How many times a week do you attend class?

[gmattson]

Interesting question. . . How many times should we work out?. . .

I always recommend a number that a person can realistically stick with for a lifetime. If someone is training for a tournament or dan test, a person can justify a tougher schedule. After the event, resume your realistic schedule.

After many years of experimentation, I've found that students who work out twice a week stays with the program longer than students who practice less or more.

People's lives change. We take on more responsibilities with family, work or a new activity. If you allocate an unreasonable number of hours to your karate, something else in your life will suffer. With a reasonable schedule, you can fit in other activities, family and work.

The trouble with an unrealistic schedule, many people will give up karate totally rather than cut back.


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GEM

[Ted Dinwiddie]

I go to class once a week (my Sensei's schedule). I practice much more than that. Some weeks it may be twice a day for 10 or 15 minutes each or a 2 or 3 hour session 2 or three times a week. I might be doing kata in a field while my dog takes care of his business nearby. I practice stances at the copier or printer at work and breathing all the time. I visualize kata and bunkai at random idle moments every day.

ted

[Van Canna]

GEM sensei is right on target.

I can’t tell you the number of students passing through the portals of my several dojos I operated, who would obsess working out five or six days per week, with the result that they would be gone in six months or less.

Physical and mental fatigue, boredom, a feeling of isolation, injuries that would not heal, short tempers, and in general, diminishing returns.

Their karate actually became sloppy, weaker and uninspired.

The very few that might stick to the routine, you know, the ones who climb the soapbox with the cry “ Look at me, I am on the floor every day, and teach eight classes a day” __ are the real dullards of our system. Just look at the quality of their classes and at their expression when they “teach” __ typical “ burn outs” ready for the “Uechi Dumpster”!


Add the family pressures [the henpecked American husband] , the missed opportunities of other fulfilling life’s endeavors, etc., and you might be doing your student a favor if you kick him out of the dojo with the admonition “ Get a life”!




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Van Canna

[MetaBaron]

Indeed,
I have a friend who suffers from this, when he is not in the dojo, he is showing me his latest form, or worse, constantly talking about it. He is Budo-ized 24-7. sad, really.
As Van Canna and Captain James T. "Shatner" Hooker once explained GET...A....LIFE!!!
-Meta

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If you overlook the Way right before your
eyes, how will you know the path beneath
your feet? Advancing has nothing to do with
near and far, yet delusion creates obstacles
high and wide. Students of the mystery, I
humbly urge you, don't waste a moment, night
or day!

- Shih-t'ou (700-790)

[Van Canna]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote

Budo-ized 24-7

Meta..you are my kind of guy!

[MetaBaron]

How many times a week do you attend class?
Is there a recommended time spent in the dojo? Is there a point when attendance can be excessive?
As for myself, I attend between 3 4 times a week, schedule allowing.
(coffee lady voice)
Tawk amongst yourselves...Discuss...
-Meta

------------------


If you overlook the Way right before your
eyes, how will you know the path beneath
your feet? Advancing has nothing to do with
near and far, yet delusion creates obstacles
high and wide. Students of the mystery, I
humbly urge you, don't waste a moment, night
or day!

- Shih-t'ou (700-790)

[Mary S]

Meta...there was a time when I was doing one class a day, seven days a week. I kept this schedule up for a month...six days at my dojo and then a roadtrip to work out on Sunday night...sometimes not getting home til 1:30 a.m. and then turning around and doing it all over again. Needless to say, I crashed hard It is very easy to burn out....work suffers, workouts suffer...the body and mind suffer.

My regularly scheduled classes are three times a week at 1 1/2 hours give or take for class. Due to turn around time (home, eat, drive) I have had to cut down to two per week and if I'm lucky I try to throw another class in on a night when my regular class is not scheduled.

There are times when I just can't get to the dojo now but I do try to get in at least those two times a week.

Perhaps it's not quantity as much as quality.

[Allen M.]

And for many today, if it is not 24/7 in the dojo it has become 24/7 on the internet.


<center>
<font size =+1 font color=green>
The cyber Karaxpert!</font></center>

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Allen Moulton from http://www.ury2k.com/

[Jake Steinmann]

I did the "24-7" thing for a while. I spent a year worth of being at my sifu's kung fu school 4-5 hours a day (don't even ask about weekends). I was shooting for an instructors ranking inside of that year (already had previous experience...this wasn't a one year deal), and I made it.

I spent a good deal of my time in college in some sort of martial arts practice.

Was it healthy? Enh...probably not. Were there other things I could have been doing with my time? Certainly. Did I recognize that? Not really.

Now...I go to formal "classes" 3-4 times a week. I do work out almost daily, but I've learned to vary my routine a lot. I lift weights, do body weight exercises, run...whatever. Anything to keep from doing the same old thing.

And I finally learned that when I hurt, it's time to stop.

Had one of my instructors told me to "get a life"...I'm not sure I would have listened. I had my goal (become an instructor..whatever that means...it seems like less of a big deal once I got it), and I was going to get there. Once I got there...the obsession vanished.

The year with my Sifu burned me out a bit (for a whole bunch of reasons), and since then, I've cut back in some ways, but not in others. I'm willing to accept a half hour workout as a good days practice. I'll skip a practice if my girlfriend has something she'd like us to go do.

Most people in the martial arts have no aspirations of being professional martial artists. They do this stuff because they're looking for fun, exercise, self-defense, whatever. In that light, there's no reason to be at the dojo 24-7.

If you do this for a living...even then, you should take a break

My random babblings, for what they're worth.

Jake

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Jake Steinmann
PDR Team www.tonyblauer.com
Tell the Spartans, stranger passing by,
that here obident to their laws we lie
- Inscription at the site of Thermopylae

[This message has been edited by Jake Steinmann (edited December 29, 2000).]

[Bill Glasheen]

Much that I would say has already been said...but I guess I would say it with a different mix.

Minimum attendance

I find - like George - that one needs no fewer than two classes a week. Without more than that, my experience is that people get frustrated and quit. My own son in fact started at age 5 because he expressed interest and I wanted to do an activity with him. But I didn't want it to dominate his life. So...I started him with one Saturday morning a week. I began to have all kinds of problems with him in class: being frustrated, not learning, acting up, etc. This past summer I increased his attendance to 2 classes a week to get him over a learning hump so he could go on to the next level. Instead of making things worse, it made everything MUCH better. His attitude turned around 180 degrees, and he suddenly became incredibly proud of the accomplishments he made. On the other hand, another family that used to come 3 times a week and were some of my "kid stars" cut back to once a week due to dad's work schedule. Their performance degraded dramatically to the point that I think I've lost all of them from mutual frustration.

On the other hand - like Ted - I once studied with a talented martial artist once a week for several years. From him I got an honest shodan (in Goju) in a year, and learned most of the aikido I know. How did I do that? By then I was already yondan/godan in Uechi, and knew how to work out on my own. I would practice what he taught 3 or 4 days a week on my own, and also used his videos. For those who have a good foundation, you can learn with even less contact than that. My suparinpei knowledge comes from basically a half dozen days with Simon Lailey combined with studying a video and then teaching it. While Simon is unhappy with my lack of contact (I'm not going to fly to England...), I've been told my performance of the form is...well...I'll let others say that. After a certain point, one can become his/her own most important teacher. One of the most valuable lessons that one can master is the ability to learn.

Maximum

For most people, I would say three days a week of a single martial art is maximum. If you want to do more, do another style or spend time in the gym/weightroom. Or...spend time socializing with your martial arts friends.

Counting martial arts and weight training, I have gone years working out 5-7 days a week. But I don't do the same thing every day. Does it create problems? My advisor in graduate school used to think so, but then I was one of the few students of his to get a Ph.D. My girlfriends always told me I spent too much time in the gym, and if my wife leaves me today, it will be because of that. But there are ways to weave the outside and gym life together. I'm not sure I've mastered that, but I try.

Let's just say that there is such a thing as too much. Some of it is due to the body's need to recover physically. That's why I rotate what I do each day. Some of it is due to psychological burnout, and this is another reason to go for variety. But one does need a life. I've always found friends and significant others, but those around me know that I march to a different drummer. I do what I can - not always well - to make things work.

Thank god I have two boys that love me and seem willing and eager to do things I do. It is truly a blessing.

- Bill

[Jake Steinmann]

DL,
I cannot speak for the rest here, but as a very young (relatively speaking) and very new teacher...there is nothing I love more than an enthusiastic student.

The danger arises when enthusiasim is replaced with obsession.

Like I said...I work out almost every day (I give myself a recovery day once a week, whether I need it or not...I usually do). I enjoy it immensly. I've recently rediscovered weightlifting, and added it to my training regimen. Training is the best stuff on earth. Better than sliced bread. I love it.

BUT...there is a point (and I reached that point, and saw others who did too) where enthusiasm becomes OBSESSION. The student is there because he feels he MUST be there. He trains at home all the time. He talks about nothing but martial arts (ok, all of you who know me, shut up...I talk about other things too...really... ).

If you can attend karate (or whatever) six days a week and still lead a happy, productive life...more power to you. But if you're losing sleep, friends, relationships because of the training, then it's time to seriously evaluate your mental approach.

My father alway used to tell me "It's only work if someone makes you do it.". Martial arts training shouldn't be work (unless you're in some sort of super-secret ninja military group). Training should make you stronger, physically and mentally. Not tear you down.

The key element here is obsession. If you're training because you've got the free time, great. If your training is destroying your life, that seems to go against the grain of self-defense.

Food for thought

------------------
Jake Steinmann
PDR Team www.tonyblauer.com
Tell the Spartans, stranger passing by,
that here obident to their laws we lie
- Inscription at the site of Thermopylae

[This message has been edited by Jake Steinmann (edited December 29, 2000).]

[RA Miller]

When I started, it was judo, three mornings (two classes each day) and four evenings (just one class) and one weekend class. Eleven classes a week and I couldn't get enough. As a seventeen-year old at university it might have hurt my grades but it kept me out of whole worlds of trouble.

Since then, my schedules have ranged from hectic to impossible. There was one period of fourteen months where I was sleeping 32-36 hours a week. I still went to two classes. Not because of obsession but because it was the only thing in my schedule that was for me. It kept me sane during a really challenging time.

Now I teach four clases a week and study two. I'm still busy. And still mostly sane.

Rory

[Gilbert MacIntyre]

When I started I promised myself I would attend every class available for six months, 6 a week. At the end of that period I was hooked, but I cut back in my classes.

It's been up and down over the years. A couple of years ago I found my life was out of control. I was on too many committees, involved in countless projects and my children and my health was suffering. So I took a year to let everybody know I was backing out of everything for a minimum of two years.

I still have no desire to return to that schedule, some day maybe but not now.

What I did is return to my workouts. Every morning I workout at home or run, takes from about 8:15 to 11:45 am. I take off one day a week. At night I attend karate on Tuesday and Thursday and kicboxing on Monday and Wednesday. I'm lucky to have shift work at the fire dept. and get to workout when I'm there as well.

I look at guys half my age that I work with that can't keep up and feel my schedule must be alright. I don't yell at my kids, don't really get upset about anything, life is good. That isn't the way I was a few years back.

I train hard, I want to be able to devastate with my kicks and strikes not just go through the motions, but I get more out of the workouts than just the physical benefits. If they could sell a drug that would give you the same feeling as a shower does after going ten rounds with someone trying to take your head off, I'd be in line. They can't, it comes from personal investment.
Gilbert

[This message has been edited by Gilbert MacIntyre (edited December 30, 2000).]

[Allen M.]

In my early years, I just ate this stuff right up. I lived it in my actions and deeds. 3, and even 4 hours a day
I practiced. Never missed a karate class, and even doubled-up on some. I even remember a time when I would flip light switches and open kitchen cabinets with the toes of my bare feet, etc. ad nauseam.

Anything I do in life is intense requiring the focus of all my energies, not just in MA. Those days and years come and go.

Sometimes a young man needs to do it to prove something to himself. Sometimes one needs to simply immerse himself in whatever it is he is doing.

But, there are other things in life. I remember watching some movie where this monk in India had been meditating on the banks of a river for over 20 years, maybe the Ganges. Then, one day he shot up from his position and exclaimed "Eureka! I've been enlightened." He continued "I have just discovered that I have been sitting here for 20 years wasting my time!"

If all one wants out of life is to be a martial artist, then I say "Go for it."



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Allen Moulton from http://www.ury2k.com/

[Rick Wilson]

Monday:

6:30 - 7:30 a.m. Workout and discussions with Rick Bottomley

6:15 - 9:30 p.m. Teach

Tuesday

11:00 - 11:50 a.m. Teach a class at a Fitness Centre down where I work.

Wednesday:

7:00 - 8:00 a.m. Workout and discussions with Reg Kinal

6:15 - 9:30 p.m. Teach

Thursday:

11:00 - 11:50 a.m. Teach a class at a Fitness Centre down where I work.

6:15 - 9:30 p.m. Teach

Saturday:

8:00 10:00 a.m. Conditioning and workout with a few other crazy folk.


That's my week and I love it.


Rick