Is it possible that Goku and Piccolo slacked off/declined between DB and Z?

[dbgtFO]

I guess it's possible that they did train pretty hard then. Although there's still the question as to how Piccolo suddenly made way bigger gains in 1 year than he did in the previous 5.

Having a sparring partner makes a hell of a difference.

[90sDBZ]

I guess it's possible that they did train pretty hard then. Although there's still the question as to how Piccolo suddenly made way bigger gains in 1 year than he did in the previous 5.

Having a sparring partner makes a hell of a difference.

Didn't he always spar with himself using the split-form technique though?

[dbgtFO]

Didn't he always spar with himself using the split-form technique though?

In the anime, yeah, that is the case, though he may not have begun that kind of training until the arrival of Raditz, though that's a stretch.

[Tsufuru]

We know they were both wearing weighted clothes, but by that point they'd been wearing daily them since before the 23rd Tournament and had gotten to the point were they could move around casually with them on. They probably just kept wearing them so as not to get too much weaker. I'm pretty sure the weights Goku wears don't get any heavier between DB and Z so that implies he hasn't exactly made a great deal of progress.

I was under the impression that Piccolo used weighted clothing after the 23rd Tenkaichi Budoukai concluded.

Piccolo: "Raditz... you talk too much."
Goku: "Piccolo... you were armored, too?"
Piccolo: "As are you, boy..."
Piccolo: "And I have not felt so light in a long while..."
Raditz: ["What!?"]
Raditz: ["His power... Jumping to 408...!"]
Goku: "Well, well..."
Goku: "Looks like we've both been training hard!"
Goku: "Well, I'm just glad..."
Goku: "...That this time, you're on my side."

So how do you explain Goku struggling with a level of gravity he'd already trained under for a whole month?

I would think one month of training, without direction, roughly eight years ago wouldn't compare to forty days of training with a better instructor.

no, toriyama cant tell the diffrence between numbers.
thats why power levels suck.
not cuz he forgot or didnt care.

[TheZFighter]

Probably. I'm more surprised that Piccolo never tried to conquer the world in those 4 years before Radditz showed up. That's a long time for Piccolo just to be...training.

I've always found this pretty interesting, because, as you put it, four years is a long time to just be "training". Surely he would've had a crack at conquering the world during this time? But apparently not... I wonder what would've happened, had Radditz not shown up when he did.

[miguelnuva1]

Roshi at least in the dub said

weighted Goku BOZ> unweighted Goku 23rd budokai.

[DBZAOTA482]

And in Goku's case he had Chi Chi to contend with. We all know how controlling she can be, and I could easily see her scolding Goku for spending time away from his family. I think the fact that Goku jumped on the opportunity to train in space for a year and a half after Namek, opted to stay dead to train after Cell, and later ran off to train with Uub says that he was pretty eager to break free. And then there's Super, where he's sneaking in training behind her back when he's supposed to be doing farm work.

I'm sure he did manage to get a certain degree of training in during the 5 years, but you have to wonder how much compared to when he had total freedom to train all day everyday at the Lookout. It's like an athlete who has to step things up to get into peak condition for an event, and then cuts back at other times. Plus the whole thing with him having trained in the Time Chamber at 10x Gravity prior to King Kai's planet is pretty hard to ignore.

Stop it. Just stop this memeshit.

1. Chi-Chi getting in the way of Goku's training was never a thing in the series till Super came (and ruined everything) and she never once resented Goku for all the years he was away from the family. In fact, she happily welcomed him back when any other woman would either leave or have tried to kill him by now.

2. Goku had just gotten married leading up to BoZ but nothing can stop him from training for life and the times he left were under specific circumstances.

Anyways, Piccolo spent his time learning the Makankosappo to kill Goku and started using weights so he definitely didn't slack. Goku wasn't training to make mad gains he always does for the tournaments but he still made sure he kept in shape.

[90sDBZ]

And in Goku's case he had Chi Chi to contend with. We all know how controlling she can be, and I could easily see her scolding Goku for spending time away from his family. I think the fact that Goku jumped on the opportunity to train in space for a year and a half after Namek, opted to stay dead to train after Cell, and later ran off to train with Uub says that he was pretty eager to break free. And then there's Super, where he's sneaking in training behind her back when he's supposed to be doing farm work.

I'm sure he did manage to get a certain degree of training in during the 5 years, but you have to wonder how much compared to when he had total freedom to train all day everyday at the Lookout. It's like an athlete who has to step things up to get into peak condition for an event, and then cuts back at other times. Plus the whole thing with him having trained in the Time Chamber at 10x Gravity prior to King Kai's planet is pretty hard to ignore.

Stop it. Just stop this memeshit.

1. Chi-Chi getting in the way of Goku's training was never a thing in the series till Super came (and ruined everything) and she never once resented Goku for all the years he was away from the family. In fact, she happily welcomed him back when any other woman would either leave or have tried to kill him by now.

2. Goku had just gotten married leading up to BoZ but nothing can stop him from training for life and the times he left were under specific circumstances.

Anyways, Piccolo spent his time learning the Makankosappo to kill Goku and started using weights so he definitely didn't slack. Goku wasn't training to make mad gains he always does for the tournaments but he still made sure he kept in shape.

Well I'll admit I haven't read the Manga from start to finish and could be wrong on this, but I'm pretty sure Chi Chi does express frustration at Goku not having a proper job on more than one occasion.

And we know for a fact that she goes out of her way to try and prevent Gohan from ever becoming a fighter and forces him to study like crazy at the age of 4. Would it really be that much of a stretch to imagine her trying to prevent Goku from training day in day out? I'm pretty sure she even says that there's no need for martial arts now that the world is peaceful.

[DBZAOTA482]

And in Goku's case he had Chi Chi to contend with. We all know how controlling she can be, and I could easily see her scolding Goku for spending time away from his family. I think the fact that Goku jumped on the opportunity to train in space for a year and a half after Namek, opted to stay dead to train after Cell, and later ran off to train with Uub says that he was pretty eager to break free. And then there's Super, where he's sneaking in training behind her back when he's supposed to be doing farm work.

I'm sure he did manage to get a certain degree of training in during the 5 years, but you have to wonder how much compared to when he had total freedom to train all day everyday at the Lookout. It's like an athlete who has to step things up to get into peak condition for an event, and then cuts back at other times. Plus the whole thing with him having trained in the Time Chamber at 10x Gravity prior to King Kai's planet is pretty hard to ignore.

Stop it. Just stop this memeshit.

1. Chi-Chi getting in the way of Goku's training was never a thing in the series till Super came (and ruined everything) and she never once resented Goku for all the years he was away from the family. In fact, she happily welcomed him back when any other woman would either leave or have tried to kill him by now.

2. Goku had just gotten married leading up to BoZ but nothing can stop him from training for life and the times he left were under specific circumstances.

Anyways, Piccolo spent his time learning the Makankosappo to kill Goku and started using weights so he definitely didn't slack. Goku wasn't training to make mad gains he always does for the tournaments but he still made sure he kept in shape.

Well I'll admit I haven't read the Manga from start to finish and could be wrong on this, but I'm pretty sure Chi Chi does express frustration at Goku not having a proper job on more than one occasion.

And we know for a fact that she goes out of her way to try and prevent Gohan from ever becoming a fighter and forces him to study like crazy at the age of 4. Would it really be that much of a stretch to imagine her trying to prevent Goku from training day in day out? I'm pretty sure she even says that there's no need for martial arts now that the world is peaceful.

Well yeah she has expressed frustration (wouldn't you be frustrated if your spouse forced your family to live in poverty?) but that doesn't mean she would stop him from training considering Bulma also expresses frustration over Vegeta not working and she of all people should know there's no changing Goku.

Her education mom tendencies are much more extreme in the anime but this still doesn't mean she would stop Goku.

[TheUltimateNinja]

Logically both Goku and Piccolo should be considerably stronger than they were back in DB, but since Z Goku's power level is apparently only a paltry 416 I can see why people would try to rationalize it by saying they didn't improve.

[FoolsGil]

For Piccolo, he spent those 5 years working on the Special Beam Cannon instead of full on training. And Goku was being a parent and husband so less training then he'd want. All in all, yeah, they slacked off.

[miguelnuva1]

They didn't slack as much as didn't improve as much as they could have.

Weighted Goku BoZ was stronger than unweighted 23rd budokai Goku.