Every Wednesday night and Saturday morning I teach MMA For the Street sessions at AXT JiuJitsu in Yorkville, IL. Interestingly, this class began as a one day a week session only on Saturday mornings. That was what I could dedicate at that time. After my family duties, my work obligations, and my club responsibilities, what little free time I had was divided up into little time slices.
Once my son graduated high school and went off to college some availability opened up for me. Eventually, I spent a summer teaching free sessions out of my garage. It wasn’t MMA FTS curriculum, but instead Jeet Kune Do. At that time, I was an apprentice JKD instructor under Sifu Roy Harris. As the summer was coming to an end, I noticed the headcount dwindling at these sessions. So, I instead took that time availability and began a second MMA FTS session at the club on Wednesday nights. By doing this we could double our training capacity during a week and students could progress faster with their training.
As of July 2024, I’ve taught these sessions for just over 12 years. Rain or shine, during hot or frigidly cold weather, no matter if 1 or 15 students attend, I continue to show up and teach these sessions. Why? Some would say it’s because of the money. Though it’s nice to be paid for my time and service, most people would be shocked to see what I actually keep as profit.
“Well then, it’s because you like doing it.” Yes…and no. Yes, I like teaching martial arts, but I really enjoy doing martial arts more. Being a student myself is often higher on my list than being a teacher. This just isn’t possible all of the time and at this stage. Believe me, I do try to maintain the student mindset. It’s just very difficult when you have the schedule that I do.
What is it then? Simple…routine. My day, week, month and year are set to routines. In fact, my life is so routine driven it’s difficult for me to stray outside of it. It’s not that I can’t, it’s just mentally difficult for me. There’s positives and negatives to this. However, lets focus on routines for now.
So, how does one set up a routine? Figure out your daily schedule in hours to determine what you have available. Next, do that same thing for an entire week. This is your general timeline, and you should only plug in the heavy hitters (i.e. work including drive time if appropriate, family obligations, regular appointments or obligations, extracurriculars such as workouts, etc.) Now you’ll begin to see what time you actually have available to you. Then do this same thing for the entire month. Add in any holidays or vacation time you have planned. Finally, print out a yearly calendar and get the big picture.
What you have left is where you plug in your training time. It may be a solid 3 days a week every week. It could end up being 3 days this week, but only 2 days the next 4 weeks. So what! Now you know how much time you potentially have to get your training in. Who knows, other time slots may open up providing you with more availability. Also, let’s be clear, what I’m writing is “days” but in reality, it’s hours.
”Okay, okay, but how do I maintain my routine?” You’ve already done the hard part, figuring out what time you have available. You have a plan. Now, execute on it. Set your training days and go get the most out of them. Wash, rinse, repeat. This is the secret to keeping a routine.
We all have so many micro-routines we already follow such as waking up and making coffee, getting ready in the morning, getting our children to their activities, when we cut our grass, putting the garbage out, walking the dog, etc, etc. This is how we should see our training, as something we have to do on this day and at this time for this long. Make it as natural as breathing or eating. It’s just that thing you do during that time. To me, this is what separates the doers from the talkers. No offense to you talkers out there, but I have things to do and accomplish.
I hope this quick read helps some folks out. Setting time aside for training can be daunting. Once we start missing sessions, we tend to make up reasons why we can’t make it. I see this constantly. If this is you, know you’re not alone. Try utilizing this method and see if helps. Good luck!
Coach Chris