Taking a break

I have been over trained in the past, taking 1 sometimes 2 days off is what did the trick for me. I cant see how a tournament forces you to take two weeks off. If you do 5 matches of say 5 minutes, you will have been 25 minutes on the mat. If you do a proper warm up there is no more energy spent than in a normal training session. I can see how you want to take one day off after a hard training session especially when you've trained hard all week.

Also you can train with a mat burn, put betadine on it and cover it up properly during practise. What sucks is when your sock get stuck to your mat burn and you have to pull it off... eww.. so preferably air it a lot (gotta watch out for infections though).

Wandering WB wrote:For myself, at least a two week break after every tournament... It's not necessary to get the maximum amount of training time unless you are training for the Olympics and personally, I am not remotely interested in something like that. The young people who want to waste their youth on it, however, are never too few in number. Only a handful of them from all over the world are ever going to get the dream.

The first two practices after a tournament are always the most productive for my athletes.If my players took two weeks off after a small tournament they would have a hard time improving and would be teribly out of shape. But again what do I know.

Sometimes taking a break can help you keep from getting stale, I suppose. I did that with the guitar when I was playing a lot with various bands in my younger days. Putting it aside for a couple of weeks helped me break out of stale, rote habits that had become ingrained. When I came back to playing again, I had fresh, new ideas that enlivened the music and made it more interesting and creative.

I'm envious of the guys who can train in a dojo several days a week. The demands of my work schedule preclude that kind of practice. Also, at 53, I don't know if my body could take the pounding of five times a week. I work out between practices, running on the treadmill and doing uchikomi with a belt tied to a post a couple of times a week. My son and I just launched our own club at a community recreation center and the city just gives us one night a week for now. As it builds up, we might be able to get a second night of practice time.

When we first started the club, the first few practices were just me and my son, who is an adult ikkyu. We wanted to attract some attention from the passers-by, so we would just go through the gokyo and make some noise. (It did gather a small crowd and we got some students out of it.) Then we worked on NNK for a while. After that practice, I realized that we each had taken about 70 ippon-worthy falls that night each! I went home and took a hot shower and some Aleve. When I'm teaching, I don't take so much of a beating, thank goodness!

I've had to sit out for some lengths of time in the past for injuries. Once I broke a collarbone and had to sit out eight weeks or so. Another time, I had a serious knee injury that took six months to heal. I still went to practice even though I couldn't work out. I took my judo study book along and quizzed the younger guys on their terminology, names of throws, etc. I paid attention to all the instruction during those practices and cataloged away ideas to try later when I was all healed. Six months was a long time to sit out. Once I got clearance from the doctor, I had to start slowly again and gain my confidence back. I had a bit of fear of re-injuring the knee, but that went away after a few practices. In each of those times of non-practice, I found new ways to think about judo that improved my ability once I resumed practing.

rjohnston411 wrote:*sigh*

I'm beginning to question why I post here. Grow up ffs.

It's just chat RJ. Harmless. They're just teasing WBW because comp judo has extensive experience in periodization.

I'm pretty sure it goes that for the competition guys, their breaks are pretty well planned..similar to the comp lifters. Thats when they're kinda under an educated eye(coach/sensei) tho and no doubt that spontaneity or 'feel' still fits in there.

In your case, and not that you're asking, you did 4 months of judo and have a meeting and hurt your foot. Take a break, no big deal. Swim if you still wanna work some cardio and if you want to return early with a sore foot then the sensei will usually be more than happy to allow you just to work the tech part. Simply just repeating good decent tech with the basics(at no harm to foot) is huge. Even moreso if you arent under 20.

Just from what I've seen tho, in history, breaks arent really all that good. Its hard to get back because Judo is hard work, and takes time. I'd suggest that if you have the time, hang around the club somehow. That way time won't be an issue.

From what I can tell based on reading this thread, the majority of the posters have the analytical skills of a typical neanderthal. Instead of doing martial arts they may be the type that grab an elephant tusk and go play hockey with it, using their wife's/girlfriend's/mother's/sister's skull as puck. Cowards don't play hockey.

I know, chat is harmless. Don't get offended.

Wandering WB wrote:From what I can tell based on reading this thread, the majority of the posters have the analytical skills of a typical neanderthal. Instead of doing martial arts they may be the type that grab an elephant tusk and go play hockey with it, using their wife's/girlfriend's/mother's/sister's skull as puck. Cowards don't play hockey.

I know, chat is harmless. Don't get offended.

so to start off with I have not had the time to read your links but I will when I get time -promise

a couple of things

1/ if you are regularly getting mat burn then something is wrong, either you have very delcate skin, in which case you should see a skin doctor or you arer not training correctly to toughen your skin.
Mat burns should only occur if you have been off training for a while and your skin softens unlessof course you are just unlucky and slide alot over the mat in which case you should have a look at why this is happening, is your control waek so that you are letting your opponent strongarm you,etc..?

Do you train with shoes or socks on? sounds stupid but if you do your eet will not harden and acclimatise.

2/If you "need" two weeks break after each competition then you have a condition problem or possibly your complete training programme is not optimised and you are burning yourself out.

If you are taking the two weeks off because you want to then fair enough but with a well structured training plan it should not be necassary.

3/ when training at a higher level most of the competitions you enter are just for training and experimenting, unless you are trying to improve your IJF ranking a fighter would not be taking part in high level competitions every week or even very other week.
Team league competitions are different where towards thge end of the season you may have to competitions a week but you only have one contest so it is not so much of a strain .

4/ Usually you take a break "before" the competition and by break I mean attend class but only train very lightly to keep the muscles warm and supple.


In the fitness section there are people like Gant that kan help you set up an optimal training plan to include all the sports/arts that you do plus a strength and conditioning programme to include breaks etc..

atb

sodo

SODO

so to start off with I have not had the time to read your links but I will when I get time

I promise to read your post when you get your head out of your behind and read the article.

WB Here you have Sodo giving you a very thoughtful answer and you are just rude to him!

You should be banned from this forum!

Wandering WB wrote:
SODO

so to start off with I have not had the time to read your links but I will when I get time

I promise to read your post when you get your head out of your behind and read the article.

My answer and advice is valid whether I have read the articles or not. If you are to busy jerking off and playing the bad guy to read it, then that is your loss not mine.

Now a very important piece of advice please keep a regular check to make sure you are not growing hair on the palm of your hands and get your eyes checked regularly unless of course you want to go blind

atb

sodo

I think its good that there has been a diversity of opinions in this thread and most of them seem to be pretty comparable. There is only one completely different opinion. An independent reader will come to the conclusion that WB is a poster with a lot of heart but little experience to back it up. More experienced people around here have pretty much all agreed that taking one or two days off after a hard competition is pretty much all you need, if any at all, and that the first few training sessions after the competitions are usually the most productive. This has been stated by teachers with many years experience.
If WB wants to take 2 weeks off after his competitions, then go for it, WB. People with proper experience in either competition and or teaching state something different. So independent readers may come to their own conclusion.. Thanks for bringing up an idea that is completely opposite of what regular practise says. I hope it works for you and I hope to see you in competition at purple belt maybe brown belt in a few years!!

I will only if I really think I need to. Otherwise I try to train around the injury.

Dutch Budo wrote:I think its good that there has been a diversity of opinions in this thread and most of them seem to be pretty comparable. There is only one completely different opinion. An independent reader will come to the conclusion that WB is a poster with a lot of heart but little experience to back it up. More experienced people around here have pretty much all agreed that taking one or two days off after a hard competition is pretty much all you need, if any at all, and that the first few training sessions after the competitions are usually the most productive. This has been stated by teachers with many years experience.
If WB wants to take 2 weeks off after his competitions, then go for it, WB. People with proper experience in either competition and or teaching state something different. So independent readers may come to their own conclusion.. Thanks for bringing up an idea that is completely opposite of what regular practise says. I hope it works for you and I hope to see you in competition at purple belt maybe brown belt in a few years!!

hey Brian,

stop taking the mickey out of WB

atb

sodo

usually, to intelligent people, if it turns out lots of people who are very experienced in activities that have a lot in common with activities you participate in tell you that you're completely off base about something, it's a sign that you might need to reevaluate your position. it doesn't mean you need to take what they say on blind faith, but it does mean that it's worth giving some more thought.

but digging in and fighting to the bitter end instead of admitting you're might not have all the answers, is not an indication that you're an intelligent person.

genetic judoka wrote:usually, to intelligent people, if it turns out lots of people who are very experienced in activities that have a lot in common with activities you participate in tell you that you're completely off base about something, it's a sign that you might need to reevaluate your position. it doesn't mean you need to take what they say on blind faith, but it does mean that it's worth giving some more thought.

but digging in and fighting to the bitter end instead of admitting you're might not have all the answers, is not an indication that you're an intelligent person.

To be fair, I do not question his belief that he needs two weeks off after a comp. and I have not had time yet to read the links he posted so I am not argueing against them, I simply added what I consider serious and useful advice for him to consider alongside the information he has gleaned from the articles he has posted. Assuming of course 1/that he has actually read them himself and 2/ he actuall y understood them

atb

sodo

Wandering WB wrote:Well, if you guys enjoy burning out, then go right ahead. Compete every two weeks.

Here is an article by Stephen Kesting explaining the situation. If you are not gonna read it before replying, then I am not gonna read your reply.

http://www.grapplearts.com/Blog/2012/04/perfect-peaking-part-1-overtraining-and-its-prevention-in-mixed-martial-arts-conditioning/
http://www.grapplearts.com/Blog/2012/04/perfect-peaking-part-2-tapering-and-peaking-for-mma-and-grappling-competition/

Yasuhiro Yamashita did not compete every two weeks. He competed less than anybody else at his level. I don't know, maybe some people are on steroids. I have a word for them. Idiots.

OK, so I read the "articles". What symptoms of overtraining do you have? BTW, I'm not arguing with you taking 2 weeks off, that's your business. I think that 2 weeks is OK as long as you stay active and don't just turn into a couch potato. You will though in that time period lose a fair amount of your conditioning more than likely. That is my personal experience, though, your mileage may vary. If you were recovering from the Olympics, 2 weeks,no problem, LOL.

In any case, given the fact you did gas pretty badly (suggests you did not recover sufficiently between matches), you might want to consider taking an active rest peiord.

Some of the posts in this thread have been abrasive to say the least. This isn't Bullshido. As it is, such abrasiveness isn't even necessary on Bullshido.

Dave R. wrote:Some of the posts in this thread have been abrasive to say the least. This isn't Bullshido. As it is, such abrasiveness isn't even necessary on Bullshido.

OK, Sandy, whatever you say !

Ben Reinhardt wrote:

Dave R. wrote:Some of the posts in this thread have been abrasive to say the least. This isn't Bullshido. As it is, such abrasiveness isn't even necessary on Bullshido.

OK, Sandy, whatever you say !

I agree that some of the stuff on this thread is...chippy. However, this hasn't gotten nearly Bullshido-nasty yet. They don't pull punches but they tell you well in advance.

rjohnston411 wrote:

Ben Reinhardt wrote:

Dave R. wrote:Some of the posts in this thread have been abrasive to say the least. This isn't Bullshido. As it is, such abrasiveness isn't even necessary on Bullshido.

OK, Sandy, whatever you say !

I agree that some of the stuff on this thread is...chippy. However, this hasn't gotten nearly Bullshido-nasty yet. They don't pull punches but they tell you well in advance.

I post at Bullshido all the time. It only gets "nasty" in certain forums, where it is allowed. Technical forums are pretty well moderated, as is the MABS (investigation section).

However, the sensitive delicate types should probably just hang out here on the new JF, where we hold hands and sing "kumbaya" while making and sharing "smores".

Ben Reinhardt wrote:

rjohnston411 wrote:

Ben Reinhardt wrote:

Dave R. wrote:Some of the posts in this thread have been abrasive to say the least. This isn't Bullshido. As it is, such abrasiveness isn't even necessary on Bullshido.

OK, Sandy, whatever you say !

I agree that some of the stuff on this thread is...chippy. However, this hasn't gotten nearly Bullshido-nasty yet. They don't pull punches but they tell you well in advance.

I post at Bullshido all the time. It only gets "nasty" in certain forums, where it is allowed. Technical forums are pretty well moderated, as is the MABS (investigation section).

However, the sensitive delicate types should probably just hang out here on the new JF, where we hold hands and sing "kumbaya" while making and sharing "smores".

Oh, I know. You've answered my questions on the trad forums.