Most of us are familiar with the term fatigue; especially as it relates to exercise. We understand how it feels and the consequences it has on how we perform. Physical fatigue may be the result of cardio exercise, like running, swimming, and free sparring. There's a saying in fitness that being fit for cardio in an activity makes you fit for cardio in that activity. Take someone who can run for two hours and tell them to hit the heavy bag non-stop, and they'll be gasping within minutes. Similarly, take someone who has learned to keep punching and kicking the heavy bag for long periods of time and put them on a wrestling mat and they'll gas out.

Mental fatigue, however, is an area of where much less is known. Research suggests that mental fatigue has the potential to negatively affect physical performance. This could be in part do to the learning of new martial skills and techniques in class. This has more to do with mental strength than physical.  It’s because learning martial arts not only demands a lot of the body, but the brain as well.

Each semester we introduce new sets of drills here at Strickland’s Martial Arts. Muay Thai mitt drills and bag work techniques. Silat takedowns. Escrima/Kali stick work. Some students learn a new Taekwondo pattern with all new moves. These new drills are performed to stimulate and educate each student in their progression to black belt.

So why so many new drills and skills? Because a monotonous program of repetition of the same skills can cause performance plateau due to a lack of stimulation. New skills and drills are a good way to combat this burnout!

Ultimately, fatigue is part of martial arts training. Both mental and physical. We all have to fight through it. Physically we need to stay in shape and do our best. Mentally we have to accept that we are always learning no matter the age.