You might find it surprising to know that I am not now, nor have I ever been, a naturally gifted martial artist. In fact, the opposite is probably true. Woe was the poor teacher who gave me my "introductory" lessons. A solid hour of working on a single stance and a single step can drive even the most patient of people to the brink - particularly when the student is still confused at the end.
To this day, in classes with my peers, I am among the most bewildered. I rarely seem to "get it" right away, and consequently spend the first class on a new subject frustrating my poor teacher. (Some things never change.) However, I can say with confidence that I am usually at the front of the pack by the end of two or three classes - and as evidenced by various medals, degrees and well performed techniques, I eventually "get it" better than most.
What's my secret?
I practice more. Or, better said, I leverage small bits of time to create big improvements in my practice. Here are some ideas:
1) Visualize. I'm always thinking about my techniques. In the shower, before I go to sleep, driving in my car, spacing out at my desk... I use what I like to call "focused daydreaming." What do I visualize?
a. My teacher doing the technique.
b. Me doing the technique piece by piece, at first incorrectly and then getting better until I'm doing it perfectly.
c. Me using the technique while sparring.
d. Me using the technique while defending myself.
e. Someone else correctly performing the technique on me.
2) Practice in class. I'm always surprised to see students standing around during a class. If you are waiting in line for your turn at the target, don't talk to the person next to you, practice the technique.
3) If the teacher is talking, I'm listening. I do this two ways - one, if the teacher is explaining something I never interrupt to ask a question, or add my own understanding. I just keep my trap shut, and look for any new little gem of information that might improve me. Two, I eavesdrop when other students are asking questions and the teacher is explaining things to them. Many times I learn something about my problem, by listening to someone else solve their problem.
4) I practice my weakest techniques first.
5) Mindful practice. I never perform an action without thought. I am always trying to think about every little detail of what I'm doing - to put each toe in right place, to be careful where I'm looking, where is my balance etc. I am hunting for anything that might need improvement, and once weakness is found I attack it.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
You'll See It When You Believe It
The human mind processes thousands of bits of information in it's conscious in an instant. The sub-conscious mind processes millions at the same time. What does this mean? It means that over the long haul, your sub-conscious mind has infinitely more power over your state of being than does your conscious mind. The conscious mind has to be deliberately controlled, purposely focused, willfully directed – whereas the subconscious will function and have its effect automatically.
This is why people say, “Positive thinking doesn't work.”
Now, I think it probably goes without saying that I’m an optimist – a positive thinker. But in some way, I have to agree with these pessimists. They are actually right, in a manner of speaking. Why am I siding with these naysayer? Because what is a thought? A thought, whether positive or negative, is a product of the conscious mind. That means that it requires willful, deliberate, controlled effort to think positively – but if that positive thought is contrary to what is negative in your subconscious mind, you will have no long term success. What I’m saying is that, eventually, your conscious mind will become tired of fighting against your subconscious, and you will lose the ability to affect your state of mind for the positive. The subconscious, because of its greater capacity for processing, will always win out over the conscious.
Let me give you an example:
I heard a speaker once, Jason Bidwell, share his experience in this area. He said, “My dad left before I can remember, and my mother really didn’t want a kid around. She bounced us from house to house, place to place, boyfriend to boyfriend. I was constantly in an environment where I was being told, ‘Your worthless, stupid, and your never going to do anything with your life.’”
“Well, when I got to be about 17 I said, ‘Enough of this!’ and I left home to make my way in the world. I told myself I could be anything I wanted, do anything I wanted to do, and I set out to prove my mother and her boyfriends wrong.” And so he did…… for a while.
“I began to build a company, and we were doing great. It was a landscaping business, and in a couple years we were really on top. We had several trucks, all painted proudly with my name, dozens of employees and a nice office. But as we grew, and the closer I got to real success, I began to feel unhappy. Pretty soon I found myself blowing off important meetings, not taking urgent phone calls, and before you know it my business was bankrupt, and I had nothing.”
“Not only did I follow this cycle once, but I managed to do it three times. The next two times I built a million dollar company, and a multi-million dollar company. I had everything – the Ferrari, the huge house, a beautiful girlfriend. Eventually though, I always sabotaged myself, and ultimately I wound up living on the streets.”
From a Ferrari, to being homeless.
“After living homeless for a while (and he talked a lot about the horrors of shelter food) I realized I had to get my life back together. This time I wasn’t shooting for the moon, I just wanted some stability. So I began to look everywhere for answers. I looked at Church, seminars, books – anything, trying to piece together the bits of my broken life. Finally back on my feet, I shared my story with a man who became my mentor. He told me, ‘Jason, self sabotage is nothing more than you continuing to be who you believe you are.’ You see, despite all my efforts trying to prove everyone wrong about me, deep down I believed what my mother and her boyfriends said. I truly believed I was never going to be anything. Once I changed that, I never had a problem staying on top again.”
This is why I say, “You’ll See It When You Believe It.”
Your beliefs are what make up your subconscious mind, or better said your self image. I once asked Master Jung what made him a two time world champion… what did it really take? What he told me was basically, “I deserved it.” Perhaps Master Hafner put it better. In a group of school owners someone asked him, “Sir, what was the big thing that happened when you went from having 200 students in your school to have 1200?” His answer? “I began to see myself as a person who had a school of 1200 people.”
But beliefs do not have to be grand. In fact, I think no grand belief can exist without hundreds of supporting smaller beliefs. Let me give some examples of beliefs I’ve changed in my own life that I would consider to be “supporting beliefs.”
From: I can’t wake up before 9am and function.
To: I am a morning person!
From: This mess has a system to it, I can find anything I need. (load of crap)
To: I am HYPER organized.
From: If I’m not the best, I don’t want to do it.
To: I will rise to the top of any group I’m in, if I stick it out like the tortoise.
So the key to positive change isn’t really positive thinking. It’s understanding and affecting your beliefs, so that positivity takes over your subconscious and “bubbles up” into action. I would encourage you to take stock of the beliefs you have that may be limiting you, and replace them with new beliefs that are empowering.
The next time you feel sad, frustrated, angry or over whelmed, ask yourself, “What would I have to believe to feel this way?” You might have to believe that the situation was outside of your control, that there was nothing you could do to affect things for the positive, you might have to believe you were helpless. Then you might say to yourself – “well I don’t believe I’m helpless, I believe that I can affect a change here!” Then you’d be on a road to a happier, healthier Black Belt kind of world.
This is why people say, “Positive thinking doesn't work.”
Now, I think it probably goes without saying that I’m an optimist – a positive thinker. But in some way, I have to agree with these pessimists. They are actually right, in a manner of speaking. Why am I siding with these naysayer? Because what is a thought? A thought, whether positive or negative, is a product of the conscious mind. That means that it requires willful, deliberate, controlled effort to think positively – but if that positive thought is contrary to what is negative in your subconscious mind, you will have no long term success. What I’m saying is that, eventually, your conscious mind will become tired of fighting against your subconscious, and you will lose the ability to affect your state of mind for the positive. The subconscious, because of its greater capacity for processing, will always win out over the conscious.
Let me give you an example:
I heard a speaker once, Jason Bidwell, share his experience in this area. He said, “My dad left before I can remember, and my mother really didn’t want a kid around. She bounced us from house to house, place to place, boyfriend to boyfriend. I was constantly in an environment where I was being told, ‘Your worthless, stupid, and your never going to do anything with your life.’”
“Well, when I got to be about 17 I said, ‘Enough of this!’ and I left home to make my way in the world. I told myself I could be anything I wanted, do anything I wanted to do, and I set out to prove my mother and her boyfriends wrong.” And so he did…… for a while.
“I began to build a company, and we were doing great. It was a landscaping business, and in a couple years we were really on top. We had several trucks, all painted proudly with my name, dozens of employees and a nice office. But as we grew, and the closer I got to real success, I began to feel unhappy. Pretty soon I found myself blowing off important meetings, not taking urgent phone calls, and before you know it my business was bankrupt, and I had nothing.”
“Not only did I follow this cycle once, but I managed to do it three times. The next two times I built a million dollar company, and a multi-million dollar company. I had everything – the Ferrari, the huge house, a beautiful girlfriend. Eventually though, I always sabotaged myself, and ultimately I wound up living on the streets.”
From a Ferrari, to being homeless.
“After living homeless for a while (and he talked a lot about the horrors of shelter food) I realized I had to get my life back together. This time I wasn’t shooting for the moon, I just wanted some stability. So I began to look everywhere for answers. I looked at Church, seminars, books – anything, trying to piece together the bits of my broken life. Finally back on my feet, I shared my story with a man who became my mentor. He told me, ‘Jason, self sabotage is nothing more than you continuing to be who you believe you are.’ You see, despite all my efforts trying to prove everyone wrong about me, deep down I believed what my mother and her boyfriends said. I truly believed I was never going to be anything. Once I changed that, I never had a problem staying on top again.”
This is why I say, “You’ll See It When You Believe It.”
Your beliefs are what make up your subconscious mind, or better said your self image. I once asked Master Jung what made him a two time world champion… what did it really take? What he told me was basically, “I deserved it.” Perhaps Master Hafner put it better. In a group of school owners someone asked him, “Sir, what was the big thing that happened when you went from having 200 students in your school to have 1200?” His answer? “I began to see myself as a person who had a school of 1200 people.”
But beliefs do not have to be grand. In fact, I think no grand belief can exist without hundreds of supporting smaller beliefs. Let me give some examples of beliefs I’ve changed in my own life that I would consider to be “supporting beliefs.”
From: I can’t wake up before 9am and function.
To: I am a morning person!
From: This mess has a system to it, I can find anything I need. (load of crap)
To: I am HYPER organized.
From: If I’m not the best, I don’t want to do it.
To: I will rise to the top of any group I’m in, if I stick it out like the tortoise.
So the key to positive change isn’t really positive thinking. It’s understanding and affecting your beliefs, so that positivity takes over your subconscious and “bubbles up” into action. I would encourage you to take stock of the beliefs you have that may be limiting you, and replace them with new beliefs that are empowering.
The next time you feel sad, frustrated, angry or over whelmed, ask yourself, “What would I have to believe to feel this way?” You might have to believe that the situation was outside of your control, that there was nothing you could do to affect things for the positive, you might have to believe you were helpless. Then you might say to yourself – “well I don’t believe I’m helpless, I believe that I can affect a change here!” Then you’d be on a road to a happier, healthier Black Belt kind of world.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Thoughts on Striking vs. Grappling, and MMA
My preface: I study both striking and grappling martial arts. Though I primarily teach Taekwondo (a striking martial art) I also actively train in Judo, and have trained in Jujitsu in the past. I have no bias to either.
The UFC has skyrocketed the interest in wrestling, sambo and other grappling oriented martial arts. As guys like BJ Penn, Royce Gracie, Tito Ortiz and other grapplers of renown dominate their divisions there is even talk of the superiority of grappling arts over striking arts. Phrases like, "95% of fights end up on the ground" have become popular. At the end of the day most experts will tell you that you need a mix of both.
But, since I so often hear people listing reasons to train in grappling I thought I'd list some ones to train in striking to balance them out. :) I'm not trying to knock grappling, it's important! This is just meant to be food for thought.
- 95% of fights end up on the ground, but 100% start on the feet.
- It is possible to end fights with the FIRST punch in less than 5 seconds.
- Grappling with someone immobilizes you, and even if you are choking one guy out it's impossible to avoid his buddy kicking you in the back of the head.
- You can't bite or break fingers in the UFC like you can in a real fight. Biting overcomes a lot of grappling.
- Even the best grapplers lose some technique possibilities because of size disparity between the two fighters. For example, if I'm 5' and 120lbs. I probably can't throw a 6'4" 260lbs. guy over my head. However, I can kick him, and just about anyone else in the groin.
- If you are on your feet and at a distance when someone pulls a gun or a knife it's easier to run away than if you are holding on to them or on your back.
- Taekwondo and Boxing arguably represent the best of the kicking and the best of the punching world. Both have their own established amateur and professional organizations, and both can take you to the pinnacle of athletic competition - the Olympics. These were established long before the UFC and other MMA leagues came about, so we probably have not seen nearly the highest caliber of striker enter the UFC. Picture Roy Jones Jr. or Mike Tyson in their prime, hitting a guy with 6 oz. gloves on. Not many people (even boxers) can withstand that devastating of a blow.
The UFC has skyrocketed the interest in wrestling, sambo and other grappling oriented martial arts. As guys like BJ Penn, Royce Gracie, Tito Ortiz and other grapplers of renown dominate their divisions there is even talk of the superiority of grappling arts over striking arts. Phrases like, "95% of fights end up on the ground" have become popular. At the end of the day most experts will tell you that you need a mix of both.
But, since I so often hear people listing reasons to train in grappling I thought I'd list some ones to train in striking to balance them out. :) I'm not trying to knock grappling, it's important! This is just meant to be food for thought.
- 95% of fights end up on the ground, but 100% start on the feet.
- It is possible to end fights with the FIRST punch in less than 5 seconds.
- Grappling with someone immobilizes you, and even if you are choking one guy out it's impossible to avoid his buddy kicking you in the back of the head.
- You can't bite or break fingers in the UFC like you can in a real fight. Biting overcomes a lot of grappling.
- Even the best grapplers lose some technique possibilities because of size disparity between the two fighters. For example, if I'm 5' and 120lbs. I probably can't throw a 6'4" 260lbs. guy over my head. However, I can kick him, and just about anyone else in the groin.
- If you are on your feet and at a distance when someone pulls a gun or a knife it's easier to run away than if you are holding on to them or on your back.
- Taekwondo and Boxing arguably represent the best of the kicking and the best of the punching world. Both have their own established amateur and professional organizations, and both can take you to the pinnacle of athletic competition - the Olympics. These were established long before the UFC and other MMA leagues came about, so we probably have not seen nearly the highest caliber of striker enter the UFC. Picture Roy Jones Jr. or Mike Tyson in their prime, hitting a guy with 6 oz. gloves on. Not many people (even boxers) can withstand that devastating of a blow.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
New Years Resolutions are BS (Bologne Syrup)
Hello all!
I'm sitting here in my office, and the school is as quiet as it ever gets. Wendy, as you know, is on vacation. I am here by myself. The phone is unusually, almost eerily, quiet - a sign that the holiday season is about to descend upon us like a warm, fuzzy blanket.
And what always follows the warm fuzziness of the Thanksgiving - Christmas stretch?
New Year Resolutions!
I project that approximately 92% of us here in the Northville area will be making a resolution this year. I guess we can all look forward to a thinner and more attractive population, who doesn't smoke, who "takes time for the little things", who reads more, who travels more, who saves more. Yes, I imagine that round about March the city of Northville will be COMPLETELY transformed as the New Years plans of our 200,000 neighbors come to fruition.
Or... maybe not?
A quick google search told me that about 8% of people who make new years resolutions actually say they keep them. Why do I point this out? Because I wanted you to consider two ideas for your January resolving:
1) That a five year plan is the best and easiest way to create and keep goals, and
2) That if you are not a five year plan kind of person, you might try this instead (and instead of making another fragile New Year's resolution) --
If you know that you are going to only see your new goal through to February or March, I feel you NEED to think this way:
"What can I do in the first month of 2009 that will "set me up" for success in the rest of the Year?"
I'm sitting here in my office, and the school is as quiet as it ever gets. Wendy, as you know, is on vacation. I am here by myself. The phone is unusually, almost eerily, quiet - a sign that the holiday season is about to descend upon us like a warm, fuzzy blanket.
And what always follows the warm fuzziness of the Thanksgiving - Christmas stretch?
New Year Resolutions!
I project that approximately 92% of us here in the Northville area will be making a resolution this year. I guess we can all look forward to a thinner and more attractive population, who doesn't smoke, who "takes time for the little things", who reads more, who travels more, who saves more. Yes, I imagine that round about March the city of Northville will be COMPLETELY transformed as the New Years plans of our 200,000 neighbors come to fruition.
Or... maybe not?
A quick google search told me that about 8% of people who make new years resolutions actually say they keep them. Why do I point this out? Because I wanted you to consider two ideas for your January resolving:
1) That a five year plan is the best and easiest way to create and keep goals, and
2) That if you are not a five year plan kind of person, you might try this instead (and instead of making another fragile New Year's resolution) --
If you know that you are going to only see your new goal through to February or March, I feel you NEED to think this way:
"What can I do in the first month of 2009 that will "set me up" for success in the rest of the Year?"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)