It’s up to you. It’s up to your instructor (s) as well. For myself, and my students I spend a lot time researching martial arts, nutrition, fitness, and various drills on the web, on martial arts DVD’s, and in books. I do this so that as an instructor I’m always bringing new material, and a fresh point of view to classes every week. The moment I stop investing time in said research will be the moment that I get complacent and bored, which can and will lead to boring classes, or overdone classes. That being said, the student must do a lot in this arena as well. One must train in martial arts for himself. One must desire to get tougher, fitter, and more aware. To stay fired up you must remind yourself of the short and long term benefits of said journey. If you are truly seeking improvement of self, and you attempt to achieve perfection in every single moment of every class, then you will stay fired up. Please keep in mind that perfection is unattainable, but we pursue it anyway.
On the flip side, one can get bored quite easily if they forget about the benefits, and forget what they’ve accomplished on their journey thus far. If a student comes to class and just goes through the motions, or to simply feel like they are doing something positive, then that is probably going to lead to boredom and burn out. Training hard in martial arts at least twice a week is a very doable number over the long term. But, you must make every class in every moment count. You must never be satisfied with where you are at or with your abilities. Your life is precious. Along with yourself, many people have worked very hard to make sure you are where you are today. Life is precious. It is your duty to put yourself in a place that can allow you to defend your precious life should someone put you in a compromising and dangerous position. My club is about surviving a bad situation in the future. The odds are against it happening. But, it happens to someone every single day the world over. If it can happen to someone else, then it can happen to you. Why not prepare for it in a positive and productive manner? If it never happens, then you’ve quite simply reaped the rewards of proper martial arts training. It’s a win win situation if you dig deep and commit yourself fully.
