Is there such thing as overworking?

[Headhunter]

I have instructors only for each individual style as in, a boxing coach etc. But this schedule I made myself. I want to push myself so I can be the best I can at this stuff, as I want to own my own dojo when I’m older.

As for my parents, they’re not really aware, but as long as I perform in school and don’t overwork myself, hence this post on my forum, they won’t mind, even though they would prefer if I had picked another sport to be passionate about.

Open your own dojo doing what? You're learning a bunch of different styles and not committing to one. So your getting little drips of information and not having time to self train one style so your doing TKD but because your doing everything else you don't have time to practice your forms or anything else. Cross training is fine for yourself but doing it to open a school isn't necessarily the best option. Also you do realise you open a dojo you won't be able to train like that anymore because you'll be teaching and unless you are extremely lucky you'll also have to contend with a real job as martial art teaching is in most cases not a sustainable income. A lot of teachers end up paying out of their own pocket to keep their doors open. Also if you want your own place you need teaching experience. Doing gym sessions isn't going to make you a good teacher you need to get that experience assisting classes from an instructor

 

[Ivan]

Open your own dojo doing what? You're learning a bunch of different styles and not committing to one. So your getting little drips of information and not having time to self train one style so your doing TKD but because your doing everything else you don't have time to practice your forms or anything else. Cross training is fine for yourself but doing it to open a school isn't necessarily the best option. Also you do realise you open a dojo you won't be able to train like that anymore because you'll be teaching and unless you are extremely lucky you'll also have to contend with a real job as martial art teaching is in most cases not a sustainable income. A lot of teachers end up paying out of their own pocket to keep their doors open. Also if you want your own place you need teaching experience. Doing gym sessions isn't going to make you a good teacher you need to get that experience assisting classes from an instructor

Luckily, I am only 17. Do you come on this forum with the intent to **** on everyone’s ideas and dreams?

I have years maybe decades until I get to where I want to be, and frankly, you haven’t enough idea about what exactly I want to teach at said dojo to be able to provide any valuable input. As for the gym sessions, I’ve never heard of any proficient martial artists not spend time on conditioning.

 

[Headhunter]

Luckily, I am only 17. Do you come on this forum with the intent to **** on everyone’s ideas and dreams?

I have years maybe decades until I get to where I want to be, and frankly, you haven’t enough idea about what exactly I want to teach at said dojo to be able to provide any valuable input. As for the gym sessions, I’ve never heard of any proficient martial artists not spend time on conditioning.

Lol I'm giving you my opinion if you don't want to listen I don't care.

I've spent a lot of time teaching and running classes through various styles and you say you have to be the best. Well okay but just so you know just because you are a good practitioner doesn't mean you'll automatically be a good teacher. There's plenty of exceptionally good martial artists who are terrible teachers and likewise there are plenty of average practitioners who are amazing teachers.

The best way to be a good teacher is to teach. Teaching a technique is completely different to doing the technique. So yes do your training do whatever you want to do. But there's more to teaching than just being in good physical condition and knowing how to do the moves. Hence the reason not everyone can do it, you want torunament a club go ask an instructor to help assist classes to get that experience.

 

[drop bear]

Lol I'm giving you my opinion if you don't want to listen I don't care.

I've spent a lot of time teaching and running classes through various styles and you say you have to be the best. Well okay but just so you know just because you are a good practitioner doesn't mean you'll automatically be a good teacher. There's plenty of exceptionally good martial artists who are terrible teachers and likewise there are plenty of average practitioners who are amazing teachers.

The best way to be a good teacher is to teach. Teaching a technique is completely different to doing the technique. So yes do your training do whatever you want to do. But there's more to teaching than just being in good physical condition and knowing how to do the moves. Hence the reason not everyone can do it, you want torunament a club go ask an instructor to help assist classes to get that experience.

Not really. I Would suggest doing a teaching course so that he has the right fundamentals. Which you can access pretty easily one way or another.

Maybe a learning to run a small business course as well while he is there.

And at least he will walk away with a real qualification at the end of it.

Which is as people may have noticed the same approach I advocate in martial arts. Learn it right and then work hard at it.

 

[jobo]

I constantly feel the need to train. It's like an itch I can't scratch but I want to know whether I should push it. For starters, here is the schedule I try to stick to every week:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
Gym 0530-0645	Gym 0630-0745	Gym 0530-0645	Gym 0530-0645
Gym 1110-1300	Boxing 1800-1910	Run 1600-1730	Gym 1130-1330
Krav Maga 1900-2030	Krav Maga 1900-2030 or TKD 1800-2000	Gym 1900-2015

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Gym 0530-0645	TKD 1000-1200	Gym 1130-1300
Olympic Weightlifting (College Activity) 1300-1345	Gym 1230-1400
Gym 1830-2000

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

This is supplemented by a steady core workout every two days, and stretching every two days to improve flexibility and core strength. The rest of my spare time will be distributed towards studying for college (UK version of college not university), food and sleep. I am a 17 year old and I'm wondering if I'm doing too much? Every time I try to tell myself to chill I think of the stories of a Judoka who would train 12 hours a day - if he can do it, why can't I? Is this a reasonable program to stick to? I would be getting about 8 hours of sleep per day, good meals and cold showers to help with muscle relaxation and regeneration.

yes its possible to over train to the point you end up with exhaustion, but not on that schedule. people work 60 hour weeks moving heavy things about and don't end up collapsing through exhaustion..
The consideration you need to make is are you improving your fitness? techniques. If the answer is no, then cutting back on some things to concentrate on others and o having more rest in between might be the answer.

The biggest advantage professional athletes have is they can afford to spend a significant amount of time doing precisely nothing, in between working hard, because that's when all the good things happen to your body

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

I find it astonishing that people seem to think a 17 year old should only be focusing on one martial art if he plans to open a dojo. At 17, he's probably got multiple years before opening one, and the things that will make it successful have a lot more to do with stuff like what @drop bear was suggesting...some business classes, teaching classes, and possibly sports medicine course added in for good measure.

As for martial art, he can change his mind about his primary martial art 3 times in the next few years, and still train it for ten years before he's 30. Or he can continue with all 3 if he wants. I'm pretty sure each dojo I've been too, even ones devoted to one style, the head instructor had trained in at least 3 styles at some point or another. And, again, he's 17. This is like telling someone not only should you have your major picked out, but you should know what subset of that major you should be focusing on, and ignore any electives or anything not related to that once you start college.

 

[Ivan]

I find it astonishing that people seem to think a 17 year old should only be focusing on one martial art if he plans to open a dojo. At 17, he's probably got multiple years before opening one, and the things that will make it successful have a lot more to do with stuff like what @drop bear was suggesting...some business classes, teaching classes, and possibly sports medicine course added in for good measure.

As for martial art, he can change his mind about his primary martial art 3 times in the next few years, and still train it for ten years before he's 30. Or he can continue with all 3 if he wants. I'm pretty sure each dojo I've been too, even ones devoted to one style, the head instructor had trained in at least 3 styles at some point or another. And, again, he's 17. This is like telling someone not only should you have your major picked out, but you should know what subset of that major you should be focusing on, and ignore any electives or anything not related to that once you start college.

Thanks very much; you have summarised my feelings and thoughts on those opinions perfectly.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

Thanks very much; you have summarised my feelings and thoughts on those opinions perfectly.

The biggest thing at your age is passion. As long as you've got that, keep doing what you're doing. If you lose that feel free to message me or make a post on here about it, but as it is I don't see a reason for you to back off anything. Again though, the one exception is if you start feeling a joint/limb hurting, figure out what's going on so that doesn't turn into a permanent injury.

 

[Flying Crane]

As much as I would love to concentrate on one style, Boxing only offers one session a week; Krav and TKD offer two but they overlap so I’m trying to do the two of Krav and the one from TKD that doesn’t overlap. Overall, I’m using boxing to train my punching, TKD for my kicks, and Krav for general self defence. Thanks for your input I’ll try to incorporate it

Do you spend any time outside of your classes, just practicing what you have learned? Or is class time the only time you train martial art?

Taking ownership of your training and putting in the time and the work outside of classes is key to gaining skills. If you only spend an hour or two in a class, once or twice a week for each style, it’s going to be a slow and frustrating road to skill development. That’s where too much cross training can get in the way: you get spread too thin and don’t have enough time or energy to devote to any of it. None of it blossoms. It takes more than just time in class, if that is only once or twice a week. I think that’s what the other folks are trying to caution you about.

Training multiple systems typically works best when you are already well grounded in one before you add another or a third. If you are essentially a beginner and you are trying to train three systems at the same time, i think that is a recipe for frustration and possibly failure.

Give it some thought.

 

[drop bear]

Do you spend any time outside of your classes, just practicing what you have learned? Or is class time the only time you train martial art?

Taking ownership of your training and putting in the time and the work outside of classes is key to gaining skills. If you only spend an hour or two in a class, once or twice a week for each style, it’s going to be a slow and frustrating road to skill development. That’s where too much cross training can get in the way: you get spread too thin and don’t have enough time or energy to devote to any of it. None of it blossoms. It takes more than just time in class, if that is only once or twice a week. I think that’s what the other folks are trying to caution you about.

Training multiple systems typically works best when you are already well grounded in one before you add another or a third. If you are essentially a beginner and you are trying to train three systems at the same time, i think that is a recipe for frustration and possibly failure.

Give it some thought.

That is not the case. People can train multiple systems from the get go with no problems.

If frustration is a stumbling block then any new skill is basically off the table.

This is the fundamental issue with "so long as you are having fun" argument.

You are not do training to avoid work, or frustration. You train so that you can overcome these issues.

 

[Buka]

Study a lot of styles....hmmm.....not sure if that's a good idea. Best to stick to just one source of input, because, you know, that place is probably the most knowledgeable Kwai Chang Caine walk the earth dojo for thousands of miles.

And if you go study a lot of different ways to fight, train and teach you'll get confused, befuddled and flummoxed by the input alone and it might take you ten years to actually figure out what's what instead of nine years and eleven months.

There are a bunch of us here who've been doing this Martial stuff for a long time, we know what we're talking about. And we all move the exact same way, we all train the exact same way, we all fight the exact same way, we all teach the exact same way. We are one hundred percent interchangeable.

And, of course, our particular art is by far the best. It is the one for you. Any other Art will not help you. Any other method of training is a waste of your time. Because WE ARE GUMBY, DAMN IT, WE ARE SUPREME!

EDIT - But if you ain't enjoying it, if you ain't having fun working your butt off - it will never work.

 

[spidersam]

I’d support this! But only if 3 conditions are met:

1. Do your school work
2. Eat enough
3. Sleep enough

Always listen to your body. If you feel like you need a break today, but your mind wants to push through it, take the break.

 

[spidersam]

I find it astonishing that people seem to think a 17 year old should only be focusing on one martial art if he plans to open a dojo. At 17, he's probably got multiple years before opening one, and the things that will make it successful have a lot more to do with stuff like what @drop bear was suggesting...some business classes, teaching classes, and possibly sports medicine course added in for good measure.

I second this. If you’re planning to be an instructor, start working with people. Focus on your presentations in class, speaking to audiences. Try babysitting, tutoring other students. The best martial artist in the world could be the worst instructor if he doesn’t know how to communicate and work with people.