On The Mat Day 867: Increasing Training Frequency

From last week I decided to increase how much I train. I went 5 times last week during the day and 4 times this week. I usually do 2~3 lessons per week. These are my personal findings:

• It is easier to constantly train every day than it is to take breaks in between. This may be a personal thing but I find I lose motivation on my days off and lose momentum. A rolling stone gathers no moss. Going every day is like working everyday, or brushing your teeth everyday. It is habitual and gives you little time to think about not doing it.
• The above depends on my sparring partners. Heavier and tougher opponents means that I was more tired the following day. Light and lower belt opponents meant I felt very good the following day despite having trained 4 days in a row on the 1st week.
• My retention of techniques was high the more I attended. Even a week later I can still retain every technique I learnt in the 1st week.
• I got injured more. My knee has been playing up as a result of not resting in between days. I've had it tweak on me 3 times over the 2 weeks. Tweak meaning I feel the ligament stretch as my knee moves out of position. It makes me ill thinking about it. This is in comparison to it not giving me any problems for the past 4 months.
• I am more confident sparring with people who usually give me a hard time. This, I assume, is a mental advantage in which I know I am working harder than them so can probably dominate them.

If you have no injuries and train 3 times a week, I would recommend you bump it up to 4 or 5 times a week just for a month. See how it goes. I have to dial it back now that my knee injury is returning. I'm seriously considering surgery to repair my torn meniscus at the end of this year. I couldn't bear having to wear a knee brace during the Japanese summer.