a team of [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Super Soccer Kung Fu Monks]]. With such feats as eggs tossing and catching, and pitting them against a team that uses metal hand tools to bludgeon their opponents.

* The little league baseball team in ''Films/ThePerfectGame''. They're poor, have no advantages, and actually have to clean up a church yard of brush, tires, and rocks to get a ball field. Their training consisted in a lot of running, cutting their own bats from wood, and hitting balls made of rubber bands/wire. They do eventually get real bats and balls, though they never see cut grass fields until they start competing.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Ballerina}}'', wagon wheels and water barrels serve for the orphans vestibular training.

* British climbers Tom Randall and Pete Whittaker built a plywood training dungeon in Tom's basement where they spent two years training strength and endurance before embarking on a two month tour of America's offwidth crack routes. They swept through most of the classic routes, then climbed the infamous Century Crack making themselves legend in the climbing community. Their training montage is filmed in Reel Rock Tour 7.

* ''Film/AKnightsTale'' They used jury rigged contraptions to teach William to joust. Plus he had to wear a dead guy’s armor.

* The Turtle Hermit trains Goku and Krillin in ''Manga/DragonBall'' by having them deliver milk to an entire island every morning, plow fields with their bare hands, dodge bees after hitting beehives, swim in a lake with a shark in it, do construction work, etc. All with a 40 kg turtle shell on their backs (that gets doubled in weight a few months in).

* In ''Film/McFarlandUSA'', the dirt-poor boys don't even own decent shoes, much less a facility. After seeing his team lose because they can't run uphill well, [[SuperCoach Coach White]] has them train by running up and down tarp-covered hills of almonds.

[[folder: Western Animation]]

[[folder:Film]]

* The little league baseball team in ''ThePerfectGame''. They're poor, have no advantages, and actually have to clean up a church yard of brush, tires, and rocks to get a ball field. Their training consisted in a lot of running, cutting their own bats from wood, and hitting balls made of rubber bands/wire. They do eventually get real bats and balls, though they never see cut grass fields until they start competing.

* Endou from ''Anime/InazumaEleven'' usually practices with a tire tied to a tree, which he tries to stop with his hand.

%%* ''Film/DodgeballATrueUnderdogStory'' parodies this while playing it straight.
* In ''Film/XMenFirstClass'', Xavier uses whatever he can find on or near his estate to train the young mutants.

Not to be confused with PoorMansSubstitute about dealing with actors.

* ''Manga/{{Eyeshield 21}}'' had this trope going in the beginning. Ojou were so luxurious they owned a castle in Germany for the sole purpose of training in it. Deimon? They pushed a truck half way across the US in a month (part of the reason was also because they didn't have enough money for more gas).

* In ''Bollywood/{{Lagaan}}'' the new Indian cricket team chases chickens and the like. Half of their special skills originate from ordinary tasks that they do in their day jobs too.

* Subverted in ''Discworld/UnseenAcademicals'', in that Trev Likely can manipulate a kicked tin can six ways from Sunday, yet has never actually kicked a soccer ball in his life. [[spoiler: When he finally does join a game, he can only manage near-miss shots until a friend engineers a "lost" ball and tosses a tin can onto the field as a substitute.]]

* ''Manga/{{Eyeshield 21}}'' had this trope going in the beginning. Ojou was so luxurious they owned a castle in Germany for the sole purpose of training in it. Deimon? They pushed a truck half way across the US in a month (part of the reason was also because they didn't have enough money for more gas).

-->-- '''Patches O'Houlihan''', ''{{Dodgeball}}''

* ''Film/{{Rocky}}'' does a version of this in every movie, chasing chickens, using whole cows as heavy bags, lifting logs, etc., usually done to an 80's Sports Montage. In ''Rocky IV'' his working out was juxtaposed with his opponent's high-tech training, contrasting Rocky's lifting boulders and chopping wood to Drago's using high-tech equipment with dozens of scientists surrounding him.

* ''Film/{{Dodgeball}}'' parodies this while playing it straight.

* {{Eyeshield 21}} had this trope going in the beginning. Ojou was so luxurious they owned a castle in Germany for the sole purpose of training in it. Deimon? They pushed a truck half way across the US in a month (part of the reason was also because they didn't have enough money for more gas).

* Subverted in ''RurouniKenshin'' where Sano (a brawler) attempts to train while traveling to Kyoto by knocking down trees with his bare hands. Eventually however he admits, that this isn't really training and he's not learning anything useful by doing it. At least while he's lost in the forest he does meet a mentor who does train him and show him new techniques.

* ''AKnightsTale'' They used jury rigged contraptions to teach William to joust. Plus he had to wear a dead guy’s armor.

* ''ShaolinSoccer'', a washed up pro soccer trainer converts a team of washed up kung-fu trained brothers into a team of [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Super Soccer Kung Fu Monks]]. With such feats as eggs tossing and catching, and pitting them against a team that uses metal hand tools to bludgeon their opponents.

* Film/{{Rocky}} does a version of this in every movie, chasing chickens, using whole cows as heavy bags, lifting logs, etc. Usually done to an 80's Sports Montage and juxatposed with his opponent's high-tech training.
** The opponents high-tech training was only really done in ''Rocky IV'', where the contrast between Rocky lifting boulders and chopping wood and Drago using high-tech equipment with dozens of scientists surrounding him was played up to the extreme
** In ''Rocky III'', this was done with Rocky's opponent [[strike:Clubber Lang]] Mr. T, whos training montage was supposedly based on Mr. T's real life training.
*** Clubber Lang's workout is more like self-imposed TrainingFromHell and his "gym" has been compared to a dungeon.
* A variant in ''MajorLeague'' sees the ball players improvising ways to ''recover'' from the exertions of training, after the team's hostile owner takes away all their equipment. One player is seen lying in an improvised whirlpool bath made up of an aluminium horse trough, a garden hose, and [[NoOSHACompliance an outboard boat motor]].
* ''{{Dodgeball}}'' parodies this while playing it straight.

-->--'''Patches O'Houlihan''', ''{{Dodgeball}}''

* In ''{{Lagaan}}'' the new Indian cricket team chases chickens and the like. Half of their special skills originate from ordinary tasks that they do in their day jobs too.

* Sort of subverted in ''Discworld/UnseenAcademicals'', in that Trev Likely can manipulate a kicked tin can six ways from Sunday, yet has never actually kicked a soccer ball in his life. [[spoiler: When he finally does join a game, he can only manage near-miss shots until a friend engineers a "lost" ball and tosses a tin can onto the field as a substitute.]]

* In ''Film/XMenFirstClass'', Xavier uses whatever he can find on or near his estate to train young mutants.