Training Frequency

Dear all,

obviously the more you train the better you get, but I think it depends very much on your personal skills and aptitude what you will get out of the training. In my dojo, we have four classes per week, and most aikidoka come only twice. Myself and two or three others come four times, and I don't see really a difference in our advancement; apparently we just need to put in more effort to achieve the same.

This said - it does not bother me very much, because I think if I train the double time, I also have double fun and more lessons to look forward to. If I also calculate karate lessons and aikido seminars, I'm doing martial arts between 6 and 10 hours per week, thus corresponding to a full working day, but that does not make me a master very quickly. I'm also an engineer, and if I work one day per week for 20 years, I'd certainly not become one of the best ones in my area of expertise

Paraphrasing Marx, everyone trains according to his needs, and everyone advances according to his capacities...

Best regards,

Eva

Eva Röben wrote: Dear all, obviously the more you train the better you get, but I think it depends very much on your personal skills and aptitude what you will get out of the training. In my dojo, we have four classes per week, and most aikidoka come only twice. Myself and two or three others come four times, and I don't see really a difference in our advancement; apparently we just need to put in more effort to achieve the same.

Or maybe there's just a point of diminishing returns. I think that's true in general, whether or not it applies in your case specifically.

Christopher Li wrote: For copying the basic outer form - maybe 2-3 times per week. For actually training your body to do anything worthwhile - each and every day. I usually do an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening, if there's no group training that day. Best, Chris

I keep thinking of posting, but really I'd just be repeating what Mr. Li wrote above. At our dojo we have daily classes. I've seen guys come more often than 3 days a week and they seem to kinda max out at that point. And it depends on how many hours each day. And it kinda depends on where you are in your training. Honestly, truly enjoy and cherish my time on the mat now, but I spend time each and every day doing things on my own to build up the stuff insides. But that's after a bunch of years training a lot. I was one of those guys that tended to come 3+ times a week when I first started, often for multiple hours each time. And I was anal enough to be doing things like our AIki taiso by myself in my empty office late at night when everyone was gone.

It's just going to depend on where you are and where you're planning on going...

I train four days a week. One day, it's 1 1/2 hours, the other it's like 2 1/2 to three. on the weekend it's like two hours each class.

Just as the living space of a house is defined by the spaces between the floors, walls and ceilings, and music is defined by the spaces between the notes, your Aikido is defined by the spaces between the visits to the dojo.

Time in the dojo is for instruction and correction. The spaces between visits to the dojo is for practicing.

dps