Anyone else feel extremely demotivated over lockdown?

Ivan

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Usually, I am the most motivated person in the room. I always aim to push past my limits. Recently in Glasgow, they shut down gyms until the 12th and once again I am stuck with home workouts. This feels extremely demoralising, and as someone who wants compete and be one of the best fighters one day, I feel like I should be able to cope with this much better than I am. Everyone tells me, "even athletes go through this" but whenever I feel like this I start to think "someone out there right now, with the same dream and passion me, is working harder than me". How do you guys cope with this?
 

jobo

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Usually, I am the most motivated person in the room. I always aim to push past my limits. Recently in Glasgow, they shut down gyms until the 12th and once again I am stuck with home workouts. This feels extremely demoralising, and as someone who wants compete and be one of the best fighters one day, I feel like I should be able to cope with this much better than I am. Everyone tells me, "even athletes go through this" but whenever I feel like this I start to think "someone out there right now, with the same dream and passion me, is working harder than me". How do you guys cope with this?


yes, this time round im feeling really down, the issolation particularly is really gettibgcto me, i spend 24 hours a day on my own and my social outlets are all cancelled. i cant see my friends or familiy

so yes big demotorvation has occured

ive recently had a word with myself

but your feelings about home work outs are missplaced, you can work just as hard and make just as much orogress at home, if you can get out of the chair and do it

ive set myself realistic goal, based on a target of april, not that im convibced that this will hace in anyway dinibshed by then, just irs far enough away, that i can make great progress by then

made myself go for a bike ride yesterday, i really love it, but hace to try and avoid felling depressed that my fitness has demibished from the lack of bike riddibg over the last three months,, aim for beibg good by april

at tour age a lay off or a quite time is no big thing, you can easily recapture you fitness in a month, where as it will take me half a year
 

Oni_Kadaki

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I'm not training as much as I did pre-COVID, mostly because Aikido pretty much requires a partner to practice, and, while karate has kata, doing kata alone for 1.5 hours, several days a week, would SUCK.

That being said, I still do my kata few times once every few days, in order to keep fresh. On the physical fitness note, I try to work out 4-5x weekly, be it 30 minutes on the recumbent bike, a three-mile run, a six-mile ruck march, or my beloved playing card workout (details available upon request). That being said, working out for thirty minutes to an hour pales in comparison to going from a thirty-minute workout to the dojo and sweating for another 1.5 hours, so I'm sure I've lost some endurance.

All that being said, training alone sucks.
 

JowGaWolf

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Usually, I am the most motivated person in the room. I always aim to push past my limits. Recently in Glasgow, they shut down gyms until the 12th and once again I am stuck with home workouts. This feels extremely demoralising, and as someone who wants compete and be one of the best fighters one day, I feel like I should be able to cope with this much better than I am. Everyone tells me, "even athletes go through this" but whenever I feel like this I start to think "someone out there right now, with the same dream and passion me, is working harder than me". How do you guys cope with this?
I'm not sure if this helps or not, but when I train at home, I look for creative ways to train. I don't try to fit the gym to my home. I try to use my home to train other aspects of fighting. I don't have heavy bag to punch, so I find a nice patch of grass where I can do push ups and punch into the ground. This helps with the conditioning of my fist and provides the impact that I need.

I train in tighter spaces now, punches kicks, knees, and other things that I can use. Instead of a bag I've been using a tennis ball, sock, and some string to help train my speed and accuracy. I still do forms and shadow boxing. I do a lot of cardio and strength building as well and that seems to help get me through things when things are getting boring. For me the only thing that is really missing is sparring. As long as I stay in shape in the other areas I should be able to get back to sparring quality faster.
 

skribs

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Yes, and we've been "open" the whole time. For the first 3-4 months, it was virtual training only. Then we started doing hybrid training, which was simultaneous virtual and in-person with social distancing measures (masks, 6 feet apart, temperature checks, lots of hand sanitizer, no parents in the audience, no sparring or drilling with a partner). A month ago, we're back to virtual only. It's been really hard.

Virtual classes suck. I'm just going to say it. They suck. For the good students, it's hard. For the bad students, it's impossible. Not the bad students in terms of ability, but the ones who are too immature for virtual class (usually 4-6 years old) or who have discipline issues and simply won't participate. It's a lot harder to help them do the correct technique. In-person, we could simply grab them and move the right limb into the right spot until they figured out how to do it on their own. On virtual, you're counting on a little kid to properly understand commands like "touch your right arm to your shoulder, step back with the right leg and turn, and down block with the right hand." They'll do the left arm, turn the wrong direction, and you can't just easily fix it.

On top of that, there's technology issues. Problems with Zoom. Problems with internet. Problems with video and sound. Students who have such bad camera angles you can barely see what they're doing. Microphones that buzz, echo, or are just really loud when people talk. You mute them, but then they unmute themselves. Parents are a huge problem. They have conversations while their kids are taking class, and it comes through. Even worse, they start arguing (or in one case, swearing). Then there's parents who will be yelling at their kids, even if the kids are doing what we expect. For example, we'll have the green belts idle while the green 1-stripes do a more advanced form. One of green belts will have their parent yelling at them because they're not participating. (But that's what we expect, it's not his form).

Partner drills are impossible, outside of a select few students who have a brother or sister in class. We can't do pad work. Most students don't have a bag at home to do bag work. We can't work on throws or grab escapes. We can't spar, or even do sparring drills. We're basically limited to forms, technical drills, shadow boxing, and exercise.

Social-distancing classes suck. They're almost worse than virtual classes, in my opinion. Trying to manage social distancing within the class is a nightmare. We spend 1/3 of our time just cleaning. And while it's slightly easier to see people, it's still just as hard because we can't do 99% of what we couldn't do virtually anyway.

Oh, and hybrid classes? The worst of the bunch. Because now you have to pay attention to in-person and online.
 

Jaeimseu

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Yes, and we've been "open" the whole time. For the first 3-4 months, it was virtual training only. Then we started doing hybrid training, which was simultaneous virtual and in-person with social distancing measures (masks, 6 feet apart, temperature checks, lots of hand sanitizer, no parents in the audience, no sparring or drilling with a partner). A month ago, we're back to virtual only. It's been really hard.

Virtual classes suck. I'm just going to say it. They suck. For the good students, it's hard. For the bad students, it's impossible. Not the bad students in terms of ability, but the ones who are too immature for virtual class (usually 4-6 years old) or who have discipline issues and simply won't participate. It's a lot harder to help them do the correct technique. In-person, we could simply grab them and move the right limb into the right spot until they figured out how to do it on their own. On virtual, you're counting on a little kid to properly understand commands like "touch your right arm to your shoulder, step back with the right leg and turn, and down block with the right hand." They'll do the left arm, turn the wrong direction, and you can't just easily fix it.

On top of that, there's technology issues. Problems with Zoom. Problems with internet. Problems with video and sound. Students who have such bad camera angles you can barely see what they're doing. Microphones that buzz, echo, or are just really loud when people talk. You mute them, but then they unmute themselves. Parents are a huge problem. They have conversations while their kids are taking class, and it comes through. Even worse, they start arguing (or in one case, swearing). Then there's parents who will be yelling at their kids, even if the kids are doing what we expect. For example, we'll have the green belts idle while the green 1-stripes do a more advanced form. One of green belts will have their parent yelling at them because they're not participating. (But that's what we expect, it's not his form).

Partner drills are impossible, outside of a select few students who have a brother or sister in class. We can't do pad work. Most students don't have a bag at home to do bag work. We can't work on throws or grab escapes. We can't spar, or even do sparring drills. We're basically limited to forms, technical drills, shadow boxing, and exercise.

Social-distancing classes suck. They're almost worse than virtual classes, in my opinion. Trying to manage social distancing within the class is a nightmare. We spend 1/3 of our time just cleaning. And while it's slightly easier to see people, it's still just as hard because we can't do 99% of what we couldn't do virtually anyway.

Oh, and hybrid classes? The worst of the bunch. Because now you have to pay attention to in-person and online.

What a downer! If everything sucks, you need to work on your mindset. It’s certainly a challenge, but supposedly martial arts is supposed to give us the discipline and attitude to handle adversity.

How much time was/is spent teaching the students and parents how to participate in virtual classes? Maybe you’ve (you and other instructors at your school) done this, but in my experience, when people say something sucks, it almost always means :

1. They themselves aren’t good at it

2. They haven’t done sufficient preparation

3. They haven’t explicitly taught students how the systems work

Please don’t take this personally, because I don’t mean that you suck. I’m just going off of my personal experience over nearly 30 years in martial arts and education.


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JowGaWolf

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For me I just train. Set a goal then go after it. If I need to be good at throwing punches then I train punches. If I need to be good at throwing kicks then I train kicks. When I think I'm good at throwing punches then I try to get better than good. I do cardio, forms, and strength building.

I'm not sure about other systems, but for me Kung Fu has always been a train at home activity. If I'm not in class then I'm training at home. For the most part it has also been a solo experience, except when there were classes. Solo training won't address things like sparring or anything that requires 2 people. But there are exercises that you can do to help keep that 2 people training from wasting away.

6:13 in the video: Maybe this is something you can implement or give you an idea of how you might want to train the mechanics of some of your throws.
 

Flying Crane

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I'm not sure if this helps or not, but when I train at home, I look for creative ways to train. I don't try to fit the gym to my home. I try to use my home to train other aspects of fighting. I don't have heavy bag to punch, so I find a nice patch of grass where I can do push ups and punch into the ground. This helps with the conditioning of my fist and provides the impact that I need.

I train in tighter spaces now, punches kicks, knees, and other things that I can use. Instead of a bag I've been using a tennis ball, sock, and some string to help train my speed and accuracy. I still do forms and shadow boxing. I do a lot of cardio and strength building as well and that seems to help get me through things when things are getting boring. For me the only thing that is really missing is sparring. As long as I stay in shape in the other areas I should be able to get back to sparring quality faster.
I’ve heard a rumor that you have also stopped using your eyes...:)
 

Flying Crane

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I think this issue comes down to taking ownership of your training and learning how to train on your own. I have been doing that since my first lesson, back when I was a teenager in 1984. It was clear to me that as I learned new things I needed to practice outside of class. As you advance, you learn to get creative with your own drills and methods that you practice outside of class. So for as long as I have been training, I have been practicing alone and I have always been able to motivate myself to do so. Sure, at times I’ve lacked motivation, but overall I’ve been consistent.

I think some schools neglect to teach this skill to their students. I don’t know if they simply overlook it, or if they actively avoid it because they want students to always feel beholden to the school, as that keeps the income stream alive. I guess if students realize they have a solid skill set that they can work on without a teacher, they might drift away from the school.

Really, the ultimate goal needs to be that a student leaves the school, or else the student has only learned to follow someone else and has not taken ownership of their training. If a student is lost without a teacher at the front of the class, then they have learned nothing.
 

Jaeimseu

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I think this issue comes down to taking ownership of your training....

Yes! Take ownership of everything. There are, of course, circumstances that we can’t control, but I think it’s better to assume full accountability for our own results rather than blaming others or blaming circumstances. It’s painful sometimes, but hard lessons are often the most valuable.


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Xue Sheng

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Between lockdown, complications from knee surgery and family issues.....I'm beginning to think I have to work my way up to being demotivated
 

skribs

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What a downer! If everything sucks, you need to work on your mindset. It’s certainly a challenge, but supposedly martial arts is supposed to give us the discipline and attitude to handle adversity.

Ah, yes. Invalidate my feelings. That does nothing to encourage depression. /s
People need to vent. This has been a difficult and stressful time. I was venting.

Some challenges are good, some are sucky. I've risen to this challenge, even though it's sucky. I'd much rather teach students normally. Many of these are 4-6 year olds who have been doing classes for less than a year. They're not yet hardcore martial artists like you. They're still just kids. And this sucks for them. We've had a lot of students quit because they don't like virtual training. We've had others quit because they can't do virtual training, or because they can't afford classes anymore. This whole situation sucks. I can do my best in spite of that, but that doesn't change the fact that it sucks.

How much time was/is spent teaching the students and parents how to participate in virtual classes? Maybe you’ve (you and other instructors at your school) done this, but in my experience, when people say something sucks, it almost always means :

1. They themselves aren’t good at it

2. They haven’t done sufficient preparation

3. They haven’t explicitly taught students how the systems work

Please don’t take this personally, because I don’t mean that you suck. I’m just going off of my personal experience over nearly 30 years in martial arts and education.


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Well, we didn't have sufficient preparation at first. It was thrust on us all of a sudden. We're also not IT instructors, we're martial arts instructors, who are now customers of Zoom. We do our best to teach our students and their parents, but we can't control them.

This is a new situation for everyone. For most people, virtual meetings are completely new. Parents don't know how they're supposed to act, because they think they're at home. Any time someone needs help with Zoom, we have to stop the entire class to help that one person figure out their issue. We have to do this troubleshooting without knowing their hardware, and we have to do it quickly so we can get back to class. Is the problem their internet connection? Their computer? Their peripherals? Do they not have something connected properly? Is it even possible for them to fix it? I don't know. And I don't have time to spend 10 minutes troubleshooting someone's issue, because that's 25% of the class gone on one person not even getting martial arts training.

This situation sucks. It's requiring us to be a lot more than martial arts instructors, and at the same time give a lot less martial arts instruction. It's frustrating to no end. So take your criticism and find somewhere else to shove it.
 

skribs

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I think this issue comes down to taking ownership of your training and learning how to train on your own. I have been doing that since my first lesson, back when I was a teenager in 1984. It was clear to me that as I learned new things I needed to practice outside of class. As you advance, you learn to get creative with your own drills and methods that you practice outside of class. So for as long as I have been training, I have been practicing alone and I have always been able to motivate myself to do so. Sure, at times I’ve lacked motivation, but overall I’ve been consistent.

I think some schools neglect to teach this skill to their students. I don’t know if they simply overlook it, or if they actively avoid it because they want students to always feel beholden to the school, as that keeps the income stream alive. I guess if students realize they have a solid skill set that they can work on without a teacher, they might drift away from the school.

Really, the ultimate goal needs to be that a student leaves the school, or else the student has only learned to follow someone else and has not taken ownership of their training. If a student is lost without a teacher at the front of the class, then they have learned nothing.

That's fine for advanced students. Beginners are still eating baby food (metaphorically) and aren't ready to cook for themselves yet.
 

JowGaWolf

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I think this issue comes down to taking ownership of your training and learning how to train on your own. I have been doing that since my first lesson, back when I was a teenager in 1984. It was clear to me that as I learned new things I needed to practice outside of class.
All of my martial arts teachers and sports coaches said the same thing. Just because there's no practice at the school, doesn't mean that there isn't any training that needs to be done. They they follow up with the speech of taking ownership and training outside of school.

Most professional athletes do the same during the off season. Where's there's no football they are still staying in shape and still working to better.
 

Flying Crane

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That's fine for advanced students. Beginners are still eating baby food (metaphorically) and aren't ready to cook for themselves yet.
As I said, I began practicing at home, by myself, after my very first lesson. I was 13 years old at the time. I built from there. Every step of the way, I did this.

My home training sessions as a White belt looked different from my sessions as an orange or green or brown or black belt, because of the amount of material that I knew and because of my experience level. But there were definitely common themes and common practices throughout.

As I trained in other systems my home training sessions again looked different, to reflect the new methodologies.

But the home training was consistent, always.

I am simply pointing out what I feel a lot of schools could do better, which would make it a lot easier for many students to get through something unexpected, like a global pandemic. For those who have not yet done this, it might be too late for this pandemic. But they can look to the future.
 

jobo

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What a downer! If everything sucks, you need to work on your mindset. It’s certainly a challenge, but supposedly martial arts is supposed to give us the discipline and attitude to handle adversity.

How much time was/is spent teaching the students and parents how to participate in virtual classes? Maybe you’ve (you and other instructors at your school) done this, but in my experience, when people say something sucks, it almost always means :

1. They themselves aren’t good at it

2. They haven’t done sufficient preparation

3. They haven’t explicitly taught students how the systems work

Please don’t take this personally, because I don’t mean that you suck. I’m just going off of my personal experience over nearly 30 years in martial arts and education.


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hmm,

the only thing that most of us agree about, is that distance learning is a very poor suvstutue for attending class, and that lite, never mind no touch training, is a poor substute for active resistance training

at the point where you have one, the other or both of those, it sucks , i mean really sucks, no one is learnibg anything usful or improving to any realistic degree, that has nothing to do with your mindset, it just is so

you may as well throw on a copy of enter the dragon, youl learn just as much if not more
 
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KenpoMaster805

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Nah I'm not demotivated I'm Motivated ! In my Karate class we do zoom Monday and Wednesday i train in my room. The only Problem is i got no partner and i have to do my techniques in the air and i have to move stuff to make space in my room.
 

JowGaWolf

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Invalidate my feelings. That does nothing to encourage depression. /s
People need to vent. This has been a difficult and stressful time. I was venting.
Don't look at it as invalidating. Virtual classes can't be done the same way as traditional classes. There will be a lot of out of the box thinking required. I used to do online workshops for 3d Graphics and it's difficult when I can't actually look at people and interact. So I had to change how I did things.

My first time teaching online was horrible. I didn't realize how much I depend on seeing visual feedback on things. I had to throw all of that away. I'll be doing that again next month when I start my online classes for martial arts. To make it even more challenging, I will be starting from zero. With no students.

I don't know how well it's going to turn out, I don't know if it will be fun for others. My solo training has never been "fun" for me. It has been enjoyable at the most but never a bucket full of laughs and conversations. But with that said, most of my growth has come from solo training. So I'm hoping that enjoyable and good results will be good enough for most people. I'm thinking I'll need at least 3 to 4 free months of training for students to adjust to this type of training. Then there's the economy issue.

Even though you were venting, you make some valid points, especially about parents. My personal thoughts is that doing online classes is probably something that schools should get good at doing. It may be a while before we get back to things as they were.
 

JowGaWolf

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the only thing that most of us agree about, is that distance learning is a very poor suvstutue for attending class
My mindset isn't that I'm trying to substitute in person training. My mindset is finding a way to get the most out of distance training. In other words what's the best way to train with a group when the group cannot meet.
 
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skribs

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hmm,

the only thing that most of us agree about, is that distance learning is a very poor suvstutue for attending class, and that lite, never mind no touch training, is a poor substute for active resistance training

at the point where you have one, the other or both of those, it sucks , i mean really sucks, no one is learnibg anything usful or improving to any realistic degree, that has nothing to do with your mindset, it just is so

you may as well throw on a copy of enter the dragon, youl learn just as much if not more

I agree with you on what is a poor substitute. I disagree that watching Enter the Dragon is better. I disagree that you can't get anything out of it.

Don't look at it as invalidating. Virtual classes can't be done the same way as traditional classes. There will be a lot of out of the box thinking required. I used to do online workshops for 3d Graphics and it's difficult when I can't actually look at people and interact. So I had to change how I did things.

My first time teaching online was horrible. I didn't realize how much I depend on seeing visual feedback on things. I had to throw all of that away. I'll be doing that again next month when I start my online classes for martial arts. To make it even more challenging, I will be starting from zero. With no students.

I don't know how well it's going to turn out, I don't know if it will be fun for others. My solo training has never been "fun" for me. It has been enjoyable at the most but never a bucket full of laughs and conversations. But with that said, most of my growth has come from solo training. So I'm hoping that enjoyable and good results will be good enough for most people. I'm thinking I'll need at least 3 to 4 free months of training for students to adjust to this type of training. Then there's the economy issue.

Even though you were venting, you make some valid points, especially about parents. My personal thoughts is that doing online classes is probably something that schools should get good at doing. It may be a while before we get back to things as they were.

What @Jaeimseu said was the invalidation. He's saying I shouldn't complain that it sucks; that I should just get over it.
 

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