In our dojo, we run three scheduled classes per week, plus the occasional workshops or seminars. I certainly encourage everyone to attend every class, but I realize that is not possible. With the kids in soccer, swimming, piano, and school sports it isn’t reasonable to expect 100% attendance. Factor in vacations, illness, and the “I just can’t motivate myself to get in the car” days, and it is pretty rare for some to even make it at all!
There is a price to pay for not showing up though:
The warm-up is a bit harder for you. The basics seem more difficult than usual. Everybody else seems to grasp the concepts and combinations quicker. Forget about kata. You have a tough time remembering which foot goes where. The instructor has a hard time getting the group into a ‘flow’, and the class isn’t as good as it could be.
The scenario above might be a bit extreme, but the person who only shows up once a week is going to progress at very different pace than the student who comes to the majority of classes! Just writing that down seems to make such obvious sense; why does it elude so many? In the past, I have seen many of the most advanced in our group come back after a hiatus. Each time it takes them weeks of dedicated hard work to get back what they lost. If that’s what happens to someone with 10 or 15 years of training behind them, what happens with a new person?
When you show up now and again, you spend most of your focus on simply catching up. You cannot expect to absorb new concepts, because the basic building blocks need to be reviewed and re-taught. Even the most talented fall behind. Then they get frustrated. When they get frustrated they are less motivated to show up, and miss more time. Vicious circle!
A bit of advice. Make every effort to go. Only miss classes when you have no options. Karate is an art, and like any art it demands constant practice. Nobody would expect to be a great guitarist if you only went to the music studio 3 times a month.
Rant over!
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