getting harder
is it just me being useless.... or is this a common thing
i've been practising for about 7 months now and feel in some classes that i am/feel worse in my execution and understanding of techniques than after the first few months of training.. i know 7 months training is nothing but surely things should be starting to feel slightly more natural...?? techniques just seem to be getting harder, even though the same as 7 months ago... my main noticable difference is my core muscles have increased substantially and i understand principles slightly more, but just have a harder time in execution??? help! |
Re: getting harder
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It is a common psychological problem that may happen throughout your Aikido training. Definition of plateau. " Plateau -- is a transition stage, which is only a temporary stagnation phase where the rate of improvement in learning is at the minimum. With appropriate corrective measures, this stage can be overcome. The duration of plateau stage varies from person to person.." The above quote is from Dr. Smt. Jolly Ray, a Scientific Officer at the Sports Authority of India, Bangalore. It is from a Hockey Coaching course of the Karnataka State Hockey Association, Bangalore, India chapter 12 titled " Mental Toughness" If you read the whole article it may help you understand and solve your problem. http://www.bharatiyahockey.org/gurukul/class12.htm David |
Re: getting harder
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I think what is happening is over the course of a few months we gradually acquire new abilities and integrate more different elements into our movements and at some point we get over loaded with just too many elements and that results in a getting worse as we try to balance all these elements in an new or higher level. There are so many things going on and sometimes we get a bunch of them just so at just the right time and things really seem to 'click' while at other times the timing or coordination is just slightly off and things fall apart. 10 years into it and it still happens on this 6-8 month cycle for me. I see it similarly happen to others. Even sensei goes through cycles it is just harder to see the 'slip' and sensei is able to recover much more quickly (like milliseconds). See my blog about the moon cycles as a way to systematize dealing with the ebb and flow of things. Just one more straw to load up on the camels back. |
Re: getting harder
I think it happens to most people, if not everyone. This has happened to me a few times, but I haven't felt that way long. Usually it is just a class or two. Last night I felt as if nothing was working for me. I got frustrated and then just let it go. That seems to work for me. The more I got corrected last night, the more I tried to let go of everything. Just try to do what he said and didn't worry about the outcome. I figure I will get it right in due time. My body just needs to digest it all. Sometimes the digestion of the material is quicker then others. Last night my digestion of material was at a stand still........ it was UGLY!
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Re: getting harder
When techniques are difficult, you're learning. When things come easily, you're doing something you already know how to do. When you struggle, you are progressing. :)
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Re: getting harder
just keep training; you'll get past it, and then it will happen again. just keep training.
it could also be that your fellow aikidoka sense that you are improving and are not being as easy on you. |
Re: getting harder
It's a common enough thing. It's when most people quit. It's what sorts out the people who can be comfortable in the discomfort zone, from those who can't.
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Re: getting harder
I highly recommend Sensei George Leonard's book Mastery. It deal directly with plateaus.
Good luck and good training Bruce |
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so here is the short answer: you are useless (just like me) and will be until the day you are no longer walking among the livings (zombies are pretty useful bunch). |
Re: getting harder
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Seriously though one thing that has happened recently a few times is my jo feels totally alien. I can tell my jo from any other simply by touching/picking it up. At least three times in the last 4 months when I picked it up it just did not feel right and I could not do any techniques/kata without fumbling. The next day no problem. I has been very unsettling to have something so familiar feel so completely 'wrong'. |
Re: getting harder
(zombies are pretty useful bunch).
Not against fire!!! :D Nice post! B, R |
Re: getting harder
It will happen the rest of your aikido career. It happens to everyone who is actively trying to learn. I have been training almost 20 years and I am just now staring to get over a plateau lasting 2 or 3 years! This admission of mine will either make you feel better or really depress you.:) I hope it helps you and makes you feel better.
Best, Eric |
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Re: getting harder
When plateauing focus on basics.
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Re: getting harder
Agreed.
Plateauing common. Relax, breathe, and focus on basics. Leonard's Mastery is excellent. |
Re: getting harder
Hello,
oh, how I know this plateau issue. I think I pass half of a year on such plateaus, and sometimes I doubt that the level of the plateaus increases or if I always fall back to the same low level. Currently I have the feeling I just emerge from such a plateau, and it is just now that I will have to travel a lot so cannot really benefit of this deliverance. What happens when being on a plateau? - I am horribly awkward and completely at a loss when new techniques are to be done - The techniques I do already badly when being in good shape (like yokomen uchi tenchi nage) go completely astray. - I stop every dynamic technique - Techniques I normally do well (all grab-and twist techniques) work less because I am in the wrong position, forget tenkan & tai sabaki, bend my arm, don't step out of the line or do anything else to find myself in the wrong distance. Very reassuring to read that this will continue throughout the entire aikido carreer!!! :confused: Best regards, Eva |
Re: getting harder
You can look at a plateau in different ways. It might be helpful to think of it not as a frustrating obstacle to your progress, but instead as a resting point along the way, where you can relax, refocus, review the basics, and renew yourself for the next opportunity to continue the journey.
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Re: getting harder
It's good to read from the experienced people that the plateaus will continue to come and go - yay! lol
It was indeed exactly 7 months after I had started practicing that I reached that first plateau/crisis point. My internal dialogue included a lot of stuff about how badly I stunk at Aikido and why was I fooling myself that I could ever be a martial artist, blah blah. Then I had to question WHY I was training, and get very clear about my personal goals. If the goal was to be better than somebody else, some other random person who was "better" than me... well, that was a pretty ego-based and pointless goal, I concluded. There will always be someone who is better than me - a whole lot of someones! In the end, I think I got back to the fact that practicing Aikido is something that I enjoy in the moment, whether I am doing it well or doing it poorly. Of course it is frustrating on the days when I can't seem to get anything right, but it is frustrating for good reason: because Aikido is not easy to learn, and because it is very valuable to learn. So, to quote Dory from "Finding Nemo" I decided to: "just keep swimming, just keep swimming..." |
Re: getting harder
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David |
Re: getting harder
Hi Anita,
My thoughts (and experiences) exactly! :p |
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Basics are not something to return to but are constantly present in every moment - when we lose sight of the basics we falter. Recovery from plateau is when we 'rediscover' the different elements of the basics and are able to integrate more of those elements into a single whole. Lather rinse repeat. My 2 cents to share. |
Re: getting harder
wow... well when i say i want to stop feeling useless, i really mean that i want to try and feel more confident with the basics and not feel that every move is still unnatural after 7 months.. i realise this could be a long process after your comments lol...
i'm by no means uncoordinated and have probably improved to an extent but its such a weird feeling thinking about breathing, leg work, moving offline, keeping centre, taking uke's centre, posture... blah blah... i get so frustrated sometimes that even walking through things can seem imposible.... :( |
Re: getting harder
My most recent plateau started about 2 months before my nidan test, lasted right through the test (late November) and may be clearing now, but I'm not so sure.
Confused, in even my most lucid moments. I go to Aikido in the full anticipation that something we do in the session will confuse the heck out of me. Rarely disappointed. Walter |
Re: getting harder
Michael,
Glad to know that I am not alone!;) |
Re: getting harder
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David |
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