Time
 
In our life, we are only given a certain amount of time.  It is important to be conscious about how you invest the time you have.  If what you do with time is not an investment, then it has the potential to be a waste of your time.  As I grow older, I can see the importance of choosing intelligently what I will use my time doing.  When someone asks me to do something, I will ask myself how much time will I have to invest into this activity and is it worth investing that time in the long run.  If it is not worth the investment, I do not do it.  To me, this is focusing on living.  Without focus, one's time can be scattered everywhere wastefully and your life . . . . your existence is thrown away.
 
This is also something to consider when choosing the ones you spend your time with. The same is true for choosing training partners.  Someone with the wrong mindset or motives can destroy a good training session and waste your time.  They can quickly turn the session into a struggle of egos and pride instead of a good training session and that is a big waste of time as well as a waste of life.
 
A warrior knows the value of time and focuses that time intelligently

FYI,

Don't Forget the Erik Paulson Seminar on August 21st at AMAC! Call the School for info.

The Learning Triangle

Progress at your own pace and don't compare your level of ability to anyone in class or at the school.  Compare yourself currently to yourself previously. Martial art training is not an occasional pastime as many believe.  Once you have discovered what the arts really have to offer, it is a lifelong learning and growing experience.  Rest assured no one will ever grow in the arts in a linear fashion, so don't get discouraged when you feel that you're not making progress in your training as quickly as you would like .

Martial art training is a continuous series of plateaus and you are constantly learning and developing as a martial artist / warrior.  With perseverance and patience, you will acquire power and accuracy that you could only dream of when you began your training.  I have often seen that it is not the most talented student that makes it to Black Belt but the student that sticks with it, slow and sure, that eventually acquires their goal.

I often tell the members of my staff not to focus on comparing levels of skill but instead focus on obtaining hours on the mat.  Seek to put in more intelligent training time/training hours each week than everyone else.  I call this training time “magic dust” and the more you can gather up, the better you will be.

This week I received a question from a student about the possibility of studying an additional art or form in order to obtain a skill set that the art offers. The skill set, or as I like to refer to it, the body state he was looking for is greater root or the ability to make the body relaxed and heavy.

Power Development

  This week I received a question about a good single drill for power development.  One of the absolute best strength and explosive power exercises for power development is the Two Arm Kettlebell Swing.  The Two Arm Swing brings into action and develops practically every group of muscles on the back of the body and legs plus many others that you are not focusing on.  The Kettlebell Swing will teach you to generate power from the core of the body outward.  In addition to developing power, explosiveness and flexibility, the KB Swing is an incredible cardio training tool.  The swing will also ingrain in the body the ability to use the body’s powerhouse: the hips, legs, back and core.  This is important in the martial arts on many levels - one being that most arts teach you to derive power from the center of the body and transfer it out to the limbs for use in combat.

 I will say the swing has developed outstanding core strength for me and for most everyone to whom I have introduced the exercise.   I won’t go into a description of the swing in this email but I wanted to share this outstanding drill that I have personally been using for 5-6 years and have definitely noticed outstanding benefits from it.  If you are interested in detailed instruction, we usually have a KettleBell Workshop at the school about every 2-3 months.  We are also considering a once a week class that will cover that subject and others in the future.

In my opinion, "Absorbing what is useful" is perhaps the most misunderstood concept in Jeet Kune Do. This concept does not mean just collecting the best techniques from various styles of martial arts and putting them together to form a new style. It means that a martial artist must find the skills and methods that will work the best and be the most efficient for them as an individual. Over the years I have heard it said many times that a technique that works for one person, may not necessarily work for another person.

To Absorb what is useful from a given martial art, you must immerse yourself in that system and learn its essence, learn the feel of the art. Doing this will teach you at a level that is beyond what can be expressed verbally or physically from a teacher. Then, taking that knowledge and refining it in the most realistic training situations you can find, is what allows you to discover what works or does not work for you.

This is one of the reasons for the step up in environmental training for the intermediate JKD students at the school. It gives the student the opportunity to find what works for them under greater stress. And over time, it allows the opportunity to refine those skills. It will also open the many doors of self discovery.

Happy Monday Everyone!

"When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality

over character." – W. Somerset Maugham.

Hey guys, just a short note to get you motivated for the week! Remember to surround yourself daily with people who share your same dreams and aspirations or who, at least, have only your best interests at heart. Stay away from the negative influencers who wake up every morning thinking of ways to throw you off your best game and get in the way of your progress to your next highest level. One of the overall themes promoted at the school is that we pull together as a team and help each other to reach the goals we set for ourselves. So next time you are at the school, let your training partners know what you are working to achieve. Just knowing someone is holding you accountable for your positive life changes can help you stay on track.

One of the great things about AMAC's Cross Training Program is the motivation from the team environment.  I like to see students share their goals with each another in order for the group as a whole to hold each other responsible for those goals.

Just in general, If you notice that your classmate has been missing class for a week, touch base with them and check in.  It may just be what they need to get re-motivated.  If your training partner is working towards weight loss, make it a point to ask him/her about their progress.  Just knowing that someone is keeping an eye on your goals with you tends to keep you focused as well.

This kind of support will sometimes just happen between friends, but as a part of the CTP team, I like to see us step it up a notch. Become aware of your training partner's goals and share your goals with them and as a team, we will help each other reach higher goals at the school.

 So what is your goal? What changes are you looking to achieve?

The "Got This - What's Next" Attitude.
 
 
Keysi Fighting Method (KFM) is a ground-breaking art.  That's one of the reasons I aggressively pursue the study of the art.  One of the KFM beliefs is regarding something I have seen in the martial arts for years, the "Got This - What's Next" Attitude.  I have noticed that it is common for some people to learn something basic, do it a few times - then have the attitude that they have it down, and they're ready for the next thing.  Unfortunately, this attitude closes the mind to true growth and expansion.  The "Got This - What's Next" Attitude will also develop what I call a list-oriented martial artist, one who  has the "list" of requirements and now is ready to move on.  But often the student has never really trained what he/she has learned and placed it under stress to see just how well they can do it under that stress. 
  
For me, I have noticed that the study, and the re-study, and re-study, and so on, and so forth, of my basics has brought me more true and usable knowledge and skill than anything else. I try to never say "got this", but instead say "what's another way I can look at this, or drill this, or stress this", so I can find what I'm missing.
 
 
Placing stress on yourself is sometimes difficult.  In order to do it, you have to call on the assistance of your training partners, and with training partners sometimes comes ego.  Ego can destroy the pursuit of knowledge and skill.  If your partner is primarily looking for the "win" or the "score", I can almost guarantee the training session will be wasted - that is if they don't injure you in the process - then you're out of training for a month. 
 
 
So the next time you catch yourself saying "Hey, I have this, I wonder what's next", it may be time to take a look at what you've learned again