Dedication

I know I've stated multiple times on this blog that a dream of mine is to eventually make a career out of teaching aikido. So I'd have my own aikido school and I would just offer classes on a daily basis, and depending on popularity maybe 2 or 3 classes a day, maybe more maybe less. It would be a great career for me since it'd basically just be working out for my job. I mean maybe not so much emphasis on physique in the sense that you don't do strength training and don't need high strength to do aikido, but just more of the physical aspects of it in comparison to a typical desk job.

So anyways, if I were to make a career out of it, I'd need to be pretty dedicated to the art. I'd say I'm decently dedicated, going 6 days of training (totaling about 8 hours of training per week, assuming I nail all 6 days). I also teach for 1h15m of that training time. You could argue that teaching isn't training, but I'd counter with that teaching allows you to learn insights of techniques and technicalities, as well as the minutia of each part. You have to be able to explain things well enough for someone else to understand it. If you don't know how to explain and breakdown concepts, do you really know your stuff? Even if, I teach and I also train at the same time instead of idly standing by.

To what level am I going to dedicate my time and energy into aikido? Opening a school isn't going to happen until I'm at least 3rd degree black belt, and if I can maintain my high frequency of training, I could maybe get there as early as summer of 2024, but I might be looking more at 2025 or 2026.

Fun fact: by October of 2026, I would have been training and learning aikido for 20 years. I started in October of 2006, and while I did start in the kid's program and stayed there until I was 12 (until 2011) I still was learning the movements and ideas.

Once I achieve 3rd degree black belt doesn't mean I'm out in the clear either. I would probably have to train a few more years, and then I can attempt to open my own school. Then the challenge is drawing people in and starting a consistent attendance of people. And then I have to get enough people regularly training and paying in order to support myself.

If all that aside, how much will I put in now? I'm about to start my first full week at Jersey Mike's, so I'll have a decently full plate of 30 working hours, and a lot of standing. I told my sensei I can cover the teens class tomorrow, or technically tonight, February 17, 2020. Then I would stay for the adult's class. It'd be a 45 minute class to teach, and then an hour and 15 minutes to train. I'd be there from around 5pm to maybe quarter to 8, because of set up and breakdown.

Am I really going to be this committed? Should I be this committed to aikido? I mean this is only the second time I've been asked to cover the teen's class, and other than that, it would be "normal" schedule. I suppose a favor for my sensei every now and then isn't the worst thing. It would maybe gain me some favor and then he can help focus on me and train me to the point I need to get to. After all, I can only progress my ranks if he approves and is basically sponsoring me in that he's putting his name behind me to say I can qualify for the next rank, and then I have to uphold that claim.

Whatever it is, I hope that this is ultimately for good. If nothing else, I suppose just doing a favor never hurt anyone. It's going to be a long day on my feet then.