A.T Karate Kai

Training Once A Week Is A Waste Of Money

There is a difference between training once a week and attending class once a week.

If someone can only get to 1 class a week but trains/practices at home, then I would consider that person as someone who trains more than once a week.
On the other hand, if someone attends 1 class a week and does nothing else in between then this would be a disservice to them as their development is hindered so their progress will be significantly slower.

When you start learning any skill, whether that be a martial art, a musical instrument or a foreign language, it takes more than an hour a week to get any reasonable amount of progress.

Let’s say you have a lesson for your chosen subject once a week for 1 hour. Your teacher or coach gives you homework right? Maybe a couple of hours worth on average to last you through the week.

What happens when you don’t do the homework and return for your next lesson?
Most likely you have to go back over what you did last time and just maybe you get to study a fraction more. A large amount of the time that you could have spent learning the next step is significantly delayed whereas if you just did your homework you could be further along already.

But what if your memory isn’t as good too and you forgot most of what you did the previous lesson?
Then the same thing happens and you get stuck in a cycle of repeating the same thing every week and not progressing. The frustration builds up because you’re not getting anywhere and more often than not most end up quitting. All because you haven’t put the necessary work in.

Now if you’re one of the rare few who can take one lesson and immediately understand and retain that information with little effort and then move onto the next lesson, congratulations, but most people aren’t that lucky. The rest of us need to repeat, repeat and repeat to truly ingrain the knowledge and skills until it becomes natural and automatic.

Due to my busy schedule I can usually only get 1 direct lesson per week with my teachers and coaches for karate, kobudo and BJJ, and sometimes it’s even less than that. So in-between sessions I practice drills and study at home, and whenever I’m at the dojo to teach my classes I’ll make sure to do a little every session throughout the week. This keeps me progressing at what I feel is a reasonable and acceptable pace.

So do I believe that training once a week is a waste of money?
✅ Yes. If that’s all you do (no extra practice outside of class time) but you want to progress at what most would consider a reasonable pace.
❌ No. If that’s all you do and you are happy.
Maybe your priorities are different from progressing as quickly as others. (i.e. getting out of the house, socialising) or you’re happy going at a slower pace. It’s not a race after all. Whatever your reasons are it’s perfectly okay as long as you are happy.

Richard Hang Hong

This is what a training session should look like!

Pushing ourselves each time, working to our best to improve ourselves as a karateka and our fitness and health as a person.
Sometimes the hardest battle we have is with ourselves to get up and better ourselves, which at times feel impossible. But through dedication and will, all things are possible.

""𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦'𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭" - Hironori Otsuka

Our first post and what better way than with our first Competition of the year!

Karate England International Open Competition 2024 saw the return of Sensei Colin Searle competing in the Male Senior Wado Ryu Kata, Sensei Clive Searle acting as official team coach and Eden Lagden smashing through 2 rounds of the Female Cadet Kata category and fighting her way to Bronze in the Female Cadet -55kg Sanbon Kumite!!

Alongside us today was our fellow brethren from Kyoji Kai Sharks Kyoji - Kai Association Kevin Troughton, who walked away with Bronze in the Mixed Veteran Inclusive Open Kata and Ronnie Anderson, who got Bronze in the Cadet Kumite and Silver in the Cadet Team Kumite!

Well done to everyone today!