Bad Practice

[Geordie Bruiser]

Hey All

Last night I had the worst practice of my life!!!

I couldn't do anything right, I was doing all my waza incorrectly, I couldn't hit anything!

I don't think I landed a single Ippon all night.

I got incredibly frustrated and ended up losing it a little, which ended up in a well deserved telling off by my Sensei.

I'm sure we've all experienced practices like this?

[Flamingo King]

Just once a week....

[rottunpunk]

yep every time i train
the learning is in not getting frustrated and working through it
hope you pull through
:p

[Geordie Bruiser]

the learning is in not getting frustrated and working through it
:p

You're 100% right!

I've just come back after taking 8 months away (enjoying being a dad for the first time :laugh:). Now that I'm back I think I'm expecting everything to come back straight away, but of course unfortunately it doesn't work like that.

[rottunpunk]

congratulations on your dadship

truei had a long spell out of the iai and it all turned to crap
a bit of hard work and it soon came back though
sometimes its good just to start from scratch (though with the added advantage of a little knowledge)
:p

[Geordie Bruiser]

congratulations on your dadship

truei had a long spell out of the iai and it all turned to crap
a bit of hard work and it soon came back though
sometimes its good just to start from scratch (though with the added advantage of a little knowledge)
:p

Cheers mate, my boy is now 1 and he's already showing great Ki (the future's bright!!! the future's Kendo!!!)

I hope my skills return soon as I've been given a spot on one of our teams for Mumeishi, Newcastle's honour is at stake!!! lol

[rottunpunk]

children scare me-no offense
i bet he could beat me already just by looking at me

hmmn, well i hope darlo arent in the competition or else i would wish you to loose
in the alternative i hope you do well :D
:p

[Anime12478]

If someone tells you they never had a bad day at practice is definitely lying. We all get those sorts of days every once in a while, just like how we feel we had a bad day at work or school where nothing goes right.

One thing I find is that you tend to be doing better than you may think. Stuff like this can easily happen when you make a mistake and then become overly critical of your own abilities for the rest of the day. But there are times when I have these "bad days" and the sensei tells me that I'm improving.

But when these sorts of days happen, I just have to go with the flow. I mean, there's nothing that I can do about it and quitting or getting visibly angry isn't going to make things much better.

[dwez]

Hey All
Last night I had the worst practice of my life!!!


Peaks and troughs! Peaks and troughs! With a few plateaus thrown in too. There was a great analogy someone did about training that talked about bubbles of experience and how dense they became, I can never find it though.

Here's something else to help instead - in the Heart of Kendo, Chiba sensei said "Testing reveals a true image of ourselves to others. If you fail a test, you learn a great deal. If you pass, you learn a little. If we have the discipline to correct our shortcomings, we can reach a state of contentment in our daily kendo practice". So from this advice you could try to apply it to your situation and it would seem the worst practice of your life is also your most valuable lesson/opportunity of your life.

[Geordie Bruiser]

[QUOTE=Anime12478;357283]One thing I find is that you tend to be doing better than you may think.

I totally agree with you, but unfortunately last night wasn't one of those MY KENDO WAS DREADFUL !!! :laugh:

Buut I'm more upset with myself over the fact that I got a little angry.

Well practice again tomorrow!!! And as they say things can only get better!!!

[Fred27]

Hey All

Last night I had the worst practice of my life!!!

I couldn't do anything right, I was doing all my waza incorrectly, I couldn't hit anything!

I got incredibly frustrated and ended up losing it a little, which ended up in a well deserved telling off by my Sensei.

I'm sure we've all experienced practices like this?

Yah....they are called weekdays for me :confused2

[Martino]

Yere been Sandan we can't really afford to have hissy fits.

When I find I am on a downwards slope to total incompetency. I do the following
1) Take a deep breath (or two of twenty)
2) Try and relax (or mistake you notice the tenser you get and the worse you kendo)
3) Think about what I need to to to make things right (not what i just did wrong)
4) Readjust my nightly goals to get one small aspect right and build from that.

But we all have total disasters, and I figure part of kendo is learning how to limit the damage. I know what you mean when you are more annoyed with you self about how you responded rather than the fact you produced what you consider your worst kendo ever.

Enjoy and remember to hold onto that feeling when you produce your best kendo ever.....

[LarsCW]

I don't know if you should look at it from a bad day good day point of view.

When things don't go the way you wish they should go then there is a learning curve in sight for you.

So each time you make mistakes and know you did something wrong you can atleast try to improve on this.

So what you called a bad day here should be seen as a good day as you have learned alot about yourself.

You've learned parts of which to improve upon.

When you can look at things in this way then you'll notice you'll get upset less fast and be able to focus more on your kendo.

Trust me I get upset too at moments we all do, this is just a way for me to prevent getting upset when things go wrong.

[dwez]

Peaks and troughs! Peaks and troughs! With a few plateaus thrown in too. There was a great analogy someone did about training that talked about bubbles of experience and how dense they became, I can never find it though.

Bo Bubbles, just plateaus. It was this here thread here (http://www.kendo-world.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11724&highlight=density&page=2)

but this is the quote I was after I think -


As others have said, plateaus happen. And as you progress in kendo (or anything really), the learning curve starts to taper off and the plateaus get longer and longer. It's not as exciting as in the beginning where you could see yourself improving in huge leaps month over month.

One thing that's helped me get through those long plateaus is thinking about each practice as adding to the density of my experience. I may feel like I'm not getting any better right now--but if I remain diligent, each practice session is adding to the core of my total experience and sooner or later that density will reach a "critical mass" whereupon jumping up from the plateau is inevitable.

Anyway, that's a way for me to think about my slumps and help me get over it.

Also, a good number of sensei around here have been practicing for longer than I've been alive. If I look at my slump in that context, I realize that I just need to suck it up and get to practice.

[dwez]

Peaks and troughs! Peaks and troughs! With a few plateaus thrown in too. There was a great analogy someone did about training that talked about bubbles of experience and how dense they became, I can never find it though.

No Bubbles, just plateaus. It was this here thread here (http://www.kendo-world.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11724&highlight=density&page=2)

but this is the quote I was after I think -


As others have said, plateaus happen. And as you progress in kendo (or anything really), the learning curve starts to taper off and the plateaus get longer and longer. It's not as exciting as in the beginning where you could see yourself improving in huge leaps month over month.

One thing that's helped me get through those long plateaus is thinking about each practice as adding to the density of my experience. I may feel like I'm not getting any better right now--but if I remain diligent, each practice session is adding to the core of my total experience and sooner or later that density will reach a "critical mass" whereupon jumping up from the plateau is inevitable.

Anyway, that's a way for me to think about my slumps and help me get over it.

Also, a good number of sensei around here have been practicing for longer than I've been alive. If I look at my slump in that context, I realize that I just need to suck it up and get to practice.


But then it becomes cotton wool pillows [clouds/bubbles whatever]


It's a psychological ploy I use for myself to keep me motivated.

I'll try to come up with an analogy here, bear with me....

Think of a pillow as your current plateau, and each <diligent> practice session as a ball of cotton that you stuff into it. At a certain point, the pillow can no longer hold any more cotton. In fact it's become so dense that it might support your weight without the slightest depression. You then have move to your next pillow (plateau) which is bigger and will take even more cotton to fill.

This is also how I think about my sensei's kendo. It's not that they execute advanced and complicated waza, but their basic core is so dense that it seems impossible to break through. If they do employ advanced waza, it's coming from a stable inner foundation. But if I do the same waza, it's like a raw egg shell, that outer layer may or may not hold, but once someone cracks it, they'll find my inner core is still a gooey mess and my kendo is spilled all over the dojo floor.

...ummm, maybe I'm not so good with analogies...

Actually, you read the rest of that thread there's a whole lot more that makes a bad practice, not so bad

[kendogrl]

When other kendoka tend to get frustrated and upset I tend to find my ears ringing, considering im short and all they can hit when their frustrated is men.

[JByrd]

4) Readjust my nightly goals to get one small aspect right and build from that.


Right on, Martino. Over the years, I have come to rely on that strategy more than any other when I'm having a hard time in Kendo class, or anywhere else, for that matter. In Kendo, the small aspect I usually focus on is footwork/distance.

[Matlock]

Hey All

Last night I had the worst practice of my life!!!

I couldn't do anything right, I was doing all my waza incorrectly, I couldn't hit anything!

I don't think I landed a single Ippon all night.

I got incredibly frustrated and ended up losing it a little, which ended up in a well deserved telling off by my Sensei.

I'm sure we've all experienced practices like this?

Yep, seriously, that could describe about every practice I have. Well, except the "losing it a little" part.

A bad day of practice for me is not my performance but something like an injury since that is likely to affect my other training days.

Keep it up, but keep cool.

Cheers

[TheWanderingEye]

Bad practice usually starts with me arriving in the dojo late. I get anxious and the rest of it just turns out bad.

[Bokushingu]

For me, frustation means serious oppertunity for improvement.