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We train in a freestyle art, based in large part on Goju-ryu karate with heavy influences from Jujitsu, Judo & Muai Thai. The focus of the style is effective & practical self defence, rather than point sparring competition, kata competition or cage fighting. That said, the style is tested in various ways, including in competition, with continuous sparring being my favourite. Basically, being freestyle gives us the best of all worlds.
Training happens twice weekly, with classes generally going for an hour. There's a class specifically for black belt, or those approaching black belt, once a week for 30 mins after the main class. The general classes will cover and re-cover fundamentals and, depending on the level of the student, look to introduce new concepts and techniques as the student becomes ready. They range in intensity from talky, slower paced technique-focused session through to sessions dedicated entirely to sparring.
The sparring we do in a general class is "minimal contact", with this being a judgement made by the students engaged in the sparring. There is no full-blooded striking in these sessions, the intensity of these is quite like that of a judo session entirely dedicated to their version of sparring. We don't do full-blooded striking for the same reason they don't snap arms once they have the arm in an arm bar. I really like the entirely sparring sessions and the entirely talk sessions, they feel like opposite sides of a cool coin :)
There's aspects of the training in the dojo that can be definitely helped by training in the gym, on the bike or on the track. There's a limit to the kinds of strength training when training in the dojo, and most seem to base around push-ups, sit-ups, and squats. When I first started training they were the only exercises I was doing, and in a very real way, nothing is better than something. These days I have a moral objection to push-ups and sit-ups/crunches, so I only do them when necessary.
In the gym I work on things for martial arts, not "body sculpting", bulking or lifting huge numbers. I recommend you take the same approach. That's a sweeping statement, I know, but I think it's true. Personally, if I start to go over about 100kg then yes, my strength is high but my cardio goes to shit because I have to haul 100kg around. Bad cardio means real struggle if sparring goes longer than 20 seconds. It's not a good state of affairs. A good boxing regimen should see you do well and you can amend it as you see fit (for those of us with a more kicking style than boxing).
I'm currently ranked Shodan and I'm hoping to be eligable to grade for Nidan in July 2023. Components of the grading will be, generally, displaying set kata (Seienchin, Tensho, Sanchin & Saifa) as well as a kata I'm devising with the working title of "Within Reach". I'll probably publish the map & descriptor of this kata here. I will need to show two bunkai for each of the kata, with all bunkai having two adversaries. The final physical part will be quite a lot of sparring. In all, about 30 minutes of fighting broken into 12 - 15 rounds, decided by the assessor. This is the daunting part of the grading - my physical condition needs to be exceptional. I will also need to present a work of original research, a final draft of which I may publish here.
Gemlogs related to Martial Arts are found here: