In the martial arts, and definitely in the sports world, you will hear all about the Dangers of Over Training. Everyone will tell you how your body needs rest or maybe the difference between being hurt and being injured. I always laughed at the last one as a young man, but now I say that to my students all the time.
Well, let's look at it in reverse, because the problem with most of us is not that we over-do something, but rather we don't give our 100% effort in the first place! The funniest part about improving or wanting to be successful at something is that we don't give 100% but we expect 100% success, or 100% Return on Investment. Crazy Right? I am sure we can all agree that, that does not pass the common sense test.
So, now I present to you the Dangers of Under Training....
1. You Fall Behind Your Peers
The students that over train represent a very small percentage of students. Again, most students, when they miss training, are doing absolutely nothing at all. Every time you come to class and you don't give your 100% to training, or you frequently miss a day here, or two days there, you will notice your peers start to distance themselves from you in skill. Even if you are a "natural," that only accounts for so much when your peer is someone who is truly training their hardest every class AND has great attendance.
2. You Lose Confidence
Now that all the folks you started with, or even the beginner's coming up are making you look bad, or have learned a lot of new things, you start losing confidence. Hopefully this sparks a fervor to train harder, but sometimes it does not and the downward spiral of under training continues.
3. You Quit Training
You have had enough at this point. You are tired of everyone beating you, or not being able to understand why you can't "Get It." You are tired of yelling at yourself to get better. Now, you either stop doing martial arts through making some sort of excuse that you know is not true before you thought of it, or you move from team to team, from fitness program to program, or diet to diet going through the same web of dangerous destruction. While moving around you fail to realize that if you move around and get the same results, it is not the programs... it is you.
If you were training hard side by side with your peers you would grow together and would not be able to readily notice how far they may have passed you up. But like leaving a plant to grow, if you plant the seed today and come back in a few weeks you are going to see a big sprout coming up very quickly. Students are growing everyday, or falling behind everyday. Which one do you want to be?
4. Inneffective When Needed
Maybe the saddest part about under training is that when you actually need to use it one day it doesn't work! Years of training at 99%, don't account for real life sitations that require not %100, but %110 of your mental and physical efforts. I talked to a man the other day who is a bouncer at a military club, and I invited him out to the gym to learn more in our Yudansha MMA program. The first thing he said back to me was, "I fought an MMA guy one time, and he could not do anything. He was pitiful and subpar, like he didn't even know how to fight." I assured him that it is definitely the way the person trained, and that at our gym we Train Hard and Train Often.
The best advice I can give anyone, is to keep up your attendance and give all you can each class. You will continue to see steady growth and instead of thinking that everything in life and training comes easy, you will put yourself into a class all by yourself, and become a TRUE martial artist. It is so much better for your instructor to tell you to "Slow down and pace yourself," than "You need to train harder."
v/r
Benjamin Moriniere "Sensei"
TEL 098-936-8883
www.facebook.com/CapoeiraAcademyOkinawa
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