Preventing burn out.....

[thebigriddle]

Ok, a few things I have learned at a seminar my department held. I work at the physical, education, recreaction, health and dance.

Over training and stress. Any order is a bad thing for an athlete. I am approaching my thirties and I am coming to grips my body is not made out of steel.

For the next month no fencing, matter of fact no sports. Excercise, but no sports. I had a talk with a co worker and he told me the gymnists take the summer off. This give time for all the injuries to heal. Sometimes you don't even know you had an injury until month go by. Also I what I had learn in the seminar was warm up for at least five minutes and then stretch. You never want to stretch a cold muscle. And always cool down. What does this mean don't sit on your ***. Go for nice slow walk, get some water and do some stretching. Hard thing is that over all fitness is not a part of the gym programs in the schools. I just did kendo, cleaned up and I am now relaxing at the computer.

Over this summer I will be going back to competing. I don't want to do this without first figuring out a go way to train. First I am going to let my injuries heal. Second a basic training program walking, jogging and weight training. I have to work around the injuries.

And finally start back to working on the basics ie footwork, point control, distance drills, etc.

[wflaschka]

I've heard anecdotes about how the european teams drop fencing altogether during the off-season. Something about Italians, switching to soccer, to maintain their wind.

I can see the value in this. One would always come to the fencing season with a fresh mindset, open eyes, and goals to achieve in a given time period.

I worry about skills atrophying and muscle decay, those particular to fencing like the hand and distance. But while I've quit fencing entirely before, I've never taken a considered break.

[dreadfoil]

the big riddle is correct, many top athletes take long breaks from their sport. it gives everything time to mend. in germany for instance, many people take very long holidays, they crave the hot weather and will take up to 3 months vacation to get some rays. usually the athlete will rest up, but may do a little walking. For example, competitive runners make log books toward a marathon for example:

mon: run 5 miles
tues: walk 1 mile
wed: run 3 miles
thurs: walk two miles

they call their walk days: rest days.

[fencingguy]

this is interesting because I just took a year off, and while I thought that I'd come back worse, so far (practice only) I've never fenced so well and so relaxed. Taking the year off really helped to put things in perspective and make fencing enjoyable again.

[d0gz|song]

Hmm...a break from FENCING?!?! I for one couldn't imagine having to go through a day without fencing...

[PisteOff]

I took a year off to finish school. I was afraid I would have forgotten all my fencing, but 90% of it came back in a few weeks (the tactics anyway). The physical game is taking longer to build back up. Now its been 8 weeks since I came back and I'm fencing as good or better now than I was when I left... I also picked up epee and some light armory work and that's helped breathe new life into the sport for me. =)

==PisteOff==

[lfortier]

Originally posted by d0gz|song
a break from FENCING?!?! I for one couldn't imagine having to go through a day without fencing...

Yeah, neither could I dogzsong- but there is a limit to EVERYTHING in life, like fencing, cause you will get burn-out if done excessivly. (which is why my parents don't let me fence as much as I want) My advice to anyone is to don't overdo,or you won't look foward to stepping on the strip; I mean, if you want to get good at this, you must love what your doing-its a LONG process. By the way, would'nt suck if you just got sick of your favorite sport and couldnt continue?