Staying Motivated to Practice and Train --- Chief Instructor's Blog June 2023

 

Martial arts is a lifelong pursuit.  Like many skills, if you do not practice or train you will lose the skill set.  Gichin Funakoshi in his 11th principle from his book The Twenty Guiding Principles of Karate, explained it as “Karate is like hot water. If you do not heat it constantly it grows tepid.”   So, one way not to turn your martial arts into tepid water is to stay motivated. 

So, how does one stay motived to practice and train week after week, year after year?  I have been training and practicing for nearly 30 years.  Below are a few things I have used to stay motivated over the years.

 1. Remember Why I Started

Sometimes you can stay motivated just by remembering why you started in the first place.   Maybe you wanted to become more fit, more flexible, learn self-defense?  Whatever it was, maybe just remembering and reminding yourself why you started is enough to be motivated to practice and train that day, that week, that month or that year.

 2. Focus on the Process

If you feel like your training is not going well, be more process oriented as in the Eastern way of learning and focus on the process and not the results.  As noted in my blog last month, if you only focus on the results, during those times when you struggle, you can end up stopping and quitting.

3. Create Goals

As mentioned in my last month’s blog, having goals can be a way to stay motivated.  These goals can be short or more long term.

A few ideas for short term goals:

·         Learn a new technique

·         Learn the next hyung

·         Learn Mr. Kim’s timing combination

A few ideas for longer goals:

·         Earn the next belt

·         Become faster. It could be as simple as performing hyung a second or two faster while still performing it technically correct.

·         Improving your endurance. Maybe your goal is to get through all of the basics with full power and not lose your breath.

·         Learn a new interpretation of a technique and incorporate it into all techniques, every hyung, everything you do. 

·         Learn to perform every hyung mirrored without hesitation and technically correct.

For some longer goals, it can be beneficial to monitor yourself by creating a tracking method like a table of values denoting different levels of how you feel you are performing the technique (e.g., sometimes, most time, almost always).

 4. Stick to a Schedule

Create and stick to a practice and training schedule.  Even if tired, still train but go slow or with less power. Or just mentally go through all the techniques and hyung. As Mr. Kim would say, “Show up, work out”. 

 5. Have a Training Partner

Connect with someone to work out with and hold each other accountable to show up and work out.

6. Keep A Positive Attitude

Our mental attitude is also key.  If you show up and decide you do not want to train, you will most likely have a bad training session. And, as your practice goes poorly, you will reenforce not wanting to be there.  So regardless, come in with a positive attitude, even if you need to pretend you want to be there and are enjoying it. 

Regards,

Kelly

“If you ever lack motivation to train then think what happens to your mind and body when you don't.” ~ Shifu Yan Lei (1973- ), Qigong and Kungfu master and author