Taking it to far

[de_medici99]

i would keep my skills fresh and your body in shape, but dont over do it, your asking yourself for trouble. Training for anything is always progress, but when it becomes an obsession, it may be too far.

[younwhadoug]

i train as much as possible and also am married with children. i am very close to all of them. i often work out and train in the middle of the night because it allows me to seriously work on technique. i don't have to do any of it in a hurry. i train in the regular hours to, but i look forward to the bizarre late training sessions i do. i think if you can regulate your training a little better maybe it won't clash with family or buisness time. also maybe invite able family members to train with you.

[mtheiss]

Please do not let anything turn into something which dominates every other concern in your life, it is then considered as serious an addiction to more well known syndromes.

[Menjo]

I've actually found a balance by now, thanks for the advice everyone. I sat down one evening and took a couple hours to sort EVERYTHING out in terms of my daily routine and Shotokan training, its working well...although I am always tempted to train the extra 5 min in Karate.

Plus, there are other ways of training besides the physical drills.

[mtheiss]

I am glad I could help. But remember, extra "5 minute" sessions sometimes take too long anyway.

[Kieran-Lilith]

I can relate to this topic really well myself.

I love training. I love my school and my art. I think about it a lot, I seek out books about it, I read about the culture that developed it, the philosophies it stems from and uses, I immerse myself in it as much as possible. I make constant references and comparisons in my mind. For my Algebra II project with conic sections (we draw a picture using conic sections), I drew two people from my dojo sparring. For my Geometry Exam last year, I examined the geometric properties of kata and stances. I've written papers about martial arts for English, I study the physiology part of my biology text book (on my own time) to look at how the body works.

I'm a 16 year old sophomore in high school, and I do this stuff. My friends...disliked my constant relating to a topic they never have understood and never will understand. One of them used to be a martial artist, and she said she never wanted to hear another word about karate pass my lips again. My friends have a lot of trouble relating to me, and I to them. Of course, we're fundamentally different people. Most people wonder how we became friends in the first place, we're so different.

For a while after they told me they never wanted to hear about it again (right after my belt test, too-that sucked), I really was wondering if there was something wrong with me. If there was something that was really not right about doing the things I did. I wondered if they were really right, and I was obsessive. I love martial arts with a passion, and I got lucky because I had an experience shortly after that that assured me I'm really not that weird.

After a seminar at my dojo, all of us went out to eat. In that hour and a half or so, there were discussions of techniques, weaponary, martial art movies. There were inside dojo jokes, where people would joke about giving push-ups. Martial arts got compared to ballet. I got to realize that I really wasn't weird-or if I was, so were all of them, so I fit right in. We all love the arts with a passion. We're not weird, we're just a different kind of normal-the dojo breed normal.

[CheekyMusician]

I can relate to this topic really well myself.

I love training. I love my school and my art. I think about it a lot, I seek out books about it, I read about the culture that developed it, the philosophies it stems from and uses, I immerse myself in it as much as possible. I make constant references and comparisons in my mind. For my Algebra II project with conic sections (we draw a picture using conic sections), I drew two people from my dojo sparring. For my Geometry Exam last year, I examined the geometric properties of kata and stances. I've written papers about martial arts for English, I study the physiology part of my biology text book (on my own time) to look at how the body works.

I'm a 16 year old sophomore in high school, and I do this stuff. My friends...disliked my constant relating to a topic they never have understood and never will understand. One of them used to be a martial artist, and she said she never wanted to hear another word about karate pass my lips again. My friends have a lot of trouble relating to me, and I to them. Of course, we're fundamentally different people. Most people wonder how we became friends in the first place, we're so different.

For a while after they told me they never wanted to hear about it again (right after my belt test, too-that sucked), I really was wondering if there was something wrong with me. If there was something that was really not right about doing the things I did. I wondered if they were really right, and I was obsessive. I love martial arts with a passion, and I got lucky because I had an experience shortly after that that assured me I'm really not that weird.

After a seminar at my dojo, all of us went out to eat. In that hour and a half or so, there were discussions of techniques, weaponary, martial art movies. There were inside dojo jokes, where people would joke about giving push-ups. Martial arts got compared to ballet. I got to realize that I really wasn't weird-or if I was, so were all of them, so I fit right in. We all love the arts with a passion. We're not weird, we're just a different kind of normal-the dojo breed normal.

I can relate to this. When I first started training, karate was all I wanted to talk about. For the first year and a half my friends were all getting sick of hearing about karate and I had to keep reminding myself to shut up!

Recently, though, I dragged a Uni friend of mine off to karate and she's fallen in love with it, too! We're both totally obsessed but usually talk to each other every day, so when we meet up we just talk non-stop karate for an hour or two and then when we meet up with the rest of our friends we don't feel the need to bore them with it all!

It can definately be hard to find a balance, but not just with karate. I sometimes feel that my Uni work is taking over my life and I don't make time for anything else, even to the extent of refusing to go out at all for a few weeks while I get on top of everything. Other times its my music that eats into my time.

But yeah, I agree especially with the person who posted saying remember that you're family and friends might desert you if you don't make time for them!

I'm glad that you've managed to find a happy medium with your training, though.

[ki master]

whake up at 4 in the morning if you cant do that wake up at 5 then go outside when it is still dark and practice it is early so you will have time for other things. Also the sun is not out and the sun gives u energy so you train harder so a short workout seems like a long one. It is also very peacful at night so you wont have any distractions. so then practice for as long as u like but dont stop then this will become a habit for u and it will be easier to get up that early and then when u dont want to practice youll get up that morning meditate outside and have a enjoyous day with your friends.