Taking Your Training With You

[monkeygirl]

Thanks for the responses everyone.

I am now halfway through my second week of classes in college, and it's proving to be even more time-consuming than high school. I'm just waiting for things to settle down a bit and then I'll try to sneak in some training.

For right now, things are a bit crazy because we have extended orientation and things like auditions and so forth. Plus I'm getting neck-deep in clubs and all that stuff. It's like I'm allergic to free time.

[bushido_man96]

Cool article. You found very creative ways to keep martial arts high on the priority list in your life. When I can't do anything else, I like to keep an MA book handy to read for ideas, feedback, or just enjoyment.

KF has been a boon to my MA life as well!

[baronbvp]

Holy cow, where did you go to school? That's a busy schedule for anyone.

There are parallels to your excellent article for many of us. My military peers who are fellow martial artists get frustrated by loss of MA training time due to the moving around and deployments we do. Obviously with the wars recently, many have been in actual combat. (No offense to those who define actual combat situations as street fights, but we define it as when people are shooting at us and/or we are shooting back.) Obviously there is not much time to train of any MA that is not directly related to the mission or staying alive in combat.

The key is to do what you can, where you can, when you can. Thinking about MA when working out, reading books, and light sparring against others who train MA are only some of the ways. The MA candle burns quietly until one day we can start training again. I have the time now after six years of sea duty and I am very happy as a result.

Thank you for your great article, Monkey Girl. You are wise for one so young.