Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Train

Why do you train? I don't know. I just do.

Just train. Treat it like a job or an appointment. Whatever your schedule is, the secret to improvement is to just be consistent. Of course, life happens and things happen out of your control and sometimes you won't be able to make it to class because there are some things in life that are more important than your jiu-jitsu training...but don't skip class just because you don't feel like going. Don't skip class because you're lazy and feel down. Go train. Usually you'll feel better after you train. Training can be wonderfully escapist. When you're fighting for your life or just to survive or trying to learn something new, you tend to forget about all the other things that happened during your crappy day. You tend to have a very specific focus when you are being "threatened" or "attacked" (i.e. training). When you are defending against someone trying to choke you or hyperextend your arm, your tend to get very focused and the rest of the world falls away.

2 comments:

Wm Blaker, printer said...

Because I am still spazzing and not relaxing, plus my body isn't sure about which way to move sometimes, I am fairly accident prone.

So I decided to maybe just take the conditioning portion of class some nights and do a little solo mat drilling afterwards (shrimping etc.). That would mean I'd just drop in for 30 minutes or so depending on the length of the group conditioning portion of class and how much additonal time I wanted to spend after group conditioning doing come additional personal conditioning.

My instructor said this approach is ok, although I am still worried about looking like a geek for not continuing with the group portion of the class after the running and other warm-up drills.

But the bigger problem, I found out last night, is keeping myself "off the mat." Once I have gone through one of the two most demanding portions of class (conditioning being one, and rolling the other) I really found it hard to keep shrimping etc. when the instructor was teaching new techniques. I found it really hard to keep shrimping etc. when I wanted to try drilling some of those techniques....

Help, Dear Abby, I am a training addict, what do I do?!

Anonymous said...

yeah sometimes lifes does get in the way and i can't train. i go as much as i can even when i feel lazy, but i work a full time job and am a grad student too. sometimes i end up only being able to goto class once a week due to school/group-work at nights.

what's the best way to keep yourself in shape if you can't make it to training?

you don't know me, but i was at 10th planet for a short while and got to see you roll a few times. best of luck at adcc!