With winter creeping up on us in the states, now is the time to start getting ready for cold weather training. Not that we are all training outdoors, of course; rather, the time of year just naturally changes a person’s outlook and training habits. Cold and dreary for some, wet and miserable for others.
Even for those like myself who live in Phoenix and do not have to deal with snow and road salt, the weather change still finds a way to change how we train. So regardless of where you are, changes happen when the seasons change, and that is what we are going to look at with this post.
In general, winter is when you want to get the bulk of your “heavy” training in, and during the hotter summer months, we maintain the level. So even though it is colder for most of us, this is actually the time when you want to really get involved and push yourself to improving your skills, as well as learning new ones.
First, determine where your current skills are and where they should be. Life has a way of sometimes slowing us down a bit, and it is easy to get off track from time to time. So take a look at what you did or did not accomplish this year as a motivator.
Second, now that you have an idea of where you are and what you did or did not get to accomplish this year, you can use that to map out what you will accomplish during the winter.
For example, if you wanted to improve your forms, then you will also want to focus on breathing, strength in your foundation, flexibility, and even in focusing on the correct lines of movement. You can spend an inordinate amount of time always improving these areas, and winter is a great time to slow down and focus on all of these elements.
Another example would be if you were looking to improve your physical conditioning for sparring. For most of us, the summer months are so dreadful that it is tough staying motivated to push through the heat and humidity. But now that it’s winter, that is no longer a factor. Therefore, you can really delve into these areas without worrying about it.
Winter time is usually when I ramp up my own fitness training, as well as working on precision-oriented areas such as targeting with the wall bag, foundational training on the dummy, and improving my weapons skill sets. I take advantage of the slower, more “dreary” time of the year to increase all levels of fitness-oriented type of training, and then work to maintain this through the summer.
Next, now it is time to map out your goals. You need to take a good long look at where you are and where you want to be, and set goals for accomplishing them. Literally write down your goals and use a realistic time frame to achieve them, but keep in mind that it has to be realistic. Otherwise, you will not accomplish them and it becomes another year of no improvement.
As an example, one of my goals this year was to improve my overall structure. I wanted to drive into my opponents with power yet remain defensive and protected. I worked a great deal of footwork on the dummy this year, as well as advanced stepping concepts from the knives. And even with my hectic schedule, I still accomplished a great deal.
I set out with a plan and I achieved the goal, which in itself becomes a motivator for achieving even more goals as they are set.
The final stage is getting down to business and working through our plan. We know what we did or did not get accomplish this year, so we know what needs to be done in the coming months to make a difference in our training. We have to be very blunt with things and tell ourselves straight out that there are no more excuses. Regardless of our work or family schedules, we can always do something to improve our skill sets, and it is up to us to make it happen.
I learned a long time ago that it is not the end result that makes it worthwhile; rather, it is the journey. The journey is where we really learn, so enjoy that journey. Plan your goals, make them realistic with the time frames you have available, and just have fun working through it.
email2friend