Crossroad of Training

[morpheus]

Do you ever feel that you are at a crossroad in your training? I have been training for the last eleven years in budo. Prior to that I had spent a couple of years doing Tae Kwon Do in my younger college years. I am presently 41. I have trained jujutsu, aikido, judo, karate, shorinji kempo, iaido, kendo and jodo. If an opportunity presented itself to train I accepted that opportunity. I have enjoyed the opportunity to train in Japan on one occassion. I have had the luxury of training with some extremely gifted teachers. I have several kyu rank in various arts and hold various dan rank in a handful of others. I have had and still have a love/hate relationship with aikido. It has been the constant throughout the years. I am at a point that I would like to begin teaching, however, that is really not an option. My aikido dojo has limited days availalbe and has two very talented, high ranking teachers. There are also at least three aikido dojo in town. At present I have not been able to train aikido for the last 3 weeks. My body just struggles to continue to take the percussive pounding. I also actively train Shotokan karate and jodo, both of which I enjoy immensely and does not hurt me for two days following a class. I also faciliate a small iaido study group. I am at a point I have to consider the cost/reward of continuing to regularly train aikido. I feel like I am at a crossroad and am not sure which direction to take. If you have an opinion or have similar experience I would love to hear it.

Thanks

[Joseph Svinth]

It sounds like it is time to throw something from the sled. Keep trying to pull that load, you'll just hurt yourself.

[Michael Hodge]

Shades of Bruce Lee's Ten Thousand Kicks parable here.