a season for all things.

One of the most popular literary archetypes* begins To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. While it may seem cliché at this point I think it offers an important insight to the ever changing needs we have as people. The ability to appropriately address the omnipresent need for situational analysis is part of what being a mature person is about, but I believe there are many cues that can be taken from our environment.

This passage from the bible takes its own inspiration from that most undeniably divine force- mother nature. When it says there is a time to reap and a time to sow we know that our environment prescribes the occasion for many actions. By extension, as martial artists we feed our creativity through a highly physical endeavor, does it not make sense to then examine this endeavor in light of shifting seasonality and its effect on our body and mind? When do we reap and when do we sow as humans? The below is a rudimentary attempt to view the ever-competing needs of training within this framework of seasonality.

spring

The season of awakening and rebirth. Most of us have a renewed sense of energy at this time of year, as the days grow longer and the sun warmer we are anxious to be outside, to be active, to meet the opposite sex. So as this first period of renewal falls over us what is the appropriate “martial” response? I would say an increase in strength training and external development. As you break out of your winter funk and you feel more energy and a need to move, channel it into developing the more physical side of your training- harder workouts, technique drills, heavy bag work, more cardio- whatever you use to develop your external muscular strength and technique power.

summer

Life is in full bloom, energy is at its natural peak. At this point you should have a natural urge to put more time into physical endeavors and have already begun growing your external strength- continue! Through the summer you should continue this work, but also create room for complimentary training that takes full advantage of the sun’s glory. It is time to emphasize stretching and flexibility as your body is now most pliable, lending grace and extension to the strength you have been developing. As well, with the sun at its strongest, now is the time to begin increasing your internal development work. Take in the natural energy which is currently peaking and it too will aid the fluidity and precision to your external development.

fall

The harvest season, time to reap what you have sown. Now, after the hard work of spring and summer your external energy should be at its apex for the year, you are ready for peak performance. Time to work on refining and channeling it into clean, precise technique- work your form, find the functionality of your movement. Do this while continuing to move away from external training and enter the period of greatest internal exercise, as well begin complimenting this with an increase in meditation practice.

winter

The season of rest, live recedes and stores up energy for the coming year. Meditation practice is now at its zenith, increase the channeling of your internal energy through hard work on your stances and discipline technique (iron body, breaking skills, high level breath work, etc.). This is also the time to allow yourself to slow down a bit and contemplate and plan for the year to come. A good time to take stock of your current state, your past year and reassess your training goals. Read up, write in your notebook, seek out new ideas and information, or who knows, maybe even start a blog!

final thoughts

Truth be told this has been a very preliminary examination of seasonal training. It's a new idea that came to me from an odd place as a possible solution to a common problem. As with a lot of the country I have become increasingly interested in healthy eating in recent years and one trend- seasonality of food selection- seemed interesting to me. The basic idea is that you should be eating foods only when they are appropriate to your current season. In other words, while you may be able to get ripe bananas from Honduras in February, eating that tropical fruit in the cold of a New York winter may not nourish your body the way it needs.

The wisdom of this approach is a whole other discussion (I have my reservations) but it presents an interesting perspective when applied to physical training. When I first began studying I often asked, and now that I have a little experience new students often ask me questions like “how much should I practice this… what should I emphasize at home… should I focus on this or that…” The point being that with martial arts it sometimes seems like there are too many aspects to train, especially if you are cross-training with a complimentary activity such as yoga, weight lifting, gymnastics or a team sport.

So here’s one concept to relieve that conundrum. Of course I realize that all of these components should be worked as a single program and you won’t get anywhere training one of them for only three months a year. The seasonal concept is only to suggest when one might budget more time for one aspect or another, they should all receive attention throughout the year. Here’s another idea: for instructors reading this, your students likely attend class a few times a week and then train on their own in between. What they work will depend on complimenting what your instruction gave them during class hours. As such, this can act as a curriculum planning tool for emphasizing the different skills your students need and ensuring they become well-rounded martial artists by giving everything its due season.

Again, this is an undeveloped idea, so leave a comment and tell us what you think! Do you like the idea? How would you assign some of the training components?


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*The two that shoot to mind immediately are the song Rapper’s Delight by the Sugarhill Gang and the film Footloose starring Kevin Bacon. Huh… maybe it was only popular in the 80s…