The 1 Question To Ask Yourself

How do you motivate yourself to go to class or train when there are so many reasons not to. Whether you are thinking to yourself; I'm tired, I don't feel good, I had a bad day, I forgot a change of clothes, I am not mentally up to it today, I am busy, I would rather be shopping, I am sore from last class, I don't feel like driving to class, I don't want to go out in the rain or any other reason that can prevent you from training, there is one question that will remind you of the importance of pushing yourself to train.

That question is "On the street, would an attacker care that [insert excuse here]?" The answer to this question is no. An attacker does not care that you are tired or did not stretch yet or are in your dress clothes or that you wear glasses or any other reason that you can think of. I am not saying that we do not need an occasional break from training. My students know that I believe we all need short breaks during our lifetime of training but there are times where there is a decision on whether or not to train when it is time to leave for class (instead of staying on the couch) on a given night. Those are the nights that you need to ask yourself the one question.

Pushing Yourself in Training

During your Martial Arts training you will learn many techniques, spend time perfecting them and practice proper execution of combinations. You will practice using your techniques in fighting situations, get comfortable executing at full speed in free fighting situations and figure out when specific techniques work for you. The one thing that is important to remember is that it is easy to just rely on your instructor to train you and tell you when to use the techniques. A few things to keep in mind if you want to excel:

1. Try new things. Do not stick with the same old techniques time after time in your free sparring.
2. It is OK to be uncomfortable. You are uncomfortable when you are not doing what you are used to so you should feel uncomfortable if you are pushing yourself.
3. Physically push yourself. If the training is not tiring you, there is probably more effort you can put in as far as using more power, lowering your stances, increasing your speed etc.
   
4. Class is designed as a general workout that caters to the entire class. Some things will be difficult for you so keep trying but other things will be easy for you. When things are easy, work on perfecting while adding a bit to the exercise.
5. Mentally push yourself to think of different ways to successfully execute techniques and to have a theory on how a technique is applied before asking others.
6. Think of how to do something that will separate you from other Martial Arts practitioners whether it be the spirit of your forms, the perfection of a technique in fighting, the practice of advanced techniques until they seem effortless to those that are watching, etc.
   

Top 50 Self Defence Blogs

Just a note to the readers of this blog that it was mentioned on a list of top 50 self defence blogs on another blog. Check it out at http://www.forensicsciencetechnician.org/?page_id=21 if you are interested in seeing the list.

Sparring Videos From Last Tournament

Here are some videos that one of the CCKSF group posted on Youtube from the last tournament. Those in my class will notice a few familiar people in here.

Praise from the Pres

For those of you that were not in class when I spoke about it, we got some great praise from the President of the CCKSF recently. He had video taped all of the fighting in the most recent tournament and after watching it was very impressed with one of our competitors (J.P.) In fact, he said he has been waiting for 10 years to see this type of progression in the fighting division. For years there has been the hope that fighting would progress away from standard exchange of punches and street fighting to a more refined style of fighting. To finally see effective use of counterattacks and resistance of the urge to just throw fast punches even when the opponents are doing it was very enjoyable for him to watch. We have discussed this in class over the years and we definitely see that fighting properly is not the ideal in these fighting situations but I have a strong belief that the ones that stick to it will eventually be the better Martial Artists.

We seem to have the attention of the President and have him thinking of ways to get the rest of the competitors going in the same direction. Way to go JP and the rest of the competitors that have tried to fight the way we teach in class.

Peripheral Vision

In today's class I spoke about peripheral vision as something we build over time as martial artists. Although it is possible to learn martial arts without building peripheral vision, the best martial artists are those that have a wider vision. Not only does this allow you to see attacks that come from the side such as hook punches and roundhouse kicks, it also helps you with seeing what is around you in your environment outside of class. You will be able to see and react quicker to things that you catch out of the "corner of your eye" without even thinking that it is part of your training. This is a skill that you can take out of class whether you are in a potential self defence situation or just seeing a soccer ball accidentally kicked at your head in the park. Inside class, this skill will help you in practicing of fighting multiple attackers as you get into more advanced fighting training.