Coach: "You guys are the fodder"

**gzk** · Posted On: 9/16/2008 3:45pm

I am a slow advancing white. I don't see me getting blue until second half of next year at least, at which point I will have been training 2.5 years or so, which for our school is a touch slow, but not exceptionally slow. The only one I've heard of getting it quicker than 1.5 years is a mundials champion.

**Nihonto** · Posted On: 9/16/2008 4:17pm

Originally Posted by gzk

I am a slow advancing white. I don't see me getting blue until second half of next year at least, at which point I will have been training 2.5 years or so, which for our school is a touch slow, but not exceptionally slow. The only one I've heard of getting it quicker than 1.5 years is a mundials champion.

Wow. That seems slow for a blue. How often do you train? Our school average is around 1-1.5 years depending on how much you show up. Average student comes 3-4 times per week. And it is often less than a year if you are a former wrestler or judoka, or just talented and training 5 days a week.

**gzk** · Posted On: 9/16/2008 5:23pm

Originally Posted by Nihonto

Wow. That seems slow for a blue. How often do you train? Our school average is around 1-1.5 years depending on how much you show up. Average student comes 3-4 times per week. And it is often less than a year if you are a former wrestler or judoka, or just talented and training 5 days a week.

Twice a week if I can (plus twice a week shootfighting), sometimes I can only make once a week due to training in a couple other sports. I could take a couple of novice classes a week as well but work makes that difficult. A handful of guys also do daytime classes which are impossible for me, other than that, everyone trains twice a week, unless they're doing stuff by themselves at someone's house or something like that (as far as Iknow).

Your post makes me wonder though, perhaps I could get privates at a more convenient time (expensive, but I can afford it) or get some buddies together and do some extra training ourselves...

**UpaLumpa** · Posted On: 9/16/2008 6:05pm

Everyone trains twice a week?
That's too bad.

**Nihonto** · Posted On: 9/16/2008 8:20pm

Our GB school treats twice a week as a bare minimum. I am told that it is mandatory if you ever hope to get promoted EVER. 3 + is supposed to be the ideal.

I agree with my schools philosophy that twice a week is the functional minimum but the ideal is a lot more. If I train less than 3 times a week I feel like I'm missing stuff.

I think if you add an extra day a week it will make a big difference. Your advancement in skill is directly proportional to how much you train. So going from twice a week to 3 times a week would cut 2.5 years to something slightly over 1.5.

**Bustardo** · Posted On: 9/17/2008 8:44am

Yeah, with only two times a week it's extremely hard to progress. I noticed a huge improvement when I went up to three, then four etc.... Now I train at least 5 days a week, probably around 8-10 hours or so.

I think two times a week is good for maintenance, so going that much won't make you any worse, but it'll slow your improvement for sure.

**Munacra** · Posted On: 9/17/2008 9:46am

This situation can be easily resolved by saying "No I will not be tournament fodder. They may be able to submit me, but I'm going to make it hell for them in the process".

Tada, a little bit of confidence and a smoothie will get you places.

**gzk** · Posted On: 9/17/2008 3:46pm

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'll explore my various options for training more and do more work outside of class (as much as you can without another body anyway)