Seven Day Slam - Day 7

Day 7: Saturday - Ju-Jitsu in the church!
A slightly easier start to my day - it being Saturday I could afford a lie-in. But before I knew it, I realised I was on the northern line to visit Pete McCarney's new dojo in Kentish Town.
I wasn't sure what to expect, I walked in and mass was being held. Ooops! Wrong part of the church.
The training hall is behind the church, so when I walked in I was pretty impressed that it was a good size and very quiet - a world away from the hustle of LA Fitness, his previous venue.
I was in a different state of mind today. By now, my aching joints and sore muscles still hurt, but I cease to notice them. Instead, my body was conditioning itself to everyday training, and as such was ready for anything. I found my breakfalls and strikes were getting snappier and the throws a little bit tighter. In essence, I was reaching the level of fitness and conditioning I used to have when training towards my black belt.
I'm not going to make too much of a big deal here, my 7 day challenge is nothing compared to the training a marathon runner, cagefighter or soldier would do.
So what was the point?
Well, apart from showing that I have an appalling lack of social life and that I am a rather neglectful husband and father - I wanted to prove that I could physically train every day. I also wanted to illustrate that in order to succeed in anything, you need to dedicate a lot of time to it. This is especially true in martial arts. Just training once a week surely cannot do justice to one's ability in MA. In our jujitsu style, we train to react to punches and strikes with our own strikes or blocks and throws. Just how good do you think you can be with just once a week training?
It is my opinion that once a student embarks on martial arts as a hobby, a twice a week regime is the bare minimum one should do. It doesn't have to be the same MA, but the body needs to be conditioned to accept this standard.
In this month's grappling magazine, I'm reading an interview with a BJJ black belt who mentions that he trains every day, twice a day! And I know that this is fairly common amongst the senior BJJ community. Maybe this will be my next Meerkat challenge!

Until then - together in jitsu pain.
Meerkat