Any regrets. . . . .

[cheesefrysamurai]

I was wondering if any of you have any regrets regarding your training?

Possible examples are long gaps in training, wrong style, wrong school....

I am curious but also it may help some of those young wanderers who always believe there is always more time.

I know life gets in the way of training but so does laziness and lack of commitment.

I regret walking away from training when I was younger. I always saw myself as a martial artist. And its not like I wear my training like a badge, Im almost private about it, its more how I saw myself. Upon reflection I realized that, in part because my lack of REAL barriers preventing my training, and the amount of years that elapsed i don't fit my own definition of a martial artist and I made up my mind to commit myself again and I am very happy I did it.

[wagnerk]

Not really, however if I was going to do something different, it would be:

1. Start training younger. While I always wanted to study the martial arts, I never got a proper opportunity until I was 20

2. Enter international and world championships when I was younger. I entered a few national competitions but didn't have the finances or the time to enter the internationals or world ones

However these are really one minor things, don't really regret anything

[jaypo]

Cheesy- I share the same regrets as you posted. When I was a teen, martial arts was my life. I spent the majority of my years wanting to be a martial artist, and when I got the chance, I became a good one. However, as I became an older teen, I wanted a car and needed a job. I couldn't train and work at the same time, so karate was "put on hold". Then college, marriage, children, knee surgery, etc. got in the way. Finally, 22 years later, I had a chance meeting with my sensei, and I've been going strong for a few years again. But my athleticism and coordination have suffered because of age and injuries.

I consider myself a decent martial artist with a lot of room to improve. But had I been training non stop since I was 14, I feel that I'd be one of the best!!

[SteyrAUG]

I was wondering if any of you have any regrets regarding your training?

Possible examples are long gaps in training, wrong style, wrong school....

I am curious but also it may help some of those young wanderers who always believe there is always more time.

I know life gets in the way of training but so does laziness and lack of commitment.

I regret walking away from training when I was younger. I always saw myself as a martial artist. And its not like I wear my training like a badge, Im almost private about it, its more how I saw myself. Upon reflection I realized that, in part because my lack of REAL barriers preventing my training, and the amount of years that elapsed i don't fit my own definition of a martial artist and I made up my mind to commit myself again and I am very happy I did it.

Very few people are able to see their own failings. At least you have that quality which will serve you well.

I think every martial artists has some regrets from wasting time at schools that weren't as useful as ones they found later.

Putting important emphasis on aspects of the martial arts they would later not value as much.

And of course long breaks in training.

The important thing is "being a martial artist" isn't because of someplace you go or something you pay for. It is what you are, it is what you do. I can't imagine myself ever not training.

Edited March 6, 2014 by SteyrAUG

[ashworth]

only thing I can think of right now is turning down an offer to take over a shotokan class I used to train in, as the instructor had to leave, at the time I wanted to focus more on myself, now I realise that it would have been beneficial gaining that kind of experience

[CredoTe]

I was wondering if any of you have any regrets regarding your training?

Possible examples are long gaps in training, wrong style, wrong school....

I am curious but also it may help some of those young wanderers who always believe there is always more time.

I know life gets in the way of training but so does laziness and lack of commitment.

I regret walking away from training when I was younger. I always saw myself as a martial artist. And its not like I wear my training like a badge, Im almost private about it, its more how I saw myself. Upon reflection I realized that, in part because my lack of REAL barriers preventing my training, and the amount of years that elapsed i don't fit my own definition of a martial artist and I made up my mind to commit myself again and I am very happy I did it.

Very few people are able to see their own failings. At least you have that quality which will serve you well.

I think every martial artists has some regrets from wasting time at schools that weren't as useful as ones they found later.

Putting important emphasis on aspects of the martial arts they would later not value as much.

And of course long breaks in training.

The important thing is "being a martial artist" is because of someplace you go or something you pay for. It is what you are, it is what you do. I can't imagine myself ever not training.

Absolutely Great post...

For me, a regret that I have is that, once I joined my current CI some 15+ years ago, I quickly became very near sighted. Meaning, once I got used to the way he did things and trained, compounded with the fact that I've used it on the street, I determined that there was no other way to do things. Ultimately, this hurt my MA journey in many ways.

For instance, I believe I would have found my current path of following Osensei Nagamine's Matsubayashi-Ryu, rather than another organization's version of "Matsubayashi-Ryu", much sooner had I not been so close-minded. This isn't a shot at my CI, rather, realization that I was foolish to put anyone or anything (i.e. techniques, training, etc) on a pedestal of perfection. What my CI does is good, but there are many other ways out there that can make us (anyone) even better.

[Wastelander]

I regret not starting training earlier in life, of course, since I didn't start training until I was 18!

I also regret not finding my current instructor sooner after moving to Arizona--for two years, I continued practicing and studying karate at home, while training in judo at a local club, before I found him.

If it weren't for those two things, I feel like I would be so much further along. Then again, we can never know for certain what would have happened if things had been different. Perhaps, if I had started sooner, I would have become indoctrinated in a style of karate that doesn't fit me now? Perhaps, if I had found my instructor sooner, I would have stopped training in judo sooner and not gotten as much out of it.

[DWx]

This is a great thread idea cheesefrysamurai.

My biggest regret is simply not trying hard enough when I was younger. I just cruised along really, had a go at everything but was a bit too quick to dismiss things if I couldn't do them. Instead of watching classmates do flying kicks or drop down into the splits and just accepting that I couldn't, I wish I'd been more determined to train hard so that I could. It's only now, when work and life are getting in the way and my physical ability is slowly declining, that I see something like that and think not about how I can't do it but how I can get to where I can do it. Wish I'd had that attitude as a kid.

[Zaine]

My biggest regret is simply not trying hard enough when I was younger..

This is mine as well. It took me far too long to realize how much I actually cared about myself as a Martial Artist. Once I did though I feel that I quickly made up for lost time!

[IcemanSK]

Thanks for this thread. I don't like to dwell on "if I'd known then what I know now" about my training, simply because I can't go back and change it. Not to mention the fact that the choices I made & circumstances that took place lead to where I am now. Having said that, I'll play along.

In the mid 80's, as a teen 1st Dan, my instructor moved away. I began to train where my friends did. My master didn't like the master there & told me so. I should have listened, but I didn't & stayed way too long training under him.

Years later, that guy divorced his wife & sold the school & we all found out then that he was a fraud. (He didn't hold rank that he claimed from the organization that he claimed). I discovered that when I went to another school with my certificates to ask a grandmaster if he'd train me. He looked at my cert from master #2 & told me it wasn't real. I was so angry & frustrated I left that meeting & went to a famed kickboxing gym, where I stayed for 5 years. That place changed my life in a lot of ways. But I never would have made it there had this terrible meeting with the grandmaster not happened.

That was 20 years ago. My intensive training in my original Art took a detour, but it was a great detour. I had experiences there that I never would have had I gone with that grandmaster. I've been training for more than 30 years. My original master now teaches golf for a living. I couldn't train under him now if I wanted to. The trainer at the kickboxing gym died while I was his student. I didn't have the opportunity for an uninterrupted training experience under one master for my whole career. I train under someone now that I respect & I enjoy training under. Life is good.