Physically demanding classes

[RSK_shudokan]

Hey everyone,

How physically demanding are your classes? Do you send your students home sweaty and sore, or do you just do basic warm ups?

This question is for both adult and youth classes.

[DJmma]

i take BJJ and muay thai. I come home exhausted, and soaking wet. especialy from muay thai, that is an intense work out. also, after my second day of bjj, i have alot of soars on my feat from the the mat burn, it scrapes your feet. and i get sore too. so...my classes are very physically demanding. i know you meant the question for instructors, but i thoguht i'd share anyway.

[ramymensa]

I am not an instructor yet, but I can tell you what my sensei does and what I do when I teach lower ranks. We are demanding ... Sometimes a student would be pushed a lot and really test his limits. It happened to me, but it was a good thing in the end.

[Sohan]

I'm amazed at the end of our sessions at how sweaty my gi is. Our sessions are two to three hours long and we cover a lot. Lots of warmup with calisthenics and stretching and lots of kata and two-person work. I find our sessions quite demanding.

Respectfully,

Sohan

[bushido_man96]

In all of our traditional classes, we do basics for warm-ups. They are the same basics every class, and in the same order. Starts with hand techniques, and moves on through three sets of them. Then we move on to kicks, and then combinations. It takes about 15 to 20 minutes to get through them all. I am dead by the end of that, and then we do forms, starting with the low rannks first. After that I am really dead. Then we do one-steps, and then spar. I can never seem to get used to the classes, and even after several years, I still get tired. I am soaked by the end of a class.

[Rateh]

Usually I try to really work them out during the warmup. My goal being for them to be tired and sweaty by the end of it, having used arm muscles, stomach muscles, and leg muscles, as well as some sort of running or jumping jacks. Then we start the main part of class, which usually isn't that physically demanding. During the main part of the class my goal is for everyone to learn something new, or improve a lot on something that they already know.

Sometimes if we have a lot to do that day, or if i just decided it, then our warm up is easy. And on occasion during the intermediate class, we warm up doing all beginner and intermediate kicks and strikes from a horse stance, after our general warm up. (six differnet kicks and sixteen blocks/strikes, 10 times each)

[Red J]

When I take a class, I love to work hard. The tougher the better. Today's class was pretty intense, but not quite enough so I stayed later and grappled for 15 minutes. Then I was done! I always love the kinda stiff feeling that you get the next day. It lets you know that you've done something.

When I teach a class I try to get the intensity level high enough so that everyone gets a good workout but not so tough that they don't want to come back. I only teach the beginner adults at this time.

I also train outside of the dojo in my sweaty garage in the South Florida heat and I run 3x a week probably putting in about 10-15 miles a week. I am not afraid to sweat.

[jaymac]

I believe work out and classes should be physically demanding. Newer students ;however, are encouraged to pace themselves and gradually increase their intensity and participation. Seems that if they try to keep up with the rest of the students, they become sore next day and discouraged to return for fear of not ever being able to be a participant.

[Holland]

I have two different philosophies depending on the ages...

I am a high school physical education teacher and thus I feel the need to make sure that my kids class gets plenty of exercise during a session. Now we do not do boring repetitive things like push up and sit up, but rather do engaging activities that are both fun and work on karate skills.

With my adults the principle is similar...I do not make my adults do sit ups and push ups as they are adults and if they want to train like that they can do it in their own time. Now that is not saying that we do not get a good work out....its just that the things that make us sweaty are karate things...plenty of kicking and punching and combination drills. These work the same muscles, but are much more useful in making a well balanced karateka.

[Sohan]

Our dojo was at least 85 degrees tonight, and much hotter once 12-15 of us advanced students began training. We trained hard, and solid, for almost 3 hours, taking appropriate water breaks. Our gis were soaked, and there was little talking as the mood was more serious. I felt like I was walking on air when I left the dojo to go out in the cool night air.

The way of the warrior.

Respectfully,

Sohan