Blog
When Things Heat Up
I want to congratulate the brave people out there who have to weather the heat. Special mention goes to the Fire Fighters, Road Workers and even the Cricketers. Others worth mentioning are the people who showed up to martial arts training this week, particularly Belmore and West Pennant Hills; I really admire these people. It’s true the heat does keep people away! So does the cold, so does the rain etc, etc. Training in essence is not about comfort, in particular, martial artists are athletes and can endure more ‘punishment’ (if you want to call it that) than the yuppie who takes the escalator to an air-conditioned gym holding a bottle of Powerade. I was wrestling with guys last Sunday and Monday evenings in that ‘over 40 heat’. By the end of the night I was dripping that much sweat the steering wheel of my car was slipping from my hands. I did think about the heat, I said, ‘Too bad, maybe better luck next time.’ Training in the heat is a challenge because your body reacts differently and it is important that you condition yourself to perform in one extreme temperature to another. Remember, if you ever come across trouble, you can’t change into comfortable clothes and you can’t change the terrain or weather.
When it gets this hot again, spare a thought for one of our senior Instructors, Victor, who moved 2.5 ton of dirt this week in the sun then turned up for training in the night and weekend. Or even spare a thought for the older blokes: Drinking water during training, in the earlier days, was unheard of. What we did is sneak into the toilets and line up for a drink of water from the tap in the wash basin whilst somebody else is using the urinal next to you.
Can’t wait for the rain to cool the place down! Maybe, I shouldn’t have said that, some of us haven’t got umbrellas.
Reflection on 2008
Another year has passed. I often reflect at the end of 12 months what have we achieved in the martial arts. Just as important what you, as an individual, have achieved. Martial Arts training requires your concentration, patience, time, and you make sacrifices, but the benefits are really worthwhile which result in an improvement in your whole well-being, both mentally and physically.
Although our core 'business' is Karate-Jitsu we usually step outside the circle by giving students the opportunity to experience and train in other areas of the martial arts:
- Kickboxing
- Reality Based Self Defence
- Black Belt Complexes
- Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
- Mixed Martial Arts
This has shown to make training much more pleasant and challenging. It also gives the individual the chance to specialise in an area they particularly like. With the some of the best Martial Artists in the world coming over to visit us such as John Will, Richard Norton, Tino Ceberano and Grandmaster Rodel, we are very lucky to have the opportunity to train with these persons.
We are having a short break over the Holiday Season. I hope you can all share my enthusiasm because this break is just a reminder of how much I will miss my training and seeing you.
We would like to see you bring someone with you next year to take on one of the most enjoyable activities around. I wish you all a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year.
One Too Many
We’ve heard the phrase, ‘one too many’ referring to drinking too much alcohol. This also has some significance to when you only have a very minute amount of time to react quickly and instinctively in self defence. Any more than one technique that pops up in your head will slow you right down. John Will’s recent blog, has a great article, ‘STARTLED’, which I recommend everybody read which goes into detail about reaction time being affected by having to choose from multiple responses. Richard Norton similarly talks about being ‘log jammed’ ie too many techniques, in a ‘fight or flight’ situation, is going to get you into trouble. That is the problem with Police Officers today who carry so much artillery around and have to calculate the most appropriate weapon for a situation. Too bad if they choose the wrong one. Forget ‘the more, the merrier’ in this case. Everybody has experienced the amount of time taken to decide their order from a restaurant menu. The more choices on the menu the more time wasted. Time is a luxury which we cannot afford in a crisis.
The old saying, ‘I feel safe because I know 1,000 techniques’ can now be found in the museum’. Bruce Lee said, ‘I don’t fear the man who knows 1,000 kicks but I fear the man who knows one kick and throws it 1,000 times’.
In a book, ‘Watch My Back’ by Geoff Thompson (a famous English Night Club bouncer), the author talks about his co-worker, John ‘Awesome’ Anderson who only did one thing to handle drunks and larrikins, whilst working in the toughest night clubs in England. He used his right cross to get the job done successfully over 1,000 times.
Of course we train many things in the martial arts as possible which is the fun side of discovering and learning new moves; that is the science of martial arts. But when it comes to training real self defence, don’t become log jammed; you just don’t have the time.
Over and out!
G.A.