Long range planning for MA

[IcemanSK]

MJS's thread got me thinking about making long range plans for MA training. A lot of us are used to doing it in our careers, personal life (buying a home, big vacation, etc.). Does anyone make a long range 3-5 year plan for MA training? I'm not talking about specific business plans for your own school, but rather, your training & what you want to do with it.

Or is this too far in the future to think about for you? That's a legitimate thing as well. Not everyone looks at their training in this way.

 

[HG1]

I do write out a training plan & tweak it once or twice throughout the year. I can't go any farther out than that.

 

[Laurentkd]

I sort of did that when I got out of college. I had "done my time" at my current rank, but wanted to accomplish certain goals while training daily under my instructor before advancing in rank. They weren't things like being able to jump this high, or be able to do this kick... it was more of a mindset that I wanted to attain... guess it is hard to explain. I wanted to have an over-all feel for every one of my techniques, I wanted to feel completely confident as an instructor teaching any level, age, or type of student, I wanted to feel completely confident with my sparring and breaking ability... not that I ever feel I no longer need to improve, but rather to feel like I was happy were I was at that moment on my path, while still progressing.
Does any of that make sense?
2 and 1/2 years later my instructor told me it was time to test, and I felt confident to do so. Again, not like I had "arrived", but rather that I was prepared for the challange.
Now a year and a half later, I ought to be outlining the same goals...

 

[geezer]

MJS's thread got me thinking about making long range plans for MA training... I'm not talking about specific business plans for your own school, but rather, your training & what you want to do with it.

Or is this too far in the future to think about for you? That's a legitimate thing as well. Not everyone looks at their training in this way.

I live in the moment. ...pretty Zen, eh? The fact of the matter is I barely plan to the next seminar or event. I probably should plan things out better, but I've returned to training after a long absence... and I'm staying "on the wagon", one day at a time. Apart from a few short lapses, I've been back at it about about 18 months now. Wish me luck.

 

[YoungMan]

I do it all the time. I often think about what I want to be doing 3-5 years from now. I start with abstract concepts and proceed to develop them into concrete ideas. Things can change, but I want to have an overall plan of what I'll be doing 5 years down the road. My instructor is like this, but he thinks 10-15 years down the road. That's why he is where he is.

 

[searcher]

I normally have a good plan set out for the future of my school and where I want to take it, but having just started a new school, I am just trying to get it going and then plan it out. Now I have a plan for my own training and it is pretty flexible. I am thinking about atking up another style, I need to have no control over the class and I need to challenge myself with new material.

 

[geezer]

I normally have a good plan set out for the future of my school and where I want to take it, but having just started a new school, I am just trying to get it going and then plan it out. Now I have a plan for my own training and it is pretty flexible. I am thinking about taking up another style, I need to have no control over the class and I need to challenge myself with new material.

This creates an interesting situation. Usually it's considered good business for students to look up to their instructors and see them as paradigms of skill and fitness. If you take up a new style that is very different from what you now teach, you would be starting at a beginner level. Would you train privately, or would you train openly, as a fellow beginner among people who might also be your students? (Maybe this gets a bit off-topic and would be better as the subject for a new thread.)

 

[jarrod]

This creates an interesting situation. Usually it's considered good business for students to look up to their instructors and see them as paradigms of skill and fitness. If you take up a new style that is very different from what you now teach, you would be starting at a beginner level. Would you train privately, or would you train openly, as a fellow beginner among people who might also be your students? (Maybe this gets a bit off-topic and would be better as the subject for a new thread.)

it's funny this came up, as taking up a new style periodically throughout my life is one of my goals. my other major goal is to still be able to grapple well into old age. this has required developing lots of control & injury awareness.

but as for taking on new styles, i do that every couple of years or so. i may or may not stick with it, but i like to visit something new & see what it's about. i just join in with the class like any other beginner would, & i don't feel i've lost my students respect at all. some of them think it's a little odd, some think it's cool, & some just don't think about it at all. i think it helps create an open-minded environment.

jf

 

[geezer]

...i think it helps create an open-minded environment. jf

Me too. But then I don't teach for a living like some folks. And, nobody ever saw me as a paradigm of skill. If they did, they must have been smoking something!

BTW, I went ahead and started a new thread on this.

 

[wade]

I agree with geezer about living in the moment. My classes have a basic schedule but that can be changed depending on upcoming, tests, tournaments, or what ever, heck even dodge ball when it's called for. And yes, that has happened too. For myself, I train and that's pretty much it. I started in 1968 and day after day, week after week, year after year and then one day I looked back and said WHOA!!!!! where did the time go and how did I get to be here. So, after thinking very deeply about this for about a minute, I then went back to my training.

 

[terryl965]

I agree with geezer about living in the moment. My classes have a basic schedule but that can be changed depending on upcoming, tests, tournaments, or what ever, heck even dodge ball when it's called for. And yes, that has happened too. For myself, I train and that's pretty much it. I started in 1968 and day after day, week after week, year after year and then one day I looked back and said WHOA!!!!! where did the time go and how did I get to be here. So, after thinking very deeply about this for about a minute, I then went back to my training.

I train because I know nothing else to do, I am an tired and bitter old man that has no earthly ideal of what the next minute will bring.

 

[Perpetual White Belt]

I was just talking about something like this with one of my students tonight. I have a general 2-year plan for my training, but I also leave room to adapt to any oppurtunities that may pop up throughout the year.

 

[wade]

Terry, WTF do you think Zen is? Don't over think this, live in the moment.

 

[kidswarrior]

I train because I know nothing else to do, I am an tired and bitter old man that has no earthly ideal of what the next minute will bring.

You're not all that old...just lived long enough to realize that none of us knows what the next moment will bring. I didn't give up planning past the next day until after 50, so you're way ahead of me.

 

[Korppi76]

I used to have quite good plans what to do ... usually I changed them once for year. I also had hazy 5 year plan... which worked only once It was also helpful to discuss about that plan with my sensei so he helped me to keep it.

Now when I have many other things that takes my time and I can train also 3 times per week (almost no training at all) so I just train and teach according our dojo's half year plan. And when my senseis tell me I start to train for next belt I start think if I would do that... I said last two times that I am not ready yet.

 

[terryl965]

Terry, WTF do you think Zen is? Don't over think this, live in the moment.

I always do Wade, remember drinks in Vegas!!

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

I know what my taekwondo, kumdo, and hapkido look like now. With taekwondo and kumdo, I know exactly the things that need to be improved upon and what I want my taekwondo and kumdo to look like. I am still very much in a beginner mode with hapkido. I am only a 6th geub and aside from continued practice of the material that I've learned up to this point and learing of the new material as it is presented, the only thing I can specifically say is that I want to improve my rolls.

I do intend to start exploring kenpo, but I still am determining the best way in which to approach it and fit it into my crazy schedule.

Daniel

 

[Ironcrane]

I do have an overall goal I'm attempting to work towards. With only a loose plain on how to get there. It's kinda hard to explain the thought processes going on in my head, but after a long time of Martial Arts, and contemplating on different ideas, and several other things, it all eventually came together as one entire thing. I plan to try and get all the pieces I need for it, and try to realize in my Martial Arts, what I see in my head.