Burnout

[TKDJUDO]

Lately I've been seeing students at my school either drop out or not coming to class on a regular basis and I think it's probably because of martial arts burnout.

I haven't really experienced burnout during my Taekwondo Training, but I've been thinking, "what will I do if that happens to me?". I don't really want to take a "martial arts vacation" because I'm scared that I will lose my conditioning, or forget all the kicks and patterns that I learned throughout the years.

What can I, as well as other students do in order to not experience burnout and maintain a passion for Taekwondo ?

I feel that Taekwondo is incredibly prone to burnout because we do the same routines every time we train and nothing exciting ever happens, except for sparring. :lookie:

 

[terryl965]

TKDJudo is this your own school or does it belong to someone else?

If it is yours then you need to change up what you do everyday, make it challenging and fun. We try to add something new in class about every two weeks and we rotate this around for a good three months. Drills can be fun and exciting with a little change to them, working angles and things. Also we close the school one evening a month and do something different like Bowling, Ice skating, Rollar Skating, skate board park, something that will still condition and work on Balance but it is a change of pace for everybody.

If it is not your school maybe you can bring this to the Teacher and see what they think about it. Most places will cut the cost for a group. We even go to the Ballgame as well.

 

[TKDJUDO]

TKDJudo is this your own school or does it belong to someone else?

I'm an assistant instructor at my school but I really liked the suggestion of creating an out-of-school activity!

But I'm wondering what I can do personally so that if this ever arises, what can I do to avoid burnout as fast as possible ? Do I start a new martial art, what else can I do ?

 

[terryl965]

I'm an assistant instructor at my school but I really liked the suggestion of creating an out-of-school activity!

But I'm wondering what I can do personally so that if this ever arises, what can I do to avoid burnout as fast as possible ? Do I start a new martial art, what else can I do ?

I have always found doing seminar outside my own art takes care of that never happening. They are a great way to get rejuvinated in your training and break up that same routine.

 

[DArnold]

I'm an assistant instructor at my school but I really liked the suggestion of creating an out-of-school activity!

But I'm wondering what I can do personally so that if this ever arises, what can I do to avoid burnout as fast as possible ? Do I start a new martial art, what else can I do ?

You can not avoid burn out.
It is one of the lessons of the Martial Arts.
You may fool yourself but it will happen.
Accept the inevitable but belive in yourself.

 

[IcemanSK]

I agree with DArnold that burn will happen. You asked a question whether to take up another Art if/when it happens. Sometimes, people just need a break when they start looking over their neighbors fence & seeing greener grass & wishing they had it.

I think a good analogy (tho not perfect) is a relationship with a spouse or a friend. Tuesday is pot roast, Wednesday is burritos, etc. After awhile you just want something different. So, you plan a trip to a resturant or a vacation. Different tastes, different scenery etc. do wonders for rekindling the love: In a relationship or an activity. It doesn't mean jump ship & do something else completely. It just means take a break, go running, swimming, go train outside, learn a form from another TKD group (If you're learning Tae Guek poomsae, learn a Chang H'on tul.

I have a friend who is a professional fighter & always in the gym (6 days a week, 3-4 hours a day). I thought he never burned out. He told me that he takes a week or two off from the gym every so often.

my .02.

 

[granfire]

I find that around Blue belt people hit a plateau as I call it, some work through it, some quit. That is around 8 to 10 month of training. While our school is open 6 days a week and you can pick and choose when and how often, the Chief Instructor does not like to see people come more often then three times a week. We had parents bring their kids every day. Some eased up and in at least one instance the kid was so turned off it quit after receiving the coveted Black (but then since dad complained a lot on how this TKD thing was ongoing all year, unlike other seasonal sports, maybe it was by design...)

I myself dragged myself to class at that stage.

There is no shame in taking a week or 2 off, or cutting down on the weekly lessons for a while to keep up with the stuff while doing other things.

And sometimes things just have run their course and you need to change things, even if that means to discontinue classes.

I am myself at a point were I'd rather quit, but6 not because of the MA, but life in general, but I also see hat going to class 3 times a week and teaching 2 days give my chaotic life a bit of direction right now. You just can't spend your life in bed and on the computer....

(As I type this 'The Karate Kid' is running in the back ground...anything to get motivated: Wax on, wax off! )

 

[jim777]

My TKD school closes for August and December to give the instructors a break (they are volunteers). I think at this point they'd be happy to have a few people stop coming At the moment we turn down all new student requests unless you have a family member already coming, as ther school is running with so many students.

 

[Kacey]

Burnout happens in any activity - and sometimes only the inertia of being expected causes you to continue to participate. There've been days when I've showed up to instruct because others were expecting me rather than because I really wanted to be there; likewise, there've been days when I've shown up to work out because others were expecting me to be there rather than because I really wanted to be there. Sometimes you need to take a break to regain your interest in something; sometimes the break becomes permanent.

There are natural plateaus in most martial arts - the first is often when you reach the first rank at which things become difficult; this is often around the intermediate ranks, about halfway to black belt, give or take - at this point, those who have been getting by on natural athleticism often find that that is not enough, while those who have fought tooth and nail for every little bit of proficiency find things beginning to come together... and then everyone finds out that what they thought they'd mastered is just a small piece of what is available.

The next common plateau is after black belt; many students think that earning a black belt means you've "made it", only to find that black belt is only the beginning. Similar plateaus occur at most, if not all, succeeding ranks, with fewer and fewer people maintaining the interest level, and having the time available, to continue onward.

“It matters if you just don’t give up.” Steven Hawking, English Physicist

 

[jim777]

Another thing that might help is just to have another love you can put time and energy into. I play the guitar and keyboards, and there are days when I should probably be doing kicks or something else I just sit at the piano and play instead. I'm doing one or another martial art at least 5 days a week at the dojo/dojang, and some weekends I just take a day off. If you can go back and forth from one to the other when you start to burn out on one, you may not ever quit either (and you may get really good ont he guitar or piano!). Just a thought..

 

[matt.m]

Lately I've been seeing students at my school either drop out or not coming to class on a regular basis and I think it's probably because of martial arts burnout.

I haven't really experienced burnout during my Taekwondo Training, but I've been thinking, "what will I do if that happens to me?". I don't really want to take a "martial arts vacation" because I'm scared that I will lose my conditioning, or forget all the kicks and patterns that I learned throughout the years.

What can I, as well as other students do in order to not experience burnout and maintain a passion for Taekwondo ?

I feel that Taekwondo is incredibly prone to burnout because we do the same routines every time we train and nothing exciting ever happens, except for sparring. :lookie:

I think your main problem my good man is the fact that you only enjoy sparring. I guess the whole thing boils down to this......"Mix up the speed and tension you do for poomsea." I hate sparring. I swear I would get disqualified if I did. Not because I am mean or anything but I train like I would fight.

Plus I don't know what your rank in TKD is but I have 12 poomsea to train at my disposal. I do the I.T.F. and W.T.F., so the thing is I do it for muscle toning and physical therapy. I don't know what else to tell ya man. I mean I always teach at least once a week sometimes 2-3. I am training people in Yudo, as well as belting up in Tae Kwon Do and Hapkido. I believe it all comes down to perserverance. Gee, the nights I dont want to train on my own at home I push myself to work hard just because I am an adrenaline junkie.

 

[HelloKitty]

When I trained with my 1st master we had a program for each belt. Emphasis in certain kicks, the forms and self defense, a number of one-step sparring, breaking, etc etc. So you knew why were you working and what were your goals. Also you were able to discover your own "tkd profile": maybe you enjoy sparring and competing, maybe other people will work harder on the poomses, etc etc.

I visited several TKD schools looking a place to continue practising here in the US (well... the Dallas area particularly) and a several of them just had a class for "adults" where the gups (colour belts) had to "survive" exercises focused on the black belts.

You didn't tell us how things are in your school, but maybe you need some order to keep your students motivated. It's very different to train "just to exercise for a while" than having concrete goals. Make them enjoy each of their belts. ^_^

 

[Nomad]

A huge part of overcoming burnout, training plateaus, or ebbing interest in your martial art is recognising that they will happen, and also that they most likely will go away and your enthusiasm will wax again.

Switching up your training is a great way to reinvigorate things and increase enthusiasm. At our dojo, we have several ways we do this including occasional outdoor/beach classes and a couple of weekend-long training camps (one in summer, one in winter) where the seniors get to research, prepare and present classes and seminars (as well as the main instructors of course). Doing something as simple as taking a class to the park can make a huge difference in students' reaction to it; it's something new and presents its own challenges (terrain, shoes, etc).

Other ways to do this in your own training is to switch the focus of what you're practicing; forms for tournaments, self-defence applications, sparring, refereeing?, grappling/joint locks, weapons if available, etc. There is always room for improvement, and if any of these gets "boring", focus on something else for awhile and come back to it later.

 

[cali_tkdbruin]

Fortunately for me, I never really had a problem with TKD/MA burn out because I've always enjoyed training in my art so much. That said, I haven't trained since 2/2/2008 because so many things have interfered (work, family, transportation, etc.) this past month. This is the longest I've ever been away from the dojang since I began training a while back, and I miss it tremendously.

I've gone through the gups and into the dan ranks now and yeah I've gone through slow stages, especially when I was hurt from the hard training, but I always had that urge to keep going back. So I guess I'm one of those obsessed Taekwondo freaks.

Lately I've been going by a dojang near my office building and I just watch them train for a while, and I realize how much TKD means to me and how much I miss being away from it. I see the students there just going through the motions half-assed, and don't get me wrong, we have students at my dojang who do the same thing, but I just want to go in there and train hard with them just to motivate them with my enthusiasm. Maybe I'll do that, go train there since It's much more convenient, and I'll be able to get back into my routine and relieve the daily stresses of life. It's really helpful to me.

Sorry to bore you guys, but I just had to throw my take into the mix…