Saturation Point

[AngelaG]

I was wondering if people think there is a saturation point with regards training. Is there an optimum point whereby you are learning the most you are going to learn and anything else is just for kicks, or indeed maybe harmful because of the stresses on the body?

I'm thinking of the kind of scenario where someone states in awe, sensei X trained 7 days a week, 6 hours a day....

[andym]

There is only so much you can learn, the rest is perfecting what you've learned or even adding your own spin to it all.

[Shorin Ryu Sensei]

I disagree. You're always capable of learning something new, but yes, you can over train and saturate yourself in the physical sensen. Even professional atheletes have to take time off now and then, and you can reach a "peak" of a sort (I've never done that myself)...but the mind can continue to gather new information. Physically, we can overtrain and burn out, which is detrimental to our achieving our goals.

There isn't a day that goes by that we don't all learn or experience something new. Our minds are constantly absorbing new information through our senses.

[ukshorinryu]

I think it boils down to how the structure is within the dojo for learning.

its common knowledge that when we go on 'seminars' say for 4 hours we retain very little information, I make it a point to simply focus on a couple of key new lessons and take them away with me.

In the dojo I try and teach piece meal, ie along with training the point in case, from my expierience anything over about 1.5 hours is to long and therefore about an hour of my 2 hour classes are repetition training the theme. (alot of learning is done by actual training anyhow).

One of my pet hates is instructors that talk to much in the dojo, hence my purchase sometime ago of a scroll with the kanji - shut up and train!

[subzero72]

I love to learn no matter what it is but I do beleive that there are such things as overtraining I know that personaly cause there are times I have done that myself cause I love the arts too much

[dojo]

I had such moments. I would train a lot and then just feel this is the end. I can't do this anymore. Fortunately (or unfortunately) I had to stop training a while so the hiatus just made me 'thirsty' of my training.