Wax On, Wax Off

"Before Enlightenment, carry water, chop wood.
After Enlightenment, carry water, chop wood."

— Buddhist saying

An odd form of training passed off by an unorthodox master on a skeptical student. Sometimes comes disguised as a set of chores, but just as often is a general exercise that promotes a valuable physical or mental attribute in a strange way. Always dismissed as a waste of time early on, but appreciated later. Often, this also serves as a lesson to the skeptical student to trust the master and do all the crazy things the master asks without questioning, by demonstrating that the master really knows what he's doing and is in fact effectively teaching the student.

May be time-compressed in a Training Montage or Hard-Work Montage. This is an integral part of Improvised Training, due to the low cost involved.

It's commonly subverted or parodied when a mildly Genre Savvy hero initially assumes he is receiving valuable training, only to realize that he is just being made to do his sensei's chores. Double Subverted if the sensei tells him that this realization is the valuable lesson.

Realistically, all forms of training require repetition, persistence and discipline, so this is decidedly Truth in Television. The functionality has limitations though, as situational instincts applicable to the actual goals matter just as much as the physical conditioning. So while this can be an effective training method regarding strength and muscle memory, it's no substitute for the practical training which will inevitably follow.

The trope is named for its most famous example, Mr. Miyagi training Daniel LaRusso in The Karate Kid by, among other things, waxing a small fleet of cars, sanding the walkways of his garden, and painting his house. Subsequent uses of the trope might reference this phrase or scene.

Compare Training from Hell, Taught by Experience, I Know Mortal Kombat, Chekhov's Skill. May also double as a form of Physical Fitness Punishment. When the mundane task comes at the end of training, it's When You Snatch the Pebble, and often Look What I Can Do Now!. The teacher is often a Magical Asian or an Old Master. Compare to Fence Painting and contrast with Mooching Master, where the teacher is more concerned with getting free labor out of disciples rather than training them. Sometimes combined with Imposed Handicap Training. Properly executed, it always ends up being Worth It.

Not to be confused with Martial Arts for Mundane Purposes, when a skilled martial artist uses their skills for something other than fighting.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• The Dragon Ball franchise was fond of this trope; the hero Goku is often given a mundane but laborious task to retrieve an item that would increase his power, only to find that it was the task itself that made him stronger. By Dragon Ball Z, he's wised up to this sort of thing — or so he thinks, because nobody really trains him the same way twice.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • Master Roshi goes to comedic excess when he forces Goku and Krillin to work long hours delivering milk on foot, sowing fields with their bare hands, and doing chores at construction sites, all while wearing weighted turtle shells. It really does build them up fast, but Roshi is more excited by the few bucks he makes off it.
    • Goku's training with Korin involving climbing up his tower to meet him, and then snatch the bottle of his Sacred Water, said to increase one's strength. It doubled as a Secret Test of Character when Goku had an opportunity to steal it from an apparently sleeping Korin; Goku decided against it, much to Korin's surprise. Its effectiveness was shown part-way when Korin tossed Goku's Four Star Ball off the tower; it took Goku only an hour or two to go back down and up the tower again, when his first climb up took an entire day. When Goku finally got the water, he found that it was only ordinary tap water. The point was the workout of chasing Korin around and also learning to read one's opponent and predict his movements.
    • When Tao Pai Pai makes his way up the tower to claim its power, Korin quickly realizes he's a bad guy and just gives him the water; he also gives Tao a black flying cloud to ride back down so he won't get any stronger from the climb.^note And on top of that, Korin makes the cloud disappear near the bottom, insulting Tao as well.
  • Dragon Ball Z:
    • After training with Kami, Goku frequently trained solely by using weighted clothing, and after King Kai by using special gravity rooms, something Vegeta would later pick up. Discarding the weighted clothing would often be used when fights got serious.
    • King Kai admitted this was going on from the start. The gravity on his planet is ten times that of Earth (the same as that of planet Vegeta, home of his next opponents), so when Goku arrived there he could barely move. King Kai told him that when he could catch Bubbles the monkey (and in the anime, hit Gregory the cricket on the head with a mallet), he was ready to learn King Kai's special techniques.
    • Gohan's training with the Z Sword. The extremely heavy blade is supposed to be the only weapon capable of defeating Majin Buu but shatters when actually put to the test. Gohan then notes that swinging the sword around has made him much stronger and faster, which may have been the point all along. Subverted immediately when Goku says that the power increase is negligible. Breaking the sword releases the Elder Kai, whose abilities turn out to be the real prize.
  • In Dragon Ball GT, Old Kai has Goku unlock his hidden power by making him operate a giant coffee grinder, which somehow starts to regrow Goku's tail. The training is quickly abandoned for the faster solution of simply forcing the tail out with a pair of pliers.
  • Dragon Ball Super
    • By Super, Goku is very used to this trope and assumes that he and Vegeta having to change the God of Destruction Beerus' bedsheets while he's sleeping — a surprisingly dangerous task — is another example of the trope. Vegeta says no, this is just ordinary housework that has nothing to do with their training.
    • Before he shows up to train with Whis, Goku challenges Piccolo to a one-on-one contest- harvesting all his crops as quickly as possible. While initially irritated for being called to do field work and skeptical that it could ever be considered training, the Namekian very quickly realizes its effectiveness in keeping his arms and legs moving, while keeping his mind focused.
• Ranma's training in Ranma ½ started here and escalated to lunatic levels of difficulty and danger.
  • Ranma's rival Ryoga also undergoes this type of training, getting boulders thrown at him to learn the rock-crushing Bakusai Tenketsu technique. As it turns out, Bakusai Tenketsu only works against rigid objects like rocks, but getting hit repeatedly by swinging boulders eventually makes the fighter Nigh Invulnerable. And it was all a Batman Gambit from Cologne to freak Ranma out enough so that he would train on his own and become a better suitor for her granddaughter.
  • In filler, Happosai trains Kuno by having him get the ingredients for his "speed of light elixir" from some strange places (like the girl's locker room), which would require him to get faster and tougher. It works, but the formula was so bad (being made from the dirt under Happosai's nails) that it undoes the training.
  • Kuno also tried training by going to Watermelon Island, standing under a waterfall, and dicing watermelons as they came down from upstream. He got really good at it, chopping watermelons to tiny cubes entirely by reflex, and getting stronger and tougher than Ranma himself! But it's subverted because the entire point of the training was to impress girls by Smashing Watermelons.
• Inuyasha. Parodied in a filler episode. When Inuyasha wanted to get stronger and power up his Infinity +1 Sword, he went to the sword's creator, Toutousai, for training. Toutousai is both The Wonka and an Eccentric Mentor at the best of times. As a result, when his response to Inuyasha's request is an off-hand comment about wanting a bath, Inuyasha — with atypical gusto — starts cutting firewood, hauls water, and works the bellows to heat the fire, believing that Toutousai has put this trope into effect and that it's all part of training. And then he discovers that Toutousai was being serious: he really did want a bath. Cue wrecking ball mode.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • Brock and Ash meet Bruno, a member of the Elite 4 who agrees to train them. He gets them to do a ton of chores. Brock assumes this all has a deeper meaning, but Bruno just wanted his chores done. His actual training could be summed up as "Be nice to Pokemon". Or perhaps "You can't get something for nothing."
  • Many seasons later, Kalos gym leader Korrina has difficulty getting her Lucario to listen to her during Mega Evolution, so she journeys to meet Mabel, a family acquaintance with a loyal Mega Mawile. After an initial battle to test her, the training turns out to be over a week's worth of flower arranging. It pays off in the end, as the training needed wasn't physical but rather the need to understand the teammate's differing perspective when battling.
• In Pokémon Adventures, the Daycare Lady locks Gold into a cage full of dangerous-looking Pokemon. Gold's Cyndaquil ends up evolving thanks to fighting them, and Gold immediately shouts his thanks. Turns out the old lady was just too lazy to look after the Pokemon herself and was using Gold to give them some exercise.
• In Rosario + Vampire, Moka nabbed a magic-cancelling whip so Inner Moka could come out and play, and they both took Tsukune out on a shopping trip around Preternatural Street, which led to attacks from the rest of the Harem. Tsukune figures out how to remotely sense demonic energy as a matter of survival, which everyone concludes was her motive. No, it turns out she just wanted to do some shopping as her True Self and snuck a lesson into the shopping trip. When the actual training begins, Tsukune's concerns that it was going to be Training from Hell were proven well-founded. Ironically, this lesson gets specific use more often than the strength training does.
• Genesis of Aquarion loves this trope, and parodies it whenever possible.
• When the heroes of Get Backers want to learn to use Divine Design, they get a witch friend to help them learn the basics of magic. The first task? Stacking eggs.
• In Hajime no Ippo, the eponymous hero has natural physical attributes that make him perfect for in-boxing; but just as important is how he's spent most of his life in the fishing business, where carrying tremendous weights and working on boats has honed his upper body strength and sense of balance, respectively. As the series progresses, Ippo finds other mundane ways outside of the gym to practice new techniques or train to avoid his upcoming opponent's moves.
• Takumi from Initial D, or so he thinks, starts out driving at 4:00 AM as fast as possible while delivering his dad's tofu to the peak of Mount Akina and drifting to prevent the tofu from rolling around, in order to return home ASAP and catch a little snooze before going to school.
• In Fullmetal Alchemist, Izumi's Training from Hell for alchemy is preceded by a month of survival in the wilderness with just a knife, the purpose being to find the meaning of "all is one, one is all". By undergoing a Near-Death Experience, trainees learn that they're part of an endless cycle of life that could easily move on without them, and that alchemy is just a miniature replication of that cycle within one's own body. She herself learned this from her own teacher, who according to one gaiden volume did it because he thought she wanted hand-to-hand combat training. She really wanted her trainer's brother to train her, but in the end, she learned enough to curb-stomp him anyway.
• Subverted in Medabots, which had a chapter in which Ikki and Metabee did Dr. Aki's housework. Ikki thought it was this trope, but the good doctor later admits that this served no practical purpose.
  • An earlier case involves Ikki and Metabee, after a sound defeat against an aquatic medabot, asking an old fisherman to teach them how to robattle in the water. After much begging, the "training" indeed consists of all sorts of chores for the old man, including a back massage, but eventually Metabee does learn how to retain balance while in the water, just not how to move in it—that was tomorrow's lesson. In the end, despite Ikki and Metabee's victory in the rematch, it's left unclear if the old man was sincere in his training, mooching off his students all along and they were lucky or making it up as he went.
• Ayane's High Kick: When Ayane accepts Kunimitsu's offer for training, he declares that the first step is for her to build the training ring, to help build her physical strength and stamina.
• A filler episode of One Piece uses a craft variant. A young kid who had only worked as a dishwasher on a Marine ship kitchen accidentally destroys the weekly (and almost legendary) curry lunch for the officers, and the head chef forces him to make a new batch on his own as punishment. With Sanji providing some subtle clues of his own, the kid learns that the observations made as a simple dishwasher have given him the fundamental skills to cook the meal.
• When the team go on a training camp early in High School D×D, Issei's training begins on the way there - carrying a large pack of supplies. Even when they do get there, Rias assigns Issei all the most physically demanding jobs, on top of training. And the end of the camp this pays off, and Rias explains point-blank that right now, Boosted Gear can give Issei all the power he needs - the trick is physically conditioning himself so it doesn't tear him apart in the process.
• The eponymous protagonist of Noritaka gets trained almost exclusively like this, being made to do a job or chore that will build up both his strength and the muscle memory he needs for his next fight. After finding out that feeding a very angry cat living under the kickboxing gym and escaping her wrath taught him a surprisingly effective elbow attack, Noritaka wises up and stops protesting for the ridiculous tasks he has to perform, but onlookers still get surprised at his "training".
  • Noritaka has been forced to carry heavy weights since he was a kid, first by his many older siblings foistering their bags on him while going to grade school and then by his classmates in junior high doing the same with the class loser, with his father having him to work in the family's construction company the whole time and continuing even in high school. This resulted in Noritaka building up formidable back muscles, which translate to him having a terrifying hitting power in spite of his small build and thin arms and legs.
• In Codename: Sailor V, the manga that Sailor Moon is a spin-off of, Artemis has to resort to this, as Minako is incredibly gifted but doesn't pay him any attention whenever he tries to train normally. Thus he first creates the Sailor V Game as a simulator to take advantage of Minako's ability to learn from the video games she plays (and daring her to play once and insulting her skills when said first attempt fails miserably so she'll get obsessed with it, as she caught up immediately with what he was up to), and when she gets caught up in the Valentine's youma plot and eats enough chocolate to start putting up fat he gives her a "slim-down" training routine that is actually designed to build up her strength (Minako was not amused when she realized it). By the time of the main series, it's implied Minako is training in a more traditional way off-page... But the Sailor V Game is still used as a training tool for the others, as it allows Minako and Artemis to train them without showing up before it's necessary.
• Digimon Adventure: In "The Piximon Cometh", Piximon's training regimen for the Digidestined and their Digimon partners is to have them scrub every floor in his dojo and to refuse to give them anything to eat until they do so.
• In the anime adaptation of Run with the Wind, Kakeru notices that Prince's running form (which is hilariously disastrous) already looks a little better when he's reading manga on the treadmill (his back straighter and he faces forward to read instead of downward like he usually does in races). Kakeru thus uses manga to help hone Prince's running, by holding the manga up for him to read while he runs and making him hold the books in his hands while running (mimicking running to his room to read them) to fix his arm positioning. Although more needs to be done to whip him into shape for Hakone itself, this does help Prince to eventually cut back his official track meet time from 45 minutes to 30 minutes.
• Combined with Workplace-Acquired Abilities in Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid. The programing language used at Kobayashi's company was designed by wizards having modeled it off of their magic system, and it's implied that her manager (a powerful archmage) has been secretly grooming her to become the region's magical guardian. He later signs her up for a mage exam under the guise of having her chaperone his son, and she proceeds to ace both the written and practial portions (though the latter was mostly Tohru's doing).
• In Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream, Mentor Mascots Rabichi and Bearchi have Aira and Rizumu work in a Chinese restaurant to improve their Prism Shows. With Aira on the wait staff, she ends up having better coordination. With Rizumu arranging the food and painting coloring books, she ends up having better fashion sense.
• Subverted in Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun. Iruma thinks this is what Bachiko Barbatos is doing by making him act as her servant and dressing her up in frilly outfits. After a few weeks of this, she admits to having forgotten she was supposed to train him at all..

Asian Animation

• The second season of Happy Heroes features a two-part episode (episodes 17 and 18, specifically) where the Supermen get ready to participate in a game of basketball. Headmaster Tele's basketball training works surprisingly well on them considering that it involves them washing dishes.

Comic Books

• MAD spoofed this trope by having Mr. Miyagi explain that finishing off enemies is the same as finishing off floors. And if he gets the shit kicked out of him, Daniel-san now has a nice place to recuperate.
• In Usagi Yojimbo:
  • Usagi's training as a kitten had his old master Katusuichi, pretending to be a Mooching Master, making Usagi do all manner of chores for over a year before he even let Usagi touch a bokken. Turns out he was actually testing Usagi's patience and resolve to become a swordsman.
  • Katusuichi also started hitting Usagi with a bamboo stick at random times, day and night. Although the rabbit kitten feared his teacher had gone mad, he only later noticed that it helped develop the lifesaving habit of being constantly alert for danger.

Comic Strips

• Parodied in Madam & Eve when Eve teaches Madam the "Maid Aerobics" exercise regimen — it's Eve's household chores disguised as a weight-loss program.

Fan Works

• More Than Enemies: Kakashi does this to subtly but surely improve Sakura's stamina, endurance, and speed. What did he make her do? To walk his dog summons whom Sakura describes as demon spawns. Justified as she has to chase them all over Konoha with few if any moments of respite and using chakra to walk on vertical surfaces and jump large distances just so she can keep up with the dogs. First, he asks her to do it as a "thank you" for comforting her after the first test (of the Chunin Exams) flop. Then as an exchange for the brand new genjutsu he's crafting for her. It ends up as an indirect bonding activity between the two. Sakura is delighted to note the effects while running from a very pissed Orochimaru.
• All The World's A Stage (NullenVoid): Ondori begins the story as a fairly unremarkable Suna pupeteer; not bad, but nothing noteworthy. Then he invents The Muppets and begins putting on street performances as a hobby between missions. Since that requires him to work multiple puppets at once(where previously he could only manage one in combat) it winds up drastically improving his skills, though he doesn't notice.

Films — Animated

• A specifically inverted example happens in Kung Fu Panda: Po, who eats when he's upset, is taught kung fu by Master Shifu via eating dumplings with chopsticks; largely because Shifu discovers, quite by accident, that when Po is thinking about food, he's capable of feats that, when he's thinking about kung fu, he's not even aware exist.
• Parodied and subverted in Surf's Up, in which Big Z has Cody doing ridiculous training exercises to help him "learn how to surf". Cody finally figured out that Big Z was playing practical jokes on him, and later learned that the real lesson was to relax and just have fun. The winner turns out to be Chicken Joe, who wasn't even aware they were competing and was just having fun.
• In Ballerina, the main character learns ballet through doing housework with various unusual poses and steps. This is largely out of necessity - she and her trainer are both dirt-poor and employed as cleaners, so they don't have access to better equipment and can't afford to neglect their jobs.
• In BIONICLE 2: Legends of Metru Nui Turaga Lhikan trains Nuju, Whenua and Onewa to instinctively unlock their mask powers with seemingly inane tasks that run counter to their personality.
  • Nuju, the future-seeking philosopher has to focus on the present by stacking rocks to build a tower — his power is telekinesis that can make rocks float without manual labor and without worrying about how to stack them properly.
  • Whenua, the past-obsessed historian must wear a blindfold and stop relying on his memory to see where he's going — his power is seeing in the dark and even through things.
  • Onewa, a jerkass who enjoys riling up others is forced to do Nuju and Whenua's tasks at the same time to learn empathy — his power is Mind Control that he uses to deescalate the tension when Whenua threatens to beat him up for accidentally dropping a boulder on his head.

Films — Live-Action

• The Karate Kid movies:
  • The Karate Kid (1984) is the trope namer. When Mr. Miyagi agrees to train Daniel, Daniel thinks he's going to get practical karate training from the get-go. Instead, Miyagi tells him to do various chores — not just waxing cars, but also painting the house, painting the fence, and sanding the deck. Miyagi also shows Daniel the precise way he wants everything done. Daniel nearly quits, thinking Miyagi is just a Mooching Master before Miyagi demonstrates that these chores are to rapidly build up the strength and muscle memory necessary for performing karate blocks (and are also a way to test how much patience he had). Then Miyagi shows Daniel how to punch and kick. As a reward for persevering, Daniel even gets one of the cars.
    • In The Karate Kid Part III, Daniel even adapts Miyagi's teaching technique to show his new love interest, Jessica, how the muscle memory from her work in a pottery studio can be used as a block.
  • By The Next Karate Kid, Julie calls Miyagi on his bullshit and refuses to wax anything. Undaunted, he achieves the same result by having her babysit kids who constantly fire toys at her, forcing her to practice her reflexes and blocking motions.
  • In The Karate Kid (2010), Mr. Han has Dre continually take off his coat, hang it, drop it, pick it up, and put it on, using Dre's attitude to enforce the strength and posture needed. Dre initially interprets this as punishment for his attitude towards his mother (who had repeatedly scolded him for tossing the jacket on the floor), until the Wax On Wax Off kicks in later. Dre calls out Mr. Han on not knowing Kung Fu, and Mr. Han demands he perform the actions without the jacket, which perfectly defend Mr. Han's attempts to hit Dre thanks to muscle memory. It's also actually explained in this movie why the teacher uses this indirect teaching method: to get Dre to understand that Kung Fu isn't just a way of fighting, it's a way of life:
    Mr. Han: Kung Fu lives in everything we do, Xiao Dre. It lives in how we put on the jacket, how we take off the jacket and lives in how we treat people. Everything is Kung Fu.
• In the film DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story, Patches O'Houlihan uses a few exotic methods to improve the Average Joes' dodging skill, including crossing a busy street, and throwing wrenches at them.
  "If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball!"
• Kill Bill has a more realistic portrayal of how martial arts schools used to do this, showing the Bride carrying buckets of water up a large set of stairs as part of her training.
• Parodied in Mystery Men, where the Sphinx trains the eponymous squad with a series of bizarre physical feats justified by odd wordplay:
  Mr. Furious: Why am I balancing a hammer on my head?
  The Sphinx: When you can balance a tack hammer on your head, you can head off your foes with a balanced attack.
  Mr. Furious: Then why do I have these watermelons on my feet?
  The Sphinx: [Beat] I don't remember telling you to do that.
• Parodied in the Karate Kid rip-off Showdown. The martial arts master is making the hero clean toilets, and the hero is like "I get it, this is like Wax On Wax Off, right?" The response? "No, this is toilet cleaning."
• Parodied and subverted in the Japanese movie Waterboys. The boys' high-school Synchro-Swim team seeks help from a local Sea World dolphin trainer. He makes them clean all the aquariums, under the guise of it being muscle training. Later, he takes them to an arcade and gives them $50 to play DanceDanceRevolution, as a lesson in getting in sync. Both times, it works, but he just does this to get work done for free and get rid of them.
• In Drunken Master, Jackie Chan plays Wong Fei-hung, a young punk who is punished by being put under the brutal training of Su Hai Chi, an alcoholic with a style known as the Eight Drunken Immortals. Su Hai Chi appears to delight in putting Fei-hung through Training from Hell. It starts with being flipped around, tripped over, and knocked down repeatedly. Then it transitions to transferring water between four giant barrels with a bucket, while balancing atop the barrels. Later, it moves to filling one bucket with water from another using only a teacup — while the empty bucket is on the top of a pole, the full bucket is on the bottom of the pole, and you do it by wrapping your legs around the top of the pole, hanging upside down, and doing upside down situps. Last, it's performing katas in time with your instructor, with your hands roped to his, as he slams poles against your wrist running down the length of the cord. So how is all of this supposed to aid in defeating the Big Bad? Well, being forced to flip over builds up your balance by getting used to tumbling around, since much of Drunken Boxing is acrobatic. The barrel exercise builds up balance, back and ankle strength. The teacup exercise builds up the upper leg and abdominal areas. The cord exercise is to help Fei-hong remember the katas, employing his strength from the previous exercises. Having his wrists slammed with the poles is necessary since he'll be doing a lot of blocking and striking using his wrists alone. And crushing walnuts quickly becomes useful for outright lethal strikes, like crushing the throat.
• In Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D., Harry learns to control his powers by sorting a huge pile of rice, practicing coming up with haikus, and taking a whole bunch of Groin Attacks. Not typical.
• Mentioned (but not done) in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze. While cleaning April's apartment, Mikey, who's cleaning the counters, asks his brothers to watch him.
  Mikey: Watch this! (A la Miyagi) "Wax on, wax off. Wax on, wax off. Wax on-"
  Raph: (Stops him) Mouth. Off!
• One Night of Love: Mary is an aspiring opera singer who has moved in with Giulio the vocal coach to train. She spends weeks on end doing various exercises meant to strengthen her diaphragm and increase her lung capacity. Six weeks of calisthenics without singing a single note leads Mary to complain that she wants to be an opera singer, not a boxer.
• In Daggers 8, the one of the main character's teachers is a noodle shop owner, who has him train his arms by working dough for three months, and his legs by crouching down to play mahjong for hours at a stretch.

Gamebooks

• In The Crimson Tide, you can spend some years in a monastery. If you try and learn martial arts, you get some added combat skill. If you work in the laundry or the kitchens, you finally discover that you've been training in the Wax On Wax Off style. Using this style later in the book makes fights far easier, and you last longer in hopeless Bad End combat scenes. It's also a prerequisite for getting the Golden Ending.

Literature

• Discworld
  • Parodied in Mort when the hero, as Death's apprentice, is told that if he wants to understand the secrets of space and time, he must muck out the stables. After considering various reasons why this might be part of his training, he comes to the conclusion that it's because Death was "knee-deep in horseshit". A Double Subversion, though, as Death insists that, by realising this, Mort has learned something: always see things for what they are.
  • Similarly, in Thief of Time, Lobsang Ludd is being taught by Lu-Tze, an Old Master who is content to be a humble sweeper. After several days of sweeping up the temple, he confronts Lu-Tze:
    Lobsang: I mean, I understand how it works. The master makes the pupil do all the menial jobs, and then it turns out the pupil is really learning things of great value ... And I don't think I'm learning anything, really, except that people are pretty messy and inconsiderate.
    Lu-Tze: Not a bad lesson, all the same.
  • Granny Weatherwax is also a major believer in Wax On Wax Off, not just as training for young witches (such as Eskarina and Tiffany), but as a permanent part of a professional witch's repertoire.
• In David Eddings' Belgariad universe, the arch-wizard Belgarath learned the Functional Magic of "The Will and The Word" from the reclusive Physical God Aldur in this way. Aldur kept setting his young apprentice to various menial, pointless, and increasingly strenuous tasks, culminating in him ordering the young Belgarath to move a boulder out of his way since he couldn't be bothered to step around it. Inspired by this, Belgarath did the same thing to Garion, who tried lifting the boulder. Newtonian physics still worked, apparently, and Garion found himself in a rather deep hole.
• In Warcraft: The Last Guardian, a Warcraft Expanded Universe novel, the first task that our hero faces when attempting to become the wizard Medivh's apprentice is to clean, fix, and sort out his library. This turns out to be a Secret Test of Character, since an apprentice is supposed to know the contents of the library inside and out, have the patience and humility to do some physical work every now and then, and know which books are actively harmful.
• In A Game of Thrones, Syrio Forel trains Arya Stark for Braavosi-style fencing by having her do things like catch the stray cats roaming the castle at King's Landing (to increase her speed and reaction time) and walking around the castle on her hands (to increase her balance and awareness of the surfaces she's moving on). Subverted in that she understands the purpose of it all and appreciates it.
  • When Jon Snow finishes his Night's Watch training, he is enraged when he learns that Lord Commander Mormont has assigned him to be his personal steward instead of a ranger. Samwell Tarly points out that as the Lord Commander's steward, Jon will be shadowing him for most of the day and be privy to all the processes of running the Watch. Since Mormont has handpicked Snow himself, it means that he is actually grooming Snow to become his successor.
• In E.W. Hildick's The McGurk Organization series, Jack McGurk (leader of a band of kid detectives) frequently came up with "training exercises" that also got the other kids to do his work for him. For example, raking the yard to match leaves. The point, as McGurk explained, was to look for leaves that didn't match the trees in the yard. Really, he was just getting the others to rake the yard so he didn't have to.
• In By the Sword, Kero's training with Tarma begins with a whole lot of chopping wood. She doesn't seem to resent it, but she does eventually get curious when Tarma starts having her chop wood that's been set up in oddly specific configurations, at which point Tarma finally gets around to explaining the specific purpose of the exercise: to develop the specific muscle groups that she'll be using to swing a sword.
• In A Matter of Thorns (Realms of Infamy) by James M. Ward, a Knight Errant explains his approach:
  Sir Ganithar "the Hammer": You must learn to serve me. Loyal service is as important to a squire as the arts of war. Do you understand, boy?
  Tomkin: Yes, sir, I'll always serve you to the best of my ability. I'll do whatever you tell me to do, Sir Ganithar.
  Ganithar: No, no, lad. That's not what I want. Try to anticipate what I need. Anticipation is vital in a warrior, too. Figure out what I need and respond to me before I ask. I'll teach you to do the same to your foes. That's the way of a good warrior.
• The Wheel of Time does this to Avhienda in The Gathering Storm. The Wise Ones load her up with useless chores and punishments for seemingly no reason at all. After a few weeks, Avhienda gets fed up and quits. This turns out to be the Secret Test of Character, teaching her that at some point she has to stand up for herself.
  • The Black Tower uses a variant: In order to get new Asha'man proficient with their magic as quickly as possible, trainees are required to use only magic for any chore where this is possible (i.e. they aren't allowed to cook their food manually, either they cook it with magic or eat cold food). The White Tower avoids this practice because it has a high chance of causing novices to burn out their magic from overuse or kill themselves by using magic they don't really understand, but with the Dark One returning the Black Tower prioritizes speed over safety in their training.
• In the Circle of Magic series, ambient mages have to study and learn everything about their affinity, including the tedious chores.
  • One example mentioned a few times is Daja (metal/heat mage) having to do the most tedious thing as a blacksmith; making nails. This is doubly so, as while the swords or sculptures or larger pieces she wants to do or learn will get her recognition (or are just more fun), the nails are the most useful thing she can make.
• Subverted in the 1953 novel A Light in the Forest: True Son, an Anglo man raised by a native tribe, tells one of his young white relatives that in order to be strong, he has to chase butterflies and rub some of the powder from their wings on his chest, which he says is magical. One of the white men comments that the story is a good way to convince children to exercise, but True Son is surprised by the comment: he genuinely believes in the magical properties of the butterfly dust.
• In The Inheritance Cycle, this is supposedly the way that Dragon Riders were taught to be aware of their magic. They were given incredibly arduous tasks to do (such as filling barrels using buckets — using only their feet) so that they would eventually get so frustrated that they'd spontaneously do something magical.
• In Holes, this is the idea behind Madame Zeroni's deal. Elya is to carry a pig up to a spring at the top of a mountain each day, in order to impress a woman, with its eventual weight as a dowry. However, the true purpose is to have Elya carrying a gradually growing pig; over time, it would develop the muscles that would truly impress the girl. Subverted when the woman turns out to be stupid, and Elya leaves without her.
• In the Tortall Universe's The Numair Chronicles Yadeen teaches the young mage Arram focus and control through juggling.
• Bluepaw's training in Warrior Cats. Much of it focuses on boring tasks like gathering moss and cutting into smaller parts, to teach her patience, concentration, and good control of her claws.
• Played absolutely straight in The Kingkiller Chronicle. The Eccentric Mentor Elodin teaches Kvothe lessons such as the dangers of speaking and acting recklessly from the second half of the first book onwards, but it's not until Kvothe's Character Development and spending some time away from the University that he understands the point of them.
  • Arguably the crowner is probably when, after assigning the class to read several different, random books from the library, he doesn't bother showing up, just writes on the board, "Discuss."^note  Which teaches them, amongst other things, initiative Later, Kvothe notes that at least he had a much better understanding of how to use the library, thanks to Elodin's random assignment. It takes him a whole book to figure out that this was the whole point of the exercise.
• Both played straight and subverted in Ranger's Apprentice. As part of their training, apprentices are made to do various household chores-carrying water, chopping wood, beating the rugs, cleaning out the fireplace, etc. It's played straight in that apprentices gain muscle and discipline, both of which are much needed for a Ranger, but subverted in that the mentors sometimes make their apprentices do the housework for no other reason than that they're lazy.
• Seen in flashback, in the Xanth novel, Question Quest: When The Gorgon approaches Good Magician Humphrey with her question, he makes her perform the customary year's service (in this case, a year as his maid) before even letting her ask, let alone answering. Humphrey knew that if he answered her question normally, it would be a disaster: The Gorgon approached him not only out of her desperate loneliness, but infatuation with the man who managed to overcome her talent (The main source of said loneliness). The year's service let her get to know the real Humphrey, warts and all. It also gave her an out in case she decided the real him wasn't something she could deal with. So when he allows her to ask her question at the end of the year, he knows she's asking him, and not some heroic ideal version of Good Magician Humphrey she may have had. Her question was "Will you marry me?" His answer was "yes."
• The Legend of the Condor Heroes: Guo Jing's slow acquisition of martial skills is the despair of his shifus until he meets a traveling Taoist priest, Ma Yu, who doesn't agree to become his master, but offers to teach him some "breathing exercises" to help him focus and sleep better. Guo Jing takes up the exercises, and suddenly he's picking up kung-fu techniques in days that would previously have taken him the better part of a year to acquire. Turns out that what Ma Yu has been teaching him were the basic neigong techniques of his Taoist sect, without their names.
• Used word for word in The Magicians: during their fourth year, the Brakebills students are divided into separate cells and told to magically hammer a nail into a block of wood under every possible Circumstance. Quentin quickly realizes that they're doing this in order to fully internalize the mechanics behind spellcasting so they can act on it without thinking, and even drops the line "wax on, wax off." After finally completing this exercise, their next task is to perform a spell to extract the nails from the block of wood.
• Lux: When Jax first started training as a Reckoner, he expected to be taught things like shooting, explosives, and unarmed combat. Instead, Zeph starts Jax out with apparently pointless exercises like standing balanced on top of a narrow pole for hours without a break, remaining completely still while Zeph throws pebbles at him at random intervals, or completing obstacle courses while carrying a backpack full of canned fruit. Eventually, Jax blows up and demands to know what the point of these exercises is, at which point Zeph explains to him that ninety-nine percent of an assassin's work isn't shooting or blowing things up, but stuff like staying in one place for three days without moving, waiting for the target to walk into your trap and not doing anything to betray your presence.
• Subverted and double subverted in Beware of Chicken. Jin's visitors and spirit beast farm animals think that by assisting Jin with his farm work, they're doing some sort of profound and mystical training... but at least initially, he's just trying to run the farm, and being a very open and honest kind of person and having been very up front about what he was asking them to do, has no idea they think it is training. However, once Jin realizes that they all view him as a hidden master, he begins to incorporate some lessons into his work and play. Also, since part of his farming technique is freely giving and receiving Qi to the earth and the local earth spirit , it turns out both he and they were getting stronger from farming anyway.

Live-Action TV

• In Cobra Kai, which is the Distant Sequel to The Karate Kid trilogy:
  • Daniel is now a successful auto dealer, likely using it as a way to honor Miyagi's training. He later uses this exact technique to train Johnny's son Robby Keene through basic office tasks around the dealership, from cleaning the cars in the lot, washing the windows, sweeping the floor, jacking a car, and stapling files. Amanda even notices that he's enjoying being on the other side of it a little too much.
  • This is contrasted with Johnny having Miguel Diaz do various chores around the dojo. There's no hidden meaning behind it, it's simply a way for Miguel to work off his dojo fees. But, when it comes to actual training, Johnny never indulges in this trope at all. While his training methods are harsh and sometimes brutal, he is never less than completely up-front about what his program entails and is supposed to accomplish. Also, while it is clearly not Johnny's intention, Miguel's karate training benefits from both being Johnny's only student for the first few weeks as well as him having gotten used to physical strain from helping set the place up.
    Miguel: Hey, Sensei, is there any particular way you want me to wash these windows?
    Johnny: Nah, I don't give a shit.
  • Season 2 sees Daniel, having decided to turn Miyagi-Do into a full-scale dojo, try to apply this with all of his prospective students. Most of them assume he's just trying to con them into doing his chores and they bolt for Cobra Kai, only coming back after Miyagi-Do gets trashed by some Cobra Kai students. Demetri actually recognizes the purpose immediately, but he still complains about having to do all of the chores. Even before that, it's hinted that Daniel's son Anthony's refusal to learn karate is at least partially due to Daniel's insistence on Miyagi's more indirect methods of teaching over a more direct style (while it could be chalked up initially to Anthony's love of video games, he's shown to have lost some weight in the few appearances he has in later seasons, implying that he does do some non-karate physical activity on the side).
  • In season 3, Sam puts on a car wash fundraiser to raise money for Miguel's recovery. As she oversees the fundraiser, we see her directing the volunteers to use their sponges to make wide circular motions while washing the cars, showing she wants the Miyagi-Do students to keep up their muscle memory even with Daniel having shut down Miyagi-Do in light of the school brawl.
    • Late in season 3, when Sam is refusing to participate in karate, Daniel decides to take her out fishing for the day in hopes of getting her to open up to him about her problems so he can convince her to change her mind. He tries to ease her into it by reminiscing about a time they went fishing with Mr. Miyagi and caught a very big fish.
    Daniel: That was the day we taught you how to balance on the bow of the boat. Not that we needed to teach you, we couldn't knock you off to save our lives. [Sam rolls her eyes] Want to give it another shot, for old time's sake? What do you say?
    Sam: [shakes her head] I knew it.
    Daniel: You knew what?
    Sam: Is that why you brought me here? To trick me into doing karate?
    Daniel: What? No, not at all! This has nothing to with that. I just wanted to spend the day together.
    Sam: I told you, Dad. I quit karate.
  • Ultimately, it turns out that the fishing trip was to teach Sam techniques for the art of bo staff fighting, which she then uses against Tory in the season 3 finale.
    Sam: [smiles] "Cast the rod". So the fishing trip was karate training, after all.
    Daniel: More of a "happy coincidence".
  • Season 4 has Daniel put Johnny through this as they learn each other's karate styles. Johnny, who's done a lot of work in maintenance, just points out the flaws in these methods, like how Daniel has the students paint the house without first scraping off the old layer. He later finally forces Anthony to take it up by cleaning the cars, but Anthony tries to get out of it by hiring a guy to clean the cars while Daniel isn't observing.
• In Power Rangers Jungle Fury, R.J. does this to bring Casey up to speed with the other Rangers, with the minor subversion that one of the tasks really was pointless, even though the other three weren't.
• In Juken Sentai Gekiranger, this is the modus operandi of the Fist Saints who act as mentors to the team:
  • Sha-Fu (motto: "Training can be found in daily life") is the group's primary mentor who generally has them perform everyday tasks as a training regimen. The standout example being the usage of the Geki Bazooka: Ran and Retsu learn to charge the weapon in sync by playing the piano together, while Jan is taught the patience needed to distract the Monster of the Week while the charging is happening by being made to wait for a delicious meal.
  • Elehung Kam-Po (motto: "Training can be found in play") teaches Ran the use of the Geki Hammer via fly-fishing.
  • Bat Li (motto: "Training can be found in a trance") teaches Retsu the use of the Geki Fanthrough dancing, specifically that the weapon requires a Don't Think, Feel mindset, which the overly technique focused Retsu found hard to adapt to.
  • Sharkie Chan (motto: "Training can be found in SHARKI~N!") teaches Jan the use of the Geki Saber via canoe racing.
• On How I Met Your Mother, a flashback shows Marshall successfully convincing Barney that he could pick up any chick he wanted in less than five seconds by going up to a supposedly "random" woman (actually Lily, whom Barney had not met yet) in a bar and kissing her passionately. While retelling this story:
  Marshall: He went around for a week trying to get me to teach him how to live. I even got him to do my laundry once!
  Barney: I thought it was a Mr. Miyagi type of thing!
• Parodied on Breaker High, where Jimmy is subjected to this kind of training just to learn how to make burritos.
• In an episode of The Office (US), Michael unveils a movie he had been working on for years. In it, the hero has to learn how to play hockey and his mentor teaches him by having him mop the ice.
• In one episode of Duck Dynasty, Phil does this to his grandsons under the pretense of training their reflexes and hand-eye coordination. They're initially skeptical, and by the end of the episode, Phil has dropped all pretense and admits he's just getting them to do chores.
• A Soviet biopic Ivan Pavlov: Searching for Truth (yes, that Pavlov) has a bizarre example of what supposedly was common in 19th-century Orthodox monasteries. A novice is ordered to plant cabbage with its leaves in the soil and roots in the air. Later a monk explains: "The cabbage isn't dear to us, it's your obedience."
• In Arrow, one of the flashbacks to the island where Oliver was stranded shows a similar training. In order to strengthen him enough to draw back the string of a bow, he is forced to keep slapping water in a bowl. Later, in the present day, he uses the same training technique on Roy Harper. However, at this point Roy has Super-Strength, so the training is more about learning precise control than gaining muscle.
• Parodied on The Goldbergs episode "The Kara-te Kid", as part of a Whole-Plot Reference. Adam and Barry think their uncle Marvin is teaching them as Mr. Miyagi did, but then Adam realizes they're just cleaning his apartment, and Marvin knows nothing about actual karate.
• "Wax On Wax Odd", from Odd Squad, has Orla training her partners Omar, Opal, and Oswald by teaching them how to do various mundane things (catch falling objects, make pizza, and bounce on a ball, respectively) so they can defeat various oddities that arrive via portals at a remote location. At the end of the episode, she reveals that the reason why she didn't initially defeat the villains that created the oddities was that she wanted all of the Odd Squad Mobile Unit to be involved. It's also revealed that she's been planning to defeat said oddities for 450 years, making her The Anticipator.
• In an episode of Santa Clarita Diet, Joel auditions to become a Knight of Serbia, which involve a number of trials of warrior skills. One of them is specifically shoving a pear into a dead chicken as fast as possible, which utterly perplexes Joel, but he still does so. At the end of the episode, he fights a zombie, and quickly shoves a lemon in its mouth, realizing the skill is meant to quickly incapacitate an attacker's ability to bite.
• In an episode of Elementary Sherlock Holmes promises to train Joan Watson as a detective but her first week of training involves simply taken Holmes's laundry to the dry-cleaner (and not just any dry-cleaner, an incredibly low quality and inefficient dry-cleaner). However, as Watson keeps going, she starts to notice slight hints that something is going on below the service and eventually works out that the dry-cleaners is actually a front for a money-laundering operation...exactly what Holmes wanted her to notice.
• Parodied in the series finale of Zoey 101. Micheal needs somebody to teach him how to drive stick so he can take his father's car to prom. Micheal ends up finding a gardener on campus named Mr. Takato, who has him stirring tuna salad and squashing grapes with his feet. Takato's instructions work, but the ending takes goes into Mind Screw territory as nobody on campus has ever heard of Takato, and Takato even tells Micheal that he doesn't exist before vanishing.

Pro Wrestling

• The Briscoes get their workout from being out on their farm twelve hours a day and detest gyms. They're not above giving pro wrestling-specific training to wrestlers visiting the farm but you'd better get used to jumping on bulldozers after chugging Natty Light.

Tabletop Games

• Used (of course) in Exalted:
  • One of the Scroll of the Monk books had a comic depicting a martial arts student griping about his sifu making him slap water out of a pan for his special training. Then he slams his hand down on the table in anger and breaks it in half.
  • Taken to almost Trollish extremes in an Ink Monkey's supplement. "Secret Lesson Revelation" allows a Sidereal Sifu to use practically anything in this way, as long as they can make up some reason, however far-fetched, that it is true. Naturally, there is a comic where a Sidereal is abusing this to make a Solar clean his Demigod T-Rex stables.

Video Games

• Mage training with Mebbeth in Planescape: Torment comes in the form of three chores. With a high enough intelligence or wisdom, The Nameless One will even figure out the lessons all on his own.^note Retrieving the laundry from a mind-broken man who just washes the laundry until it's unusable teaches that doing things by rote is dangerous and breaks things, and that mages need to be flexible. Growing the seed into a thorny plant that entwines around your arm teaches both that belief shapes reality, and that magic is inherently dangerous and can hurt you After it turns out that The Nameless One knows magic already from a previous life, Mebbeth comments wryly that he just shaved months off his training and that she'd been looking forward to having someone to foist her chores off on. Even funnier when you find out that Mebbeth is really Ravel, the person who helped Nameless achieve immortality in the first place. So if anyone would know he had training as a mage, it was her.
• In possibly one of the most hilariously random quests ever, Summon Night: Swordcraft Story has your training under a great Craftlord involve running around collecting food ingredients, so that you can make a ladle, with which to cook some curry for him. Of course, it turns out that this was the first training that he had under your father, so it's half-revenge, half-valuable lesson. And the elemental version of the weapon is the best weapon you can have if you need to break an opponent's weapon.
• This is used a few times in the Shenmue series. For example, in the second game, a teacher considers Ryo far too hotheaded and revenge-obsessed to teach and tells him that he can't meet the master he's looking for until he clears his mind...by taking the books out of the library so that they can be aired out (this builds strength, patience, and balance, as he is expected to carry tall stacks of narrow books). Once he actually argues that this is a ridiculous requirement (which takes several days), he is then told by the teacher (who is, of course, the master he's looking for) that he remains too impulsive, and he needs the grace and clarity of mind to catch a falling leaf. For several days.
  • Inverted with the Tai Chi man in the second game. Ryo watches the man go through the slow, careful motions of Tai Chi, then punch a thick tree hard enough to shake it. He realizes that Tai Chi is, in fact, a martial art, and asks the man to teach him to punch that hard. The old man tries to teach Ryo the fluid motions of Tai Chi (which, when sped up, are in fact deadly motions), and Ryo instead spends some time punching the tree really hard.
• Pre-training for the military in Dwarf Fortress can easily be this trope, with dwarfs spending days or months driving pumps, mining rock, cutting trees, carving rock, grinding grain, or any of a few different industries. On the other hand, it gets interesting when those same dwarfs build up their skills and expertise by tallying up every single rock in the fortress or ordering the manufacture of several thousand bars of soap.^note This was due to an oversight on the developer's part and will probably be corrected at some point. Mining plays it straightest; the unmodded game uses a generic "axe" item for both combat and woodcutting, but using it on trees levels a separate skill from using it in combat. Pickaxes, for some reason, draw upon the "Mining" skill for both.
  • For the Adventurer, knapping develops agility, strength, kinesthetic and spatial Sense, and also produces sharp rocks to throw, developing additional attributes as well as marksmanship. Walking with a crutch trains endurance and willpower, and if your adventurer ever breaks or loses a leg, he or she will be able to grab a crutch and walk at their usual speed.
• In perhaps one of the darker examples of this trope, there is a book you can read in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind that tells the story of a young orphan sent to live with his uncle on a farm and learn a trade from him. The Uncle gives him three chores to perform: dusting his bookshelves, ringing the bell to call farmhands, and scouring clean all the floors in the house. Each task had to be done perfectly; the bookshelves completely dust-free, the large iron bell rung loudly (and frequently), and the floors spotless. In his eighteenth year, the boy discovers that his uncle means to abandon the now-failing farm, and the boy with it, without teaching him anything. The boy silently picks up a heavy axe, to discover it doesn't weigh any more than the dusting rod he'd used for years. The dusting and bell-ringing gave him the strength and muscle memory to chop his uncle to bits, and cleaning up the mess afterward was so easy that no one could tell there had been a murder. Deciding he had indeed learned a trade after all, the young man eventually goes off to join the Assassin's Guild. Incidentally, the book that contains this story, titled "The Axe Man," is a skill book. What skill does it raise? Axes.
• During the "Player-Owned Ports" minigame of RuneScape, the Exile decides that in order to stop a serial killer, she must overcome her pacifism and train with the martial adepts of the Eastern Lands. The adepts assign her mundane chores. After some time, the Exile becomes impatient and demands to know how this will help her battle— at which point the adepts reveal that the true purpose of the chores was to demean her and piss her off, so that she would learn a warrior's mindset.
• In Fire Emblem Fates, in a support conversation between Kaze and Mozu, Kaze shows off his deft hand at peeling potatoes, and explains to Mozu that cooking, painting fences, polishing armor, and other household chores have a prominent role in Hoshidan martial-arts training.
• Pokémon Sword and Shield introduces Poké Jobs, allowing your monsters to grow stronger through exercising their Mundane Utility.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • Everything about the Old Man in the opening of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is an example of this as he teaches both the player and character of Link, who is an Amnesiac Hero at the beginning, most of the basics of the game while appearing to do mundane day-to-day and leaving clues. These range from wood cutting, which you can do to make improvised bridges, to gathering materials and cooking food, which can make meals that keep Link warm in naturally cold areas. Once you find out that you have to leave the area, which is on a high-up plateau, the Old Man then gives you a goal of beating seemingly random shrines and promising reward of the item that will help you leave, but even that is a teaching Link and the player about Spirit Orbs and obtaining utility abilities for the Sheikah Slate. Only after all that is completed, it's revealed that the Old Man is the spirit of the former King of Hyrule, King Rhoam, and he was testing you/Link to see if you would re-adopt the mantle of hero. You're then left to complete the game in which ever way you see fit, but even the most direct ways can involve several of the techniques learned from the Old Man strung together.
  • A self-imposed example from Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. King Rhoam fights with wood axes and greatswords in combat. The descriptions of his unique quests reveal that one major reason he can wield them so easily is that he spends time cutting down trees. In fact, the Woodcutter's Lodge on the Great Plateau (where he was seen living in when first met in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild) was specifically built for him to stay in while chopping down trees.
  • The opening of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom plays out similarly to its predecessor Breath of the Wild. The introductory quest to complete the Shrines of Light on the Great Sky Island is most explicitly meant to give you access to the Temple of Time. But by traversing the floating landmass and solving the Shrine puzzles with the abilities given by the ghostly Rauru, you end up learning many of the techniques needed on the overarching quest, such as assembling Zonai vehicles that can clamber over difficult terrain, navigating pitch black caves, and many techniques carried over from the previous game. And at the end of this introductory section, Rauru reveals that it was also meant to assess if Link was really as impressive as Zelda had described him as; Link passes with flying colors.
• Done with a tutorial in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. Talion is tasked during the introduction with sneaking up on his wife Ioreth before pressing a button to playfully give her a surprise hug. Turns out these are the exact same control mechanics used to stealth kill Orcs during the main game. Considering that the forces of Mordor are the ones who killed his family (and the weapon he uses for stealth kills is the broken sword of his dead son Dirhael), there's also a subtle, symbolic And This Is for... weight behind each stealth kill.

Webcomics

• Parodied in El Goonish Shive during the Dan in the MUD NP arc.
• Double subverted in Fans!. Master Kana's training of Rumy involves making her do chores around the house. When she finds out she's just being used, she attacks Kana and they start fighting. During the fight, Kana reveals that he was trying to make her angry, so she wouldn't hold back while they fight.
• In the discontinued webcomic Ghost Cat, one of the leads take up martial arts under his elderly groundskeeper, who teaches him the ancient art of "Do Mae Wohk" (say it aloud).
• In Sluggy Freelance, this comes into play not with physical training, but with Mad Science. Irving Schlock has one of his subordinates work on various, overtly pointless projects until Dr. Shankraft confronts him about it. His final project entails both the massive amounts of power and the accounting for size differentials that his previous works required. There's also a Secret Test of Character in the shape of a fire-breathing duck.
• Kill Six Billion Demons: In Meti's Sword Manual:
  To train with the sword, first master sweeping. When you have mastered sweeping, you must master the way of drawing water. Once you have learned how to draw water, you must split wood. Once you have split wood, you must learn the arts of finding the fine herbs in the forest, the arts of writing, the arts of paper making, and poetry writing. You must become familiar with the awl and the pen in equal measure. When you have mastered all these things you must master building a house. Once your house is built, you have no further need for a sword, since it is an ugly piece of metal and its adherents idiots.

Web Original

• Epithet Erased: Subverted. Indus thinks Mera is doing this, but she's really just getting him to do her laundry and file her taxes. Indus is not a bright man.
• Spencer's training of the gang in lonelygirl15 includes bizarre methods like hopping like a kangaroo, wandering around blindfolded, and playing '80s video games whilst eating candy. Jonas in particular is sceptical, but the methods are surprisingly effective. Well, except for the idea of plunging knives into a wall and pulling oneself up with them; that really was just an extremely dumb idea.
• In Dragon Ball Z Abridged, when Tien, Chiaotzu, Yamcha, and Piccolo arrive on King Kai's planet, he sets Tien and Chiaotzu to the same training as Goku, lets Piccolo meditate, and tells Yamcha to wax his car. Yamcha assumes this trope is the case and launches into the task with gusto. Except Kai doesn't give a damn about Yamcha and just wanted to give him some menial chore to keep him busy.
• The Atari Kid by Rooster Teeth Shorts employs this trope on a nerd, with a wise Dungeon Master as his Mr. Miyagi. The nerd is trained through Dance Dance Revolution, quickly plugging and unplugging cords on a computer, and inputting the Konami Code as fast as possible. All of these skills help him take down a purse snatcher.
• Whateley Universe: A common mode of teaching at the titular Superhero School (frequently as part of some Physical Fitness Punishment), and something applied by some of the protagonists at times on their own. Often acts as a Chekhov's Skill; if Chaka is trying her hand at some new type of Martial Arts and Crafts, or Shroud is applying some type of Mundane Utility which is discussed in detail, you can expect the new skills to come up in some fight soon after (though not necessarily immediately).

Western Animation

• Parodied on an episode of Johnny Bravo, "The Clueless Kid". Johnny's martial arts instructor Master Hama (who didn't like Johnny) set up a series of menial chores that really were just menial chores. When Hama's rival came to town to challenge his dojo, what Johnny learned through the menial tasks (adjusting a TV antenna for evasion, the Sorting-Mail Slap, and a body slam from Hama’s favorite deli wrapping pastrami) led him to win the match anyway much to Master Hama's disappointment, as he'd bet against Johnny. The rival wasn't too upset about having lost his challenge, as he had actually put his bet on Johnny—probably to claim victory in some way no matter the result of the match.
• The Avatar: The Last Airbender episode "Sokka's Master" has Sokka seek sword training with Piandao. In addition to actual training with wooden practice swords, the training involves calligraphy, rock gardening, and landscape painting. Atypically, these are artistic exercises, and Piandao actually explains the purpose of these as he goes along (instead of afterwards), and Sokka performs them in very odd ways (for instance, when instructed to arrange a rock garden, he quickly makes a comfortable seat to lounge in). Piandao then teaches Sokka to use his eccentricities and Take A Level In Badass — by challenging him to a no-holds-barred duel in which Sokka's resourcefulness and creativity enable the beginner to keep stride with the master.
• Kim Possible:
  • In "Oh No! Yono!", Ron's showing Hana the "Flippie Dance" gives her the agility and acrobatic moves needed to beat Yono and Monkey Fist. And little before that, Ron teaching Hana how to flip a page allowed her to deflect an incoming rock by using the same movement.
  • In "Job Unfair", Joe (a supposed janitor who is actually a Canadian master spy) teaches Kim the detailed operation of a vacuum cleaner, which turns out to be a model of the weather machine she'll need to disable during her mission.
• Penny Proud from The Proud Family goes through a spoof of The Karate Kid, including painting the fences. The things she did alongside the Chang triplets are actual training, and although the master is rather a lazy bum, he is actually fluent in combat. The more "advanced" school she longs to follow only teaches how to be cool like a typical martial arts movie without properly teaching actual skills.
• Grandpa does it to Jake in American Dragon: Jake Long; all of the chores he forces him to do turn out to have combat applications (except for doing his laundry).
• Parodied in The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, where medieval Boss Delguapo has Billy do his chores for him as training for fighting a dragon. In a scene paralleling The Karate Kid, even Billy figures out that Boss just wanted his chores done. Though chopping wood actually would build arm strength and the other moves are treated like sword maneuvers, Boss only half-heartedly agrees when Billy says the chores were training for combat. Turns out he's a Fake Ultimate Hero, though. And Billy ends up not even fighting the dragon.
• Played straight in Regular Show when Pops' Magical Asian sensei teaches him to use his powers by having him do chores around the park, and Mordecai & Rigby predictably accuse him of being a fraud which leads to him proving his legitimacy by beating Rigby into submission.
• Parodied in an episode of Code Monkeys, "The Take Over", in which Dave trains under a Miyagi-esque sensei to prevail over Japanese competitors in a high-stakes eating competition. He assumes that he will be painting a fence, waxing a car, etc., but is instead instructed to eat such items as paint, wax, and sawdust to strengthen his stomach and make him able to eat anything.
• Earthworm Jim played with this in its animation incarnation. Jim finds an enchanted sword in his vending machine sandwich, which vows to make a hero out of him. In the following scene, Jim drags himself on camera, wearily explaining that he'd performed such tasks as doing the dishes, regrouting the bathroom and cleaning out the stables of the twelve incontinent bulls. He then asks if the tasks were meant to teach him humility. The Large Ham sword mutters, uncharacteristically quietly, "I dunno, they just... needed to be done, I wasn't going to do it."
• In the pilot of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Princess Celestia employed this trope on her top student Twilight Sparkle; she appears to downplay and gently mock her fears of the imminent arrival of Nightmare Moon, instead telling her to drop her books and make some friends. However, it is later revealed that Twilight making friends was a necessary step to eventually combat Nightmare Moon when she did indeed return.
• In Storm Hawks:
  • One episode has the eponymous characters meeting Arygyn the Skeelur, who trains them to take on their upgraded enemies by taking them to an amusement park.
  • In another episode, Sky-Knight Starling is confused by the team's training, which mostly consists of children's games resembling paintball and keep-away. The group assures her the games are important, and they all come in handy saving a terra (even Finn's guitar playing!).
• El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera: Trying to get out of doing chores, Manny tricked wannabe hero Albino Burrito into doing them thinking it was hero training. Then all he learned during the chores was indeed useful to defeat a rampaging robot built by Puma Loco.
• Hexe Lilli: Heracles tells Lilli to practice grape stomping and painting walls because those are the motions required to throw a discus. He eventually ends up giving her tips on actually throwing a discus as well.
• The Spongebob Squarepants episode "Squid's Defense" has Sandy teaching Squidward karate and telling him that in order to learn it, he must "master the movements of every day". He later fights his opponent with moves such as "watering Sandy's lawn" and "taking out Sandy's trash".
• In the Star vs. the Forces of Evil episode "Red Belt", Marco receives "training" that really turns out to just be doing his Sensei's chores, but one of the tasks does help him defeat an opponent later.
• In the Kaeloo episode "Let's Play Tennis", Mr. Cat tells Kaeloo and Stumpy to do random things like tango dancing which have nothing to do with tennis in order to make them better tennis players. The trope is subverted as they aren't actually able to do anything at the actual game, obviously.
• Parodied in the American Dad! episode "Scents and Sensei-bility", where in an attempt to help Snot, Steve performs various menial tasks for Roger, such as combing wigs and making a martini for him, that will supposedly help him learn to fight. However, when the tournament comes up, Steve is promptly beaten, and when he brings up this trope, Roger admits that he was just making Steve do his chores for him.
• Hotel Transylvania: The Series: In "Fangceañera", all chores Aunt Lydia told Mavis to do were useful as training for the tasks.
• In the Danger Mouse episode "Crouching Hamster, Hidden Wagon", Penfold reveals that when he was young, he stayed at his grandmother's farm, where the farm chores turned out to secretly be training in a martial art called Farm Fu. Which only works on farms, for some reason.
• In the Amphibia episode "Ivy on the Run", Ivy is tasked by her mother Felicia to fold napkins, pour tea, and set the tables in a very precise manner with specific hand movements. It's later revealed that these hand movements are secretly martial arts moves Felicia repurposed and that she was teaching to Ivy all along to prepare her for life in the outside world.
• Molly of Denali: In "Have Canoe, Will Paddle", Connie tries to train the kids to use canoes by having them do planks, balance water balloons and lift watermelons covered with butter and the kids find it very strange. After realizing that she's actually an accomplished canoer, they begin to understand her methods more. The planking was for upper body strength, the water balloons were for core muscles, and the watermelon game taught them to balance in the canoe.
• Big City Greens: Zigzagged in “Rembo”: When Remy asks Gloria to train him in Tae Kwan Do, Gloria demonstrates the moves he needs to learn as “scoop the beans” and “steam the milk”. Cricket immediately accuses her of making Remy do her chores, to which Gloria replies by plainly stating that she is just using common coffee-making tasks as a mnemonic device for learning the proper moves. Tilly, who has been paying better attention, demonstrates the moves she learned through the metaphors perfectly.
• In "Arthur Loses His Marbles" from Arthur, Arthur asks for help from Grandma Thora after learning she was quite skilled at the game in her youth. She sets him a number of "finger exercises," among these, waxing her kitchen floor. When Arthur asks her what she said the exercise was for, she states "extending your reach," though she also mutters to herself that the floor hasn't been waxed in years.
• In the Star Trek: Lower Decks episode "Empathalogical Fallicies", Boimler is brought to Security and is bored senseless because they're doing slam poetry, charades, puzzles and tarot card readings instead of training and actually doing action stuff. He doesn't see the point in all of those until Captain Freeman hits the red alert and Security springs to action, allowing them to take back the Cerritos from three Betazoid spies with ease. As it turns out, things like this is preparing as it allows them to act without panic or worry, which Boimler was doing when he joined in.
• Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts plays it completely straight, with the phrase being "Herbs in, herbs out." The Chevre Sisters have Kipo repeat this mantra while repetitively pouring herbs into a boiling soup pot to help her control her jaguar transformation.

Real Life

• Although this is less common today than in the past, certain traditional martial arts dojos have a program of uchideshi, or live-in students. Besides training two or more times a day, possibly while holding down another job or completing university classes, they are also responsible, under the direction of the senior students, for the care and upkeep of the dojo, for cooking their own meals as well as catering for guests, and keeping their rooms in tip-top order. The care and discipline they put into these tasks is considered to be just as much a part of the training as the martial art practice.
• This is similarly true for training in the US military. Trainees are required to maintain the barracks area in addition to their regular training. This not only includes keeping their own rooms clean (which may include storing their clothes in a certain specific way), but also assigning specific people to carry out certain chores for a period of time (say, vacuuming the hallway for a week, or cleaning the latrine before lights-out). All this besides the weekly "GI^note  General Inspection Party", where everybody cleans the entire barracks from top to bottom, sometimes for hours at a time. The point is to promote attention to detail and self-motivation. If recruits can't follow simple instructions or take initiative in training, they would be useless in combat. It's also useful in weapons maintenance, which requires close familiarity with a weapon's component parts.
  • The US Air Force Academy carries this a step further, requiring cadets to fill out forms evaluating each meal. By filling out the same form every day, cadets learn to complete checklists quickly and efficiently.
• Apprentices of certain craftsmen would be put to various menial tasks in order for them to build the muscles or motor skills required for the craft. For instance, new chefs at a traditional restaurant typically spend a few solid months at the dish pit before actually touching a single knife. It teaches the importance (and inevitability) of cleaning dishes and cookware, as well as impressing the sense of urgency needed in being a cook.
  • When training in Japanese Bonsai nursery, the master will, in a typical Japanese apprentice fashion, make the students clean tools, water plants, collect debris, change pots, trim only chosen bits, clean the nursery, etc. This may take up to 3 years, eliminating those who won't dedicate themselves to such delicate art.
• Legendary basketball coach John Wooden would always begin the season's practice with a lecture on how properly to put on a pair of socks so as to avoid having them cause blisters during games. The attention to detail inherent in the lesson translated to fundamental soundness in all other elements of the game and ten championships in twelve years. It's one of the many reasons why there are few who disagree when Wooden is called the greatest ever to coach the game.
  • A related concept is that of 'Marginal Gains' (popularised as a term by Team Sky in Cycling). Spending time calculating and adopting a perfect pedalling motion, or doing yoga to improve flexibility, or adjusting the brake position to improve aerodynamics will not, on their own, produce drastically different results. But doing all of these, and more, in tandem with one another, and you will really notice the improvements.
• A shift toward emphasizing stability muscles has had several strength training regimens like Crossfit and sports-specific workouts add strongman-style exercises like flipping a tire or wringing out a wet towel: the muscles that these exercises build are not directly involved in most competitive feats of strength, but support those feats.
• A major part of any veterinary nursing student's training is kennel duty — walking dogs, scooping litter boxes, washing dishes, and cleaning cages — long before they're allowed anywhere near a microscope, syringe, or needle. Many prospective vet nurses wash out within the first several months because they can't handle the fact that 90% of veterinary practice involves cleaning things up, mostly bodily fluids and related products.
• Anything in the entertainment industry will involve starting off at the "bottom rung": most crew members for film and TV start as production assistants moving furniture and passing out clipboards, while most actors start in professional productions as extras who may do little more than sit at a table in the background (probably unpaid) while still working the same long day as everyone else. Aspiring musicians may start as roadies and guitar techs, hauling gear and making sure everything's in tune while the band gets the credit. Someone who desires to work in the lighting department in a theatre will often be apprenticed (officially or otherwise) to an experienced tech who sends the new guy off to hang heavy Fresnels and plug stuff in. Being in these positions allows for excellent observation of everything that goes into making movies and music and everything else, and helps teach them the discipline and patience to work long hours in demanding jobs. If someone can't handle a 14 hour day of hauling stuff around or passing out release forms to extras, they probably can't handle the more glamorous job they want.
• In music in particular, just learning the instrument can involve this type of thing. For example, wind instrument players often spend time doing breathing exercises or practicing embouchure while not touching their instrument. Singers make a lot of strange noises while warming up. And so forth.
• When working at a library, the entry-level job of library page can be this. The bulk of a page's work is shelving the books, which most consider being boring, menial grunt work. But part of the benefit of starting off there is gaining familiarity with both the Dewey Decimal System (or the Library of Congress classification system) and where all these sections are locally. If your memory is particularly sharp, this can help in situations where the card catalog is inaccessible, such as when the software is being upgraded.
• The term "farm strength", where people from a farm who have never lifted weights are just as strong, if not stronger than people who regularly go to a weight room and work out. Turns out that loading 100-pound bales of hay for hours every single day for 9 months of the year makes for excellent strength training. In fact, the Russian girya is one farm tool that was originally used for weighing crops but got repurposed for weight training, eventually being redesigned into the kettlebell.
• In The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch referred to this trope as a "head fake", saying "The best way to teach somebody something is to have them think they're learning something else."
• Tai Chi is known these days as a slow, fluid exercise program, with careful movements, an emphasis on graceful actions, and a meditative practice. But it is a martial art: if you speed up the movements, Tai Chi practitioners are dangerous combatants.
• There's a German saying that goes "Lehrjahre sind keine Herrenjahre" about the rather unique (well, unique in this day, it used to be common in the medieval era) German system of Ausbildung or on the job training. The saying can be loosely translated as "learner's years are no fun" and while there is a bit of hazing For the Lulz going on, part of it is this trope.
• In certain times and places, martial arts were banned, and practitioners who wished to maintain training hid it in other practices, such as chores (as in early Karate, as referenced in the The Karate Kid franchise) or dances (as most famously done by Capoeira).

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