Lost job any hints on how to keep up karate training for less money?

I have direct personal experience with this. In the last 3 years I've been laid off twice. Each time I was training in karate and still am to this day, and I'm still unemployed. I found that I did not have any and do not have any problem with motivation or pushing myself. In my case I've found that training in karate is one of the best things I am doing right now and if anything my motivation to train has gone up.

Consider this... once you are out of work your world is turned upside down, financially of course, and also from a standpoint of your normal routine completely being broken up. For most people normal is getting up 5 or more days a week, following a schedule, going to work, coming home, having the weekends off. Now being out of work that normal routine is gone. For some people this can be extremely unsettling. They need that structure and routine and the loss of it can be difficult to deal with. To counter that you need things that remain stable in your life, things that you can hold onto that are normal, that help you de-stress, and allow you some personal time to grow. That can be different things for different people. For me and for others that was karate, or whatever martial art they happen to practice.

Practicing karate allowed me that release and focus. It gave, and continues to give me, something to look forward to. In some ways being unemployed has given me more time to train in karate. It has so many benefits. One of them, for me and for others, is the fact that karate or any kind of activity or exercise produces chemicals in the brain that counter depression. For people out of work depression is major issue that people face. Karate can help that. I'm not saying it is a cure, but it is just something that be a benefit.

The issue can become though that you have to pay for martial arts and with being unemployed, not collecting your normal wages the first things that you may look to cut are luxuries and expenses. Gym memberships, martial dues sometimes fall under that. For me... I considered karate a necessity since it gives me so much benefit, health, activity, focus, etc. I have found in speaking to other people that a lot of martial arts schools are willing to be flexible in cutting rates in the short term to maintain students. Say you pay $100 a month for tuition and you tell you instructor you have to quit because you can no longer afford it. In that case the instructor loses $100 a month. He, or she, may be willing to negotiate to keep you as a student. Getting something a month for tuition and keeping a student beats getting $0 a month.

If your instructor offers you this option you should follow a couple of rules. One... be prepared to offer to help around the dojo more doing things like cleaning, minor repair, that sort of thing. Second... never, ever, ever tell another student what your instructor is doing in cutting you a break on tuition. If you do students will be lined up at the door asking for break, even students that do not need a break on tuition. If you tell another student you will break the instructors trust and agreement.

Stick with martial arts while you're unemployed. It can be a great bit of stability in what can be an unstable time. If you quit you will regret it. Good luck. I have been unemployed for nearly a year now and it is a fight a every day. Do what you can to take care of yourself. Martial arts and keeping with it is one of those things.

Although on my part, our training amount are not as high as any others but yet there are people who can't pay regularly due to some personal priorities, sometimes they approach with me asking if they can just give next month, or others tell me that they just give things partially, I replied its OK as long as they just covered things soon and their to learn for the sake of their trainings.

This is the advantage if an Instructor has good job and not relying on his dojo to pay his bills and other necessities to able to cope up his personal obligations.

With this issue, like others said here, talk to your Instructor, frankly tell him about your concern, if he is about what you can learn and achieve, then there is no reason he won't consider your situation, besides, you can cover things once you find any job.

Good luck

..............

Talk to your instructor about your situation. In most cases I would think that the school would allow you to continue considering your job situation. I know I would. If you are in one of those mcdojo's then you may have a problem because it's all about the money to them.

Do your workouts as a part of your daily routine----as you are looking for a new job. The job hunt is priority. But, the karate will help you deal with the stress of it all.

Talk to your sensei about your situation. He or she may be willing to work something out with you.

When I was out of full time work, my motivation was to find a job. Faith in God helped. The martial arts training kept me flexible in body and gave me something happy to look forward too. Not only that, you should network with your fellow martial artists and see if they can help you find work. You may be able to use a sensei as a reference.

Talk to your instructor. At my school, we allow students in good standing free training in cases of hardship.