How do some of you all train?

[psilent child]

The high ranking I get the more stuff I have to learn. I was fine airhead stretching and practice stuff to get my yellow belt, but the high I get the info it takes to train every day. I can't even imagine once I get my black belt. Do some of you guys that have your brown or black still practice stuff you learn as a white belt? I practice everything. I'm thinking about breaking it up and do something different each day.

 

[kuniggety]

I think BJJ is somewhat unique (compared to some schools at least) in that there tends to be no set curriculum. That being said, there are techniques that are considered fundamental that you will train wherever you go. It goes roughly something like this: white belt = newbie, blue belt is lower to upper intermediate, purple belt is upper immediate to advanced, brown is advanced to expert, and black is building upon and operating in the expert level. You will forget more than you learn and you will never learn it all. That being said, your technique will build upon the techniques that you absorb into your game. As I develop into a solid blue, I don't forget the fundamental techniques that I learned as a white belt. If I did, I would get destroyed on the mats. We practice consistently in our drilling and rolling. If a brown belt never trained their closed guard, then I could pass it, no matter that they're a higher belt than me.

 

[Touch Of Death]

The high ranking I get the more stuff I have to learn. I was fine airhead stretching and practice stuff to get my yellow belt, but the high I get the info it takes to train every day. I can't even imagine once I get my black belt. Do some of you guys that have your brown or black still practice stuff you learn as a white belt? I practice everything. I'm thinking about breaking it up and do something different each day.

The stuff you are learning is the cool stuff. You just understand it differently, later.

 

[Blindside]

The high ranking I get the more stuff I have to learn. I was fine airhead stretching and practice stuff to get my yellow belt, but the high I get the info it takes to train every day. I can't even imagine once I get my black belt. Do some of you guys that have your brown or black still practice stuff you learn as a white belt? I practice everything. I'm thinking about breaking it up and do something different each day.

You can't do "black belt stuff" without the material you are learning at while belt, well that isn't quite true, you can, it will just suck.

 

[Dirty Dog]

You can't do "black belt stuff" without the material you are learning at while belt, well that isn't quite true, you can, it will just suck.

This.

Of course I still practice "white belt stuff." It's been said, and with a large degree of truth, that the difference between a beginner and an expert is how well they do the fundamentals. You know... white belt stuff.

No, I don't do 50 different forms every time I practice forms. But I do every form I know regularly.

 

[Midnight-shadow]

You are never too experienced to practice the basics, but what you'll find is that the higher up you go in the system, the more time you will have to spend doing it. I'm not even that far through my current system, only having learned 3 open-hand forms and 2 weapons forms, but I struggle to get them all in each day. Instead I focus on one form per day so at the very least I do each form once a week.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

The high ranking I get the more stuff I have to learn. I was fine airhead stretching and practice stuff to get my yellow belt, but the high I get the info it takes to train every day. I can't even imagine once I get my black belt. Do some of you guys that have your brown or black still practice stuff you learn as a white belt? I practice everything. I'm thinking about breaking it up and do something different each day.

There is no "white belt stuff," in my opinion. I study karate. All of our basic exercises (kihon) and patterns (kata) are learned as we progress in our study, but having learned what is necessary to progress to a higher belt does not mean we stop using what we have learned to that point.

When I practice, I practice all I have learned, and then I work on what my latest challenge happens to be. Nothing is left behind, nothing is no longer needed.

During promotions, students are required to demonstrate everything they have learned up to the point of promotion, not just their current belt requirements.

But ultimately, karate is built on a foundation. We don't live in castles in the air - the foundation is built starting with our first exercises as white belts, and all of our future success depends heavily upon how well we've built and maintained the foundation of our learning.

 

[Danny T]

A lot of the lower level (beginner) material, movement, drills, etc. are attribute building as well as real techniques.

It is a likened to a youngster learning to walk. They spend a large amount of time first getting stronger and gaining the attributes to pull themselves up, balance themselves, and stand up right. As they develop that ability they start attempting to maintain their balance as they move. In time getting up, standing up right, and walking is easy. Today do you use and practice the fundamentals of getting up and walking…yes. Just at a much higher level so high that you probably never thing about it you just do it.

Keep training and you will continue to work the fundamentals throughout your journey.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

The high ranking I get the more stuff I have to learn. I was fine airhead stretching and practice stuff to get my yellow belt, but the high I get the info it takes to train every day. I can't even imagine once I get my black belt. Do some of you guys that have your brown or black still practice stuff you learn as a white belt? I practice everything. I'm thinking about breaking it up and do something different each day.

Yes. I still spend most of my time working on the first 40% of the formal curriculum, and the attacks most often taught within that same time. That's material most students will get in less than 2 years. I train it differently than I used to, but I still visit it a lot.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

As kuniggety noted, there is no set curriculum in BJJ and there are potentially almost an unlimited number of techniques, so no one could practice every move in the art every day. (Also, most of BJJ requires a partner to practice with.)

That said, I most definitely train "white belt material" all the time. I enjoy learning new techniques, but my primary goal is to get really. really good at everything I learned in my first year of training. After a couple of decades doing BJJ, I'm still learning better ways of doing fundamental "white belt" techniques.

My other arts are a bit different, Boxing and Muay Thai have only a handful of techniques at any level. Running through them all in a short time isn't a problem. Getting good at them is. Personally, I tend to just focus on one or two elements I'm trying to refine in a given training session, but if I was focusing more heavily on those arts I could easily run through all or most of what I know every day.

Wing Tsun and Capoeira are in-between those two extremes. I'm still a beginner in both arts, so I could probably run through everything I've learned so far every day, but I haven't had the energy lately. (I get a bit of seasonal depression where the lack of sunshine drains my motivation.) For those arts, I typically just pick a few basic ideas I want to work on most days. I suspect that as I progress through those arts I will continue to focus on the fundamental concepts and mechanics that underlie the art rather than worry about reviewing the who curriculum every day.

 

[CB Jones]

What helps my son is he assists the Sensei for beginner and intermediate classes.

Sensei explains the technique or form and my son demos it for the class.

Helps keep his fundamentals sharp and he enjoys helping the lower belts.

Also competition helps keep him working hard day in and day out and motivates him to push himself.

 

[Spinedoc]

In Aikikai Aikido, we start every class with basics. First stretching, then Tenkan exercises, than Tai no Henko, sometimes Funakogi Undo, sometimes Ikkyo Undo, then Irimi blend, then Morotedori kokyuho. EVERY class. Then we finish class with Kokyudosa, EVERY class. These are fundamentals. Every level practices them....every class. I've been to seminars with high ranking Shihan, who spend hours working on this. Last fall, Donovan Waite Shihan had us working on Kokyudosa for an hour straight. Doesn't matter if you are 6th kyu or Godan, we all work on these fundamental movements and exercises.

 

[Headhunter]

Of course you do. If you don't you forget it and if that happens then a yellow belt will be better than you because they remember. You don't have to train it all everyday but everything has to be practiced

 

[hoshin1600]

every system is different. some have more "material" to memorize than others. so sometimes there are things that will fall away but the principals that are universal is what is important.

 

[DanT]

-straight punches
-hook punches
-uppercuts
-forearm swing
-backfists
-front kick
-side kick
-roundhouse kick
-knee
-elbow

95% of my fighting is these techniques.
My Sifu once said learn 5 punches and 2 kicks good and you'll kick the **** out of 99% of people. That extra "cool stuff" is good to have but the basics are the most important.

 

[Flying Crane]

I have trained in some systems that had a whole new curriculum for each belt. Fundamentals were supposed to carry over, but then each belt had a list of stuff to learn on top of that. As you learn more, that can become unwieldy. It becomes too much to practice.

I have trained other systems where more mileage is expected from less material. Fundaments are always honed, and while there is new material, it is far less and one learns how to apply the fundamentals creatively, without a large formalized curriculum.

In my experience, the latter worked better for me.

 

[JR 137]

Kyu ranks are all about drilling the basics. Kata and kihon. Being Kyokushin, there's not very many kata compared to others like Shotokan. Most Kyokushin schools do 3 Taikyoku kata, 5 Pinan, and the "mokuso kata" - Sanchin, Gekisai Dai, Yantsu, Tsuki-No, Tensho, and Saiha.

It sounds like a lot, but it's not compared to others. Some Kyokushin schools will do Pinan 5 and Saiha (along with Seiunchin) at shodan.

Those kata all contain the basics - stances, blocks, strikes, etc. They're deeper than just the basics, but that's the main focus of them at the kyu level.

There's a bit of redundancy in a lot of those kata - Taikyoku 1, 2, and Pinan 1 are quite similar in a lot of ways. Pinan 2 is quite similar to Pinan 1 in a lot of ways. It's not until you get to Pinan 3 where things get much different.

If you're training alone outside of class everyday, as you get up in rank it'll take quite some time to go through everything. If this is the case, rotate what you practice. Use some of the kata as warmup.

We start every class the same way...

Warmup exercises and stretching - front stretch kick, front kick, roundhouse kick, side kick, hook kick - basic blocks with and without punches - combinations of basic blocks and punches - more advanced hand techniques - hand and foot combinations.

When we do kata (every class), we always start with Taikyoku 1. It puts us back n the mindset of kata, and no matter how many times you've done it, there's little details you can always improve on.

 

[Buka]

I like to do a little of this, a little of that, and sometimes some of that other stuff.
"Like" being the key word there, as it always makes me smile.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

I have trained in some systems that had a whole new curriculum for each belt. Fundamentals were supposed to carry over, but then each belt had a list of stuff to learn on top of that. As you learn more, that can become unwieldy. It becomes too much to practice.

I have trained other systems where more mileage is expected from less material. Fundaments are always honed, and while there is new material, it is far less and one learns how to apply the fundamentals creatively, without a large formalized curriculum.

In my experience, the latter worked better for me.

Hmmm I'm trying to think of a system that does that....Nope. Can't think of any

 

[Flying Crane]

Hmmm I'm trying to think of a system that does that....Nope. Can't think of any

There were a couple, actually.