lack of interst

[Manny]

What do you do when you loose interest or have lack of interest in the class? I eman when the class ist's booring and you really don't want to go inside the mat cause it's always the same song over and over.

Manny

 

[tshadowchaser]

you take a break or you look deeper to see if you can find one thing within the class each night that you had not thought of before.
Yes it is hard when it gets boring you can plug along and hope to learn more or try something different. You can always have a hart to hart with the instructor. Wait until your the instructor and have to teach the same thing each and every night to beginners or mid level people

 

[TrueJim]

I find that it's helpful to set a new goal for myself. Focusing the on the goal helps to keep me interested.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

I find I don't get bored these days in class because I'm never doing reps mindlessly. I'm very aware of a whole bunch of stuff that needs improvement in every technique I practice, so I always have something specific to focus on as I'm drilling. (In fact, I usually have more details to work on than I can realistically focus on at once, so I have choices in how I place my focus and can mix it up when I get burnt out on one aspect.)

 

[chrispillertkd]

I go train anyway.

Pax,

Chris

 

[drop bear]

It has to be about more than the grind. There has to be a point. You need to find a reason to train.

 

[dancingalone]

Before I became an instructor, I sighed inwardly many a night when the class was focused on something 'basic'. I sucked it up anyway and participated to the best of my ability so I could work with and help the less experienced students.

Manny has a bit of a different situation because he's just not interested in the sport focus his school has and he has limited training options in his area so he can't just switch to another TKD dojang that has a more traditional focus. My advice remains the same for you Manny, as it did when you first starting talking about your unhappiness in training.

You can start your own TKD training group. This lets you control EXACTLY what is practiced and as an older third dan (right) you should be more than ready to do this.

You could train in another art as you have experimented with, but as you have also discovered, there's probably no perfect 100% fit for what you want. And you'll likely have very specific requirements as an experienced, older martial artist. Wherever you go, whatever you study, there are bound to be compromises you must make in terms of what is practiced, how the teacher instructs, and any other complications arising from different customs, students, or ideal technical concepts expected.

Or you can be content with your current dojang and just try to shift some things over time at a very slow level. This is perhaps the most frustrating of the three options, yet it brings the least amount of disruption to you personally.

I can tell you I left TKD for many years over what I perceived as shortcomings in the art. Later I realized it was just that I had an imperfect understanding of martial arts as did my teacher. I expanded my knowledge through discovering other arts and became much more tolerant of alternative training methods, understanding that all roads ultimately lead to other place if you follow them long enough. These days most of my students study TKD with me. Some do Okinawan karate, one practices Aikido exclusively. I am happy with all of them.

 

[Gnarlie]

What do you do when you loose interest or have lack of interest in the class? I eman when the class ist's booring and you really don't want to go inside the mat cause it's always the same song over and over.

Manny

I pick something I know I have always been less than good at, and spend 90 minutes drilling it hard enough to hurt. Reminds me of my place, and that I have no right to be bored, because I still have so far to go.

Left leg side kick is a likely candidate.

 

[Gwai Lo Dan]

What do you do when you loose interest or have lack of interest in the class? I eman when the class ist's booring and you really don't want to go inside the mat cause it's always the same song over and over.

Manny

No lie, when I went to a TKD school that sometimes spent the first 20 minutes doing cardio kick-boxing, I will just stay in the change room and do my own stretching. I hated the "cardio" aspect of doing kicks fast, to the beat, and hearing the instructor yell at people to kick high without working up to it.

Had every class had cardio kick-boxing, I would not have joined the school. Since it was once every 2 weeks or so, with no advance notice, I just bypassed it and said my leg was sore when the kwanjanim asked why I was stretching and not in the class.

 

[TrueJim]

I hated the "cardio" aspect of doing kicks fast, to the beat, and hearing the instructor yell at people to kick high without working up to it.

20 minutes of high-and-fast kicking actually sounds -- to me -- like a recipe for injury too. One would think that somewhere in that 20 minutes...especially as your muscles are fatiguing...you'd wind up pulling a muscle or hyper-extending a joint.

 

[Transk53]

20 minutes of high-and-fast kicking actually sounds -- to me -- like a recipe for injury too. One would think that somewhere in that 20 minutes...especially as your muscles are fatiguing...you'd wind up pulling a muscle or hyper-extending a joint.

I would be concerned with the knees. Fatigue could equal judders, not good for the middle, in this case the knees.

 

[Gwai Lo Dan]

20 minutes of high-and-fast kicking actually sounds -- to me -- like a recipe for injury too.

More specifically, I had a chronic hamstring issue, and was very careful about slowly testing it each time. Also, I was intermediate level, and I felt that doing kicks quickly to the beat was counterproductive and led to developing sloppy kicks. Finally, I disliked the instructors critical style, telling kids things like "Are you a black belt? Then act like it!". So all in all, I just preferred to do my own stretching in the change room. Other kids preferred to just leave before the class started!

 

[dancingalone]

You can start your own TKD training group. This lets you control EXACTLY what is practiced and as an older third dan (right) you should be more than ready to do this.

I was re-reading what I wrote and I wanted to state that the bolder text should read "older third dan (right?)". Without the question mark where I am asking implicitly Manny to correct me if I am wrong about his rank, what I wrote might seem a challenge to his bona fides which I don't intend at all.

Thanks, and sorry if anyone got the wrong idea, Manny.

 

[Manny]

I was re-reading what I wrote and I wanted to state that the bolder text should read "older third dan (right?)". Without the question mark where I am asking implicitly Manny to correct me if I am wrong about his rank, what I wrote might seem a challenge to his bona fides which I don't intend at all.

Thanks, and sorry if anyone got the wrong idea, Manny.

Don't worry my friend I did my third dan test back on july 2014 and in december 2014 I've got my third dan certification.

Manny

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

What do you do when you loose interest or have lack of interest in the class?

Many years ago, I joined in a YMCA Karate class. We did

- static stretching,
- dynamic stretching,
- push up,
- sit up,
- running around the room,
- ...

I asked the Karate instructor, "Why should I do these in your class while I can do all these at home?" His respond was, "Not everybody would do these at home". I then realized that the instructor and I were not on the same page. I left that class soon after that.

- I believe in "learn in class and train at home".
- I don't believe in "work out in class and rest at home".

 

[Manny]

Many years ago, I joined in a YMCA Karate class. We did

- static stretching,
- dynamic stretching,
- push up,
- sit up,
- running around the room,
- ...

I asked the Karate instructor, "Why should I do these in your class while I can do all these at home?" His respond was, "Not everybody would do these at home". I then realized that the instructor and I were not on the same page. I left that class soon after that.

- I believe in "learn in class and train at home".
- I don't believe in "work out in class and rest at home".

The sensei is right, me for example, I don't have the time to exrecise at home or outside the dojang, maybe the teens can do this doing soccer or tenis or another work out in their free time, but working 10-12 hourd per day does not allows me to working out outside the dojang.

What I belive is to do 20-30 minutes of warm up and stretching and then 60 minutes of class, however the tkd classes are about one hour, mine not was, and the last class at night rus from 7:30 pm till almost 9:00 pm, but all the other classes are 60 minutes only.

I have to say that I really don't like more than 20 minutes of warming up/stretching beyond that I think is a waste of time.

Manny

 

[danielle]

I been there many time. What helps is setting a goal in Taekwondo. Are there any moves you want to learn? For instance, I want to learn a 540 roundhouse and 540 hook kick. Some days, i have no interest in going. When I look at students and video of those kicks I get excited to learn.